How Many People Use Ad Blockers?
- There are 198 million active ad blocking users around the world
- Ad blocking grew by 41% globally in the last 12 months
- U.S. ad blocking grew by 48% YOY to reach 45 million active users in 12 months thru June 2015
- Ad blocking is estimated to cost publishers $22 billion during 2015
Source: PageFair and Adobe’s 2015 Ad Blocking Report: “The cost of ad blocking,” updated on August 26, 2015
Consumer Experience
IAB has been monitoring ad blocking for some time now and will continue to talk to consumers. Here are some key findings from our ad blocking consumer research:
- At least 34% of U.S. adults 18+ use ad blockers
- Current users are more likely to be younger males who are “very comfortable” with computers and have children under 18 in the household
- The types of ads that are more likely to drive consumers to use ad blockers are video ads that automatically start playing, large ads that temporarily take over a screen and blinking ads
- Key reasons why users started using ad blocking:
– Learned about the existence of ad blocking technology
– Their computer became infected with a virus - Key factor consumers continue to use ad blocking:
– To protect devices against viruses
– To increase computer performance
– A general dislike of advertising
– Distracting ads - Consumers would turn OFF ad blocking:
– If unable to view online content unless the feature is disabled
– If the site looks trustworthy
– To get the ad experience - 60% of current ad blocker users would turn off ad blocking for content