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AdBlock Plus is launching a marketplace for ‘acceptable’ ads

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It’s hard to know which crowd Adblock Plus will upset more with its announcement today—marketers, publishers or its users.

The ad-blocking software brand, owned by Eyeo GmbH, revealed in a blog post that it’s created a service that lets brands buy the right to place “acceptable” ads that appear in front of consumers who actually want ads blocked. The company’s endeavor, dubbed Acceptable Ads Platform (AAP, for short), will let publishers sign up for the service and then sell ad space via an automated system.

The Germany-based company has hooked up with ad-tech player ComboTag to build the exchange, which will operate on a real-time bidding (RTB) mechanism seen across the digital ecosystem. It’s unclear how the ad buys will be priced, but how the general public reacts to an ad appears to affect to some extent whether it will get placed. Thanks to the whitelisting-style program, the ad blocker almost certainly will take a sales cut, though financial details are scant.

“The AAP will offer a feedback mechanism embedded in each ad, which will let you say whether you thought that particular ad was great, good, bad or complete shit,” Ben Williams, a communications and operations exec with Eyeo GmbH, wrote in the blog post.

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