iPhone ad blockers mostly stop banner ads and tracking scripts in Safari, and only for people who install one. Search ads and calls are affected least; expect some iPhone visits to vanish from Analytics.

What changed yesterday

Apple released iOS 9 yesterday, and with it Safari on iPhones and iPads can use content blockers: small apps that give Safari a list of things not to load. Ad blockers appeared in the App Store at once.

Nothing is blocked by default. Someone has to install a blocker and switch it on under Settings, then Safari, then Content Blockers. They run only on newer models, from the iPhone 5s on.

Blocking has long been common on computers, through browser add-ons. What is new is that it reaches the phone, which for many local businesses is where a large share of visits now come from.

The effect on a small business's own advertising is narrower than the headlines suggest. It is also not zero.

What blockers stop

The second matters most to a business that never buys a banner. Analytics, AdWords conversion tracking and remarketing tags all run as scripts on your own pages, and a blocker can stop them reporting the visit.

Your search ads

Text ads in Google's results are a smaller target than banners. Some blockers leave them alone; others hide them along with everything else.

Many iPhone searches also happen outside Safari, in the Google app or another browser, where Safari's blockers do not apply.

So a campaign built on search ads should lose relatively little, and only among iPhone users who chose a blocker that hides them. Watch clicks from mobile devices over the next few weeks rather than guessing either way.

Display and remarketing

Banners on other websites are the main target, so a display campaign, or a remarketing campaign that follows past visitors around the web, will reach fewer iPhone users in Safari.

Remarketing is hit twice. The tag that adds visitors to your list runs on your own site, so a blocked tag means the visitor never joins the list, and a blocked banner means they never see the ad.

Ads inside apps are untouched. Facebook ads in the Facebook app, and banners inside other apps, are outside Safari's reach.

What Analytics will show

Visits from people whose blocker stops the Analytics script simply do not appear. The visit happened; the report never heard about it.

Over the coming weeks some sites will see visits from iPhones dip in Analytics while enquiries hold steady. That gap is the blocker, not a change in customers.

AdWords still counts the click, because Google records it when the ad is tapped. The conversion that follows may go unrecorded, so iPhone conversions can look weaker than they are.

Calls made from a call extension are counted by Google rather than by a script on your site, so blockers do not touch them.

A worked example

A photo booth rental company keeps two booths and a backdrop kit in a storage unit and works mostly at weddings and company parties. Its customers tend to plan in the evenings, on their phones.

It runs search ads on photo booth searches in its region, and a remarketing campaign that shows banners on wedding blogs to people who looked at its pricing page.

The morning after the release, the owners tried their own site on an iPhone with a blocker switched on. The pages loaded and the booking form worked, but the social feed in the sidebar had become an empty box.

They replaced the feed with a plain link to their Instagram account, added an annotation in Analytics for September 16, and began counting enquiries from the form's emails each month instead of relying on Analytics goals alone.

The search campaign stayed as it was. So did the remarketing budget, with a note to compare how fast the list grows over the next two months before deciding anything.

Test your own site with one on

Blockers are blunt. Besides ads, they can stop widgets loaded from other companies' servers: social feeds, review badges, some chat boxes and the occasional booking calendar.

Install one on an iPhone, switch it on, and walk through your own pages, especially the contact form and anything that takes a booking or a payment.

Anything that vanishes or breaks needs a plain fallback: a phone number in text, an email address, a link that still works when the widget does not.

What blockers say about your pages

Many people install a blocker because pages have become slow and cluttered, with tracking scripts and pop-ups loading before the content they came for.

A small business site can carry the same weight without anyone choosing it: an old remarketing tag, two copies of the Analytics code, a chat box nobody answers, a widget left from a past campaign.

Remove what nobody uses. A lighter page loads faster for everyone, blocker or not, and leaves less for a blocker to break.

Count enquiries directly

The most dependable measure of a website has always been the enquiries themselves, and this week makes the point again.

Count form emails, calls and bookings each month and set them beside the Analytics goals. If the two drift apart from mid-September, iPhone blocking is a likely reason.

An annotation on September 16 will remind whoever reads the report next spring why the line dipped.

The counter-case

Blockers have to be found, installed and switched on, and many iPhone owners will never bother. For now the change touches a minority of visitors, mostly those who disliked banners anyway.

A business that advertises through search and takes its enquiries by phone will notice little. One that relies on display ads, remarketing or detailed Analytics reports for iPhone users will notice more.

Either way, keep the search campaign, test the site with a blocker on, and count enquiries directly rather than through scripts alone.

This week

  1. Install a blocker on an office iPhone.
  2. Walk through your site with it switched on.
  3. Replace widgets that vanish with plain links.
  4. Annotate Analytics on September 16.
  5. Count form emails and calls directly each month.
  6. Compare AdWords clicks with Analytics visits from phones.
  7. Review remarketing list growth in two months.

Step two is the one most businesses skip. A booking form that quietly fails on an iPhone with a blocker loses enquiries that no report will ever show.

Checking that your search ads still appear, without skewing the account's figures, is covered in searching for your own ads every morning.

Frequently asked questions

What did iOS 9 change for ads?

Safari on iPhones and iPads can now use content blockers, apps that stop ads and tracking scripts loading. People have to install one and switch it on themselves.

Will my AdWords search ads be blocked?

Some blockers hide search text ads and some leave them alone, and searches in the Google app or other browsers are not covered. Search campaigns should lose relatively little.

What about display and remarketing campaigns?

They are hit harder. Banners are the main target, and a blocked remarketing tag means the visitor never joins your list in the first place.

Why might iPhone visits drop in Analytics?

A blocker can stop the Analytics script, so the visit happens but is never recorded. Enquiries can hold steady while reported iPhone visits dip.

Are calls from my ads affected?

No. Calls from a call extension are counted by Google rather than by a script on your site, so a blocker on the visitor's phone does not touch them.

What should I test on my own site?

Walk through your pages on an iPhone with a blocker on, especially forms and bookings. Embedded feeds, badges and widgets can vanish and need plain fallbacks.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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