Whether you are a digital advertising agency, brand, or publisher, you should know the current trends regarding consumer attitudes toward digital advertising and ad blocking usage. You may be surprised at how many people use ad blockers, which can impact your business and marketing strategies. You also should be aware that male users are more likely to use ad blockers than females. Luckily, there are ways to overcome this issue.
Male internet users are more likely to use ad blockers compared with older users and females
Despite the hype surrounding ad blockers, there is no shortage of statistics that show the use of such tools has a low adoption rate. Generally, consumers turn to more creative methods to avoid ads, such as changing their media habits, using ad-free content sites, and installing ad blocking software. The most important aspect is that the ad blocker is not the only way to achieve ad-free content.
One interesting fact about ad blockers is their popularity among young adults. According to a recent CivicScience survey, six out of ten 18-24-year-olds use ad blockers on desktops. Similarly, half of 25-34-year-olds are also ad blockers. The data suggest that these two groups of young Internet users are more likely to be using ad blockers than older users and females.
eMarketer’s figures also substantiate the claim that ad blocking is more popular among young people. Their report states that 41% of internet users in the US are aged 18 to 24. In the UK, ad blocking is more popular among those under 35. However, the same study reports that the average ad blocking user is more than twice as likely to be a male than a female.
Desktop ad blocking is slow
Despite recent growth, the overall increase in ad blocking on desktops has begun to level off. In the year ahead, there will be about 63.2 million users of ad blockers on desktop. However, the rate of increase in ad blocking on mobile has lagged behind.
In the U.S., there are 128 million ad blockers on Google Chrome, an increase of 51 percent. Meanwhile, Apple’s Safari is catching up, capturing 5% of the desktop browser market, up from 2% in 2016.
A recent study by Catchpoint Systems analyzed 20 mobile sites to see how much faster they would load with ad blocking turned on. The results showed that most financial services sites had 12% to 38% slower load times with ad blocking engaged. The same was true for CNN, Huffington Post, and other news outlets.
There were also notable improvements in mobile travel sites. The average page speed was slowed by 4.16 seconds with an ad blocking off, while it was slowed by 3.12 seconds with an ad blocking on.
Mobile ad blocking applications exist but are limited in scope
Despite the fact that there are a few mobile ad blocking applications available, they are limited in scope. They work only on mobile web browsers. However, some experts believe that the demand for effective ad blockers is growing.
The ad blocking community took a real hit when Google purged all ad blocking apps from the Google Play Store. This stoppage was followed by a flurry of searches for ways to circumvent ad blockers.
The ad blocking community has changed a lot since its inception. For instance, ad blockers no longer just stop ads, but they also choke off advertisements when loading mobile websites. Some ad blockers even use a manually collected filter list to block ads.
The biggest drawback of ad blocking is that they interfere with the user experience of most websites. They can interfere with browsing habits, slow down access to diverse content, and even kill publishers’ business models.
The Vogue Effect could effectively help brands and publishers overcome ad blocking
Whether you’re a brand or a publisher, the “Vogue Effect” could be an effective way to overcome ad blocking. It involves using whitelisting to gain access to readers’ content and engaging the adblocker directly. Using both methods together creates a force multiplier and can yield a higher recovery rate.
According to research from GlobalWebIndex, 47% of internet users have ad blockers installed. This is causing publishers to look for alternative revenue streams, such as paywalls or paid subscriptions. Other options include participation in user panels and site registrations. These can be good revenue drivers, but not all publishers are able to support themselves on reader revenue.
For brands, this means they must start measuring ad fatigue. Every impression lost results in lost revenue. For advertisers, this means they’ll have to start targeting consumers with quality ads instead of annoying ones.
For publishers, ad blockers cause a loss of 45 million marketing opportunities. This is driving many publishers to rethink ad placement and ad quantity.
