Ad blockers became a hot topic earlier this year in September, especially in the world of online marketers and among organizations that advertise online. “PPC is dead”, “Banner retargeting ads aren’t effective anymore”, and the comments go on and on.

So you’ve probably been asking yourself “what about my PPC (pay-per-click) and banner retargeting campaigns?” To say AdBlock isn’t affecting your ads would be a big lie. According to a 2015 study by Adobe and PageFair, 16 percent of the U.S. online population blocks ads, which resulted in a global loss of $21.8 billion dollars of ad revenue. Yikes.

So now that you know ad blocking is a thing, what do you do about it? The answer is grow up and learn to adapt.

Ad blockers are a good thing for online marketers because they force us to adapt to the market and what the market wants. When we adapt we become better marketers.

It’s important to know that there are still ways to reach your audience despite ad blockers. You just need to figure out how your audience wants to be reached and reach them through those channels. Here are three examples where, if you have been listening to the market, you should be adapting and preparing to reach your audiences through these channels.

1. Facebook Advertising

Gone are the days where we can post on our Facebook page and reach 95 percent of the people that like our page. Here’s a question for you to think about: you’re more than willing to pay for pay-per-click ads – why are you not willing to pay to be seen on Facebook? While we all loved the idea of free ways to reach fans and followers, we’re not entitled to it. Facebook has done marketers a favor by creating social channels to reach people, and if it brings you value, it’s worth paying for. Rather than hitting audiences with salesy language, create great, relevant content that they want to discover and back it with some dollars to reach a broader group.

2. Text Messaging

Recently I went with my two-week old to see the doctor for the first time and was asked the question, “What is your preference for how we contact you”? The list included phone call, email, or text message. You better believe I chose text messaging and if I was to bet, I would imagine you would too.

I have another question for you and your answer will surprise you. Do you get mad when your mom or dad calls instead of texts you? If you said yes, the reason is because your time is valuable and we know that a conversation with our parents is going to take a long time.

The same goes with our doctor’s office. We still desire to be notified of our doctor’s appointment; it’s just that we (the market) have different desires than we used to. P.S. if you’re looking for a text messaging service, you should check out Textify Mobile.

3. Impeccable Customer Service

We all have our own opinions on what makes a great customer experience. But if there is one thing many people forget when creating exceptional customer service, it’s LTV. That stands for “lifetime value of a customer”.

Let’s say you own a restaurant and sent out coupons to people that live within 10 miles of your location. A customer comes in and wants to use that coupon, but it expired two days ago. So what do you do? Yeah, you could probably say, “I’m so sorry, but the coupon is expired” and they may or may not understand. Or you can create a positive emotional connection to your restaurant by giving them the discount anyways. Which customer do you think is more willing to come back a second time? Point made. The customer’s second trip will easily pay for the five dollars off they received on their first trip.

If you ask me, I think ad block is just another one of those things we as marketers have to respond to; just like we did with using social media as an organization and paying for a mobile-friendly website. Grow up, and adapt.