What is an Acceptable Ad?
Ads that shall be treated as Acceptable Ads have to comply with the following criteria:
General criteria
Placement
Ads must not disrupt the user's natural reading flow. Such ads must be placed on top, side or below the Primary Content
1 .
Distinction
Ads should always be recognizable as ads, and distinguishable from all other content (e.g. are not hiding the label, are not misleading users into thinking an ad is part of the primary content). Ads should be clearly marked with the word "advertisement" or its equivalent.
Size
Individual ad-size requirements depend on the placement of the ad:
- When placed above the primary content, the maximum height of an ad should be 200px.
- When placed on the side of the primary content, the maximum width of an ad should be 350px.
- When placed below the primary content, the maximum height of an ad should be 400px.
Ads must always leave sufficient space for the Primary Content on the common screen size of 1366x768
2 for desktop, 360x640
3 for mobile devices and 768x1024
4 for tablets.
All ads that are placed above the fold (the portion of the web page visible in the browser window when the page first loads under the common screen size), must not occupy in total more than 15 percent of the visible portion of the web page. If placed below the fold, ads must not occupy in total more than 25 percent of the visible portion of the webpage.
Specific criteria
Text ads
Text ads designed with excessive use of colors and/or other elements to grab attention are not permitted.
Image ads
Static image ads may qualify as acceptable, according to an evaluation of their unobtrusiveness based on their integration on the webpage.
In-feed ads
For ads in lists and feeds, the general criteria differ depending on:
- Placement requirements
Ads are permitted in between entries and feeds.
- Size requirements
In-feed ads are permitted to take up more space, as long as they are not substantially larger than other elements in the list or feed.
Search ads
For search ads - ads displayed following a user-initiated search query - the criteria differ depending on:
- Size requirements
Search ads are permitted to be larger and take up additional screen space.
Ads on pages with no primary content
Only text ads are allowed. For webpages without any primary content (e.g. error or parking pages), the criteria differ depending on:
- Placement requirements
No placement limitations.
- Size requirements
No size limitations.
Other Acceptable Ads formats?
Are your ads displayed on alternative screens, or are you convinced that you have an innovative Acceptable Ads format which doesn't fit the ads outlined above?
Let us know!
1 The 'Primary Content' is defined as (based on
Mozilla's description of the <main> HTML element): The Primary Content consists of content that is directly related to, or expands upon the central topic of a document or the central functionality of an application. This content should be unique to the document, excluding any content that is repeated across a set of documents such as sidebars, navigation links, copyright information, site logos, and search forms (unless, of course, the document's main function is a search form).
2 The 'common screen size' for desktop is 1366x768, based on data from
StatCounter.
3 The 'common screen size' for mobile is 360x640, based on data from
StatCounter.
4 The 'common screen size' for tablets is 768x1024, based on data from
StatCounter.
What is not considered an Acceptable Ad?
The following types of ads are currently unacceptable
*, and cannot be considered for inclusion on the whitelist:
- Ads that visibly load new ads if the Primary Content does not change
- Ads with excessive or non user-initiated hover effects
- Animated ads
- Autoplay-sound or video ads
- Expanding ads
- Generally oversized image ads
- Interstitial page ads
- Overlay ads
- Overlay in-video ads
- Pop-ups
- Pop-unders
- Pre-roll video ads
- Rich media ads (e.g. Flash ads, Shockwave ads, etc.)
* Except when the user intentionally interacts with the ad (e.g. clicks on the ad to see a video ad playing).
Why is this feature enabled by default?
Unfortunately, this is the only way to accomplish the goals described above. If the majority of Adblock Plus users have this function activated, advertisers will have the incentive to produce better ads.
But I hate all ads!
No problem, you can disable this feature at any time:
Chrome, Maxthon, Opera, Safari - Click the Adblock Plus icon and select
Options. Uncheck
Allow some nonintrusive advertising.
Firefox - Click the Adblock Plus icon and select
Filter preferences. Uncheck
Allow some nonintrusive advertising.
Internet Explorer - Click the Adblock Plus icon and select
Settings. Uncheck
Allow some nonintrusive advertising.
Adblock Browser for Android - Open Settings, tap
Ad blocking > Configure Acceptable Ads and uncheck
Allow some nonintrusive advertising.
Adblock Browser for iOS - Open Settings, tap
Adblock Plus > Acceptable Ads and uncheck
Allow some nonintrusive ads.
Adblock Plus for iOS - Open Adblock Plus for iOS from the Home screen, tap the
Settings icon >
Acceptable Ads and uncheck
Allow some nonintrusive ads.
Will all "acceptable" ads be unblocked?
No. Unfortunately, it isn't technically possible to recognize ads that meet our Acceptable Ads criteria automatically. We have
agreements with some websites and advertisers which stipulate that only advertising matching our criteria will be displayed when Adblock Plus users visit these particular sites. These ads will be unblocked (i.e. added to the Acceptable Ads exception list which is enabled per default). No applicant will be favored or treated differently, and no one can buy their way onto the whitelist.
Everyone must comply with the criteria and everyone goes through the same process before the ads qualify as "acceptable".
What if an ad is allowed, but doesn't meet the requirements?
Please
report it. If an advertiser abuses its placement on the exception list, we can always remove it from the list.
How can I see what you are allowing?
The
Allow nonintrusive advertising checkbox simply adds one more filter subscription to your list. You can view the filters
here. Also, the special treatment of this filter subscription - which was added for reasons of usability - can be disabled by going to "about:config" and changing the
extensions.adblockplus.subscriptions_exceptionscheckbox preference to false. This will allow you to view the filters for this subscription as usual.
Do you have questions or suggestions concerning this list? Feel free to get in touch with the community
in our forum or contact us directly
via email.
How can I get my website whitelisted?
The process of getting your ads whitelisted takes about 10 working days once the ads adhere to the Acceptable Ads criteria:
- If your website has ads that comply with the Acceptable Ads criteria, simply fill out this form.
- Someone from Eyeo, the company behind Adblock Plus, will contact you to determine the exact ads, and check whether they comply with our criteria.
- After you have made any necessary changes, both sides sign an agreement.
- We submit the whitelisting proposal in the forum and the ads are whitelisted at the same time. The topic will stay open in order for the community to declare concerns if or when the candidate does not meet the requirements.
Do Adblock Plus users really want this feature?
The
results of our user survey say yes. According to the survey, only 25 percent of Adblock Plus users are strictly against all advertising. They can disable the feature and browse completely ad-free. The other 75 percent replied that they would accept some advertising to help support websites.
Is there payment involved?
We receive some donations from our users, but our main source of revenue comes as part of the Acceptable Ads initiative. Larger entities (as defined below) pay a licensing fee for the whitelisting services requested and provided to them (around 90 percent of the licences are granted for free). It should be noted that the Acceptable Ads criteria must be met independent of the consideration for payments. If the criteria are not met, whitelisting is impossible.
Regarding fees, only large entities (those with more than 10 million additional ad impressions per month due to participation in the Acceptable Ads initiative) have to pay. For these entities, our licensing fee normally represents 30 percent of the additional revenue created by whitelisting its acceptable ads.
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