New ad blocking numbers are scary

615 million devices now use ad blockers

We talk a lot about ad blocking on this blog, and it’s no secret that the numbers have been growing heavily over the past few years. Near the end of 2016 many media outlets began to downplay the state of ad blocking. Many of the publishers we’ve talked to seem to turn a blind eye to ad UX in exchange for short term revenue.

Pagefair (an ad blocking analytics company) just released their 2017 adblock report, and it’s a bit scary if you’re not Facebook. Here are some of the key findings:

615 million devices now use ad blocking software (Increased 142 mm YOY)

As expected, mobile ad blocking has seen the most growth (Increased 180 mm YOY). This is likely due to Apple supporting ad blockers on their iPhones. Mobile ad blocking is still only in its infancy so these numbers are troubling.

AdBlock users prefer banner ads (funny enough) over, improved ad experience darling, native ads

Common thought within the ad tech industry is that static banner ads are dead. They’re too simple, they aren’t visually appealing, they don’t grab enough attention, they don’t appeal to internal execs, and they don’t win deals. Exactly. They’re closer to what digital ads should be. Simple, clean, to the point, non-intrusive, fast, lightweight, etc. According to this report (surveys), we got it right the first time around with banner ads. Respondents hated non-skip video ads and auto-play audio, which was to be expected.

One of the most interesting discoveries was that native ads didn’t score high from the user perspective. I would have guessed this, but I think this is somewhat of an eye-opener for most publishers, agencies, and brands. As a user, native advertising content intent is questionable at best. A brand is sponsoring and hoping to blend their message with the content. This can create trust issues, which may be a driver behind the data in the report.

Ad blocking penetration sits at 18% in the US

Clearly we’re still in the first inning of ad blocking, both in the US and globally. Many earlier reports out of the EU stated that ad blocking had slowed. This doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s also clear that Asia makes up for the majority of mobile ad blocking (94% of total usage). As soon as users in the US, UK, and Germany (some of the largest markets for ad spend) begin to use mobile ad blockers, global ad revenue numbers will be heavily impacted.

Ad blocking is becoming mainstream in the US

Past data pointed to a very specific demographic using ad blockers: millennial, male techies/gamers. This report seems to show ad blocking becoming much more mainstream. US adblock users ages 18–34 saw females making up an increased percentage of the total. The data would suggest that this trend will continue amongst the older demographics, especially as more people become aware that ad blocking even exist as a technology.

Adblock users are educated (at least bachelor’s degree)

45% of adblock users (that filled out the Pagefair survey) had a bachelor’s degree. This means that an adblock user is 1.5x as likely to have achieved a bachelor’s than other adults in the US.

Conclusion

Yes, Pagefair has a vested interest in ad blockers being “a thing.” However, if you look at other sources, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to doubt the validity of their report. As disturbing as this report may be for the ad tech ecosystem, ad blocking is still early on in its adoption. Publishers and other ad tech players would do well to study this data and build a strategy to make changes. It’s clear that the only thing in the way of full adoption is awareness that the technology exists. Users will eventually become aware if the ad experience doesn’t improve soon…