Digitalization, virtualization and transformation of everyday activities into the digital environment amplified by the globalized barrier-free world has led to the evolvement and enhancement of products and services. Media publishers have been forced to transform their traditional publication processes, with the content being published not only in print but also on their websites. Consumers of content were used to paying for printed versions, however, they are often not used to- and more importantly - not willing to pay for content consumed on the internet. Thus, the only monetization model for online content is dependent on displaying advertisements in their various forms. Digitalization and technologically advanced processes allow for the tracking of user behavior, for the development and mining of user information, and for the utilization of the data for enhancing user experience on websites. Even if the publisher is not able to create this data by himself, it is possible to obtain it from a third-party company. However, the mined data often also contains some form of personal information about users, leading to the need for change in the current concept of privacy. Displaying advertisements efficiently using this data offers an acceptable monetization model for content publishers on the one hand and an enhanced user experience for consumers thanks to better targeting on the other. Media publishers employ various approaches in terms of banner advertisements, with some of them disrupting consumers of the content and invading their privacy. Users have developed banner blindness and are protecting themselves by utilizing ad-blocking software solutions. These create great obstacles for displaying banner advertisements and thus, negatively affect revenue streams of content publishers.

The main aim of this article is to introduce a framework that enables publishers of digital content to maximize the visibility of online advertising in its various forms across multiple devices. To achieve the main aim, three sub-goals were defined. The first sub-goal focuses on determining the situation in displaying advertisements of diverse types on websites of selected American and European publishers. The research unveils the current banner advertisement approaches in various markets and determines the reasons leading to the banner blindness phenomena and the increased usage of ad-block software. The second sub-goal aims at determining what type of information marketing subjects possess about their users and how this is utilized. The research focuses on cookie files which represent a powerful source of information for advertisers, yet can be controversial when it comes to data privacy and protection. The third sub-goal aims at introducing components of the framework usable for maximizing the income from advertising. The framework can be employed by every digital content publisher struggling with ensuring a sufficient revenue stream from online advertising.

To achieve these goals, the authors have used empirical research in the form of a case study analysing 105 websites located in seven countries across North America and Europe. The research sample was selected by using purposive sampling and the websites were placed into one of these categories: cars; entertainment; technology; gaming; lifestyle — general, men, parenting, and women; movies; news — general and political; sports; and weather. These websites belong to the most visited websites in selected countries in terms of monthly real users and brand awareness. Furthermore, each website was assigned one of two categories, either premium or non-premium, with 51% being premium and 49% non-premium. The method of content analysis was applied to assess the content of each website with the focus on advertising formats, their frequencies, and responses to detecting an ad blocker. To secure a high relevancy and precision of research results, each website was visited at least ten times. The homepage of the website and one other page were visited five times each and analyzed. Both the homepage and the other page were visited three times with an ad blocker enabled and twice with an ad blocker disabled. Four different categories of advertisements were observed and assessed on each of the websites: standard banners, invasive banners, retargeting formats, and native advertising.

The article introduces a framework which, when implemented by publishers, should lead to increased advertising revenues by considering the current privacy protection issues of their readers and creating a platform for dialogue between them and the publisher. The framework contains three group actions which should be taken consecutively, focusing on the marketing approach, technical approach and conversational approach. The conducted literature review shows that published papers to date offer typically no or very limited solutions to address the consequences of increasing usage of ad-blockers and banner blindness both for users and publishers. Thus, this article introduces a very specific action scheme leading to improved user experience on content websites, while enhancing the online advertising monetization model as the main source of online content publishers’ revenues.