: Can we serve our sites images with an ad server and not have the images blocked by ad blockers? For speed of deployment on a custom build site we were looking at using an AdServer system

@Heady270

Most ad blockers block 3rd party content from domains that are known to host ads. If you are using an ad server to host non-ad images, your images will got blocked whenever an ad blocker is used.

I have not run across an ad server that does not use any 3rd party requests. Ads are typically served via 3rd parties so that:


You don't have to deal with them yourself
The advertising network has control over them


Instead of using an ad server, you would be better served by using a hosted image CDN. With an image CDN, you would typically upload your images (maybe via FTP). The directory you put them in would determine the URL. You can usually configure one of your subdomains (like images.example.com) to point to the CDN server. The CDN server would end up handling all the images for you, and it would also serve them faster because it moves them to an edge network close to your visitors.

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@Radia820

The intelligence of the blocker is down to whatever extension or software the user is using. Some will simply block adsense, while others may be configured to read a white list, or black list configuration.

Typically a site with its own ad-network shouldn't be a problem unless the site is used by hundreds of thousands of people, then you may have people submitting your site to the blacklist if the users are finding your site annoying, advert excessive or slow.

There are however more intelligent ad blockers that look for a range of things such as:


Adobe Flash Prevention
ActiveX Prevention
Cookie Tracking Prevention
HTML Video Prevention
Domain/URL Blocking
Popup Prevention
New Tab Prevention


As far as I know there's no super smart adblocker with a clever algorithm to detect ads that are not within their database, they are mostly community driven databases. Generally Flash based adverts tend to be blocked the most because like myself and millions of others hate flash, it regularly locks up the browser window, so people use click to consent type blocks, this is also expanding to HTML 5 video since adversities have started to auto play HTML5 videos if flash is blocked.

Most sites don't get submitted to these databases and most blockers will only accept sites that are reported by X amount of users and serve a lot of ads.

If you want to avoid being put on the naughty lists then don't serve too many ads, generally sites with only 1 ad don't get added. If your have many ads on the pages then you should expect users to submit this data. Ensure your ads are fast and video ads don't auto execute as that's number 1 way of getting on the list.

End of the day, most adblockers authors want sites to be supported, so if your site is:


Good quality
Fast
Not excessive in how many ads you use
Relevant adverts


Then you should be ok.... however, a lot of adnetworks monitor cookies, this is also another reason why people block, they want their privacy respected. Not matter how good your site is you will get people block... and there is no 100% solution around this, if there was and I knew what it was then I'd be a billionaire sipping cocktails on my Island called Isle of Simon!

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