Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 9, launched recently, and mobile marketers everywhere panicked.
Why? Ad blocking.
Though ad blocking has been available on home computing browsers for a long time, they've been isolated to that market. While that was initially a hit for marketers, mobile browsing began to increase drastically after the launch of the iPhone in 2007, so they focused their efforts in that space.
That's all about to change. One of the features the Cupertino company announced in their latest update was the ability to download and install ad blockers, virtually shutting off that entire space for marketers.
"The new ad blocker support Apple introduced in its mobile Safari web browser in iOS 9 is causing quite a stir," BGR reported. "Publishers are up in arms, worried that users will adopt mobile ad blockers en masse and poke huge holes in their revenue streams."
While it's not as easy as going into the settings and checking a box to enable the ad block, it's still a relatively simple process that many are expected to utilize. Users have to download an ad blocking application from the App Store and the new piece of software will do the rest.
"Just one day after Apple released iOS 9 to the public, … several ad blocker plug-ins have indeed shot up the charts in Apple's iOS App Store," BGR wrote. Getting to the front page of the App Store is a big deal for software developers, effectively guaranteeing that they'll be used.
So, what does this mean for SMS marketing? Nothing, and that's a good thing. SMS is a universal platform that works across almost every mobile phone and cannot be affected by these types of ad blocking. If your company is trying to reach customers on mobile, text message marketing is your most effective solution.
