The rise of consumer adblocking technology allows consumers to choose whether to see advertisements. This has a big effect on how brands and publishers communicate with their customers. Here are stats and insights on the state of play, giving an overview and understanding of the size of the adblocking problem and what to do about it.

1. ARE BRANDS
THE RISE OF ADBLOCKING AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
BAM MOBILE

2. AD BLOCKING - CONTENTIOUS?
“We’re a nuclear weapon on the advertising
industry, it’s time for a change.”
“Ad blockers are an unethical, immoral,
mendacious coven of techie wannabes”
“It's a modern day protection racket.”
John Whittingdale, Culture Secretary
“I got pissed off with irrelevant ads that serve me no purpose other than
wasting my bandwidth - for which, by the way, I’m paying for”
Infuriated Android user
AD TRADE AD BLOCKING COMPANY
UK GOVERNMENT PUBLISHER
USER
“Over 20% of visitors to our site have ad blockers
turned on. That’s not a sustainable business.”
Wired
Randall Rothberg, IAB Roi Carthy, Shine Technologies
#adblockingxyz

3. GLOBAL AD BLOCKING STATS
•198 million using ad blockers
• 41% YOY global usage growth
• $41bn estimated lost revenue by
the end of 2016
Latest stats say 38% of internet users
worldwide used an adblocking tool in Q4
2015 (desktop) with 37% of mobile users
doing so at least once - a massive leap
from the low single-digits of Q3
Source: Adobe / Pagefair adblocking report 2015 / Emarketer GlobalWebIndex
AD BLOCKING SIZE OF THE ISSUE
$21.8bn
2015
$41.8bn
2015
Estimated
lost revenue
due to ad blocking
Other industry statistics point to lower overall figures than 198 million but similar upward
trends.
#adblockingxyz

4. UK AD BLOCKING STATS
• 22% of UK adults online block ads up 7%
since June 2015, an increase of almost 3
million people
• 35% 18-24yrs blocking ads
• 13% 55+ blocking ads
• 71% blocking on laptop (53% desktop)
• 23% of people using ad blockers do so on
their smartphones
AD BLOCKING IN UK (AND EUROPE)
d
Source: YouGov
However, 61% of British adults online said they
would prefer to access content for free and
see ads than pay to access content.
22%
#adblockingxyz

5. WHAT IS DRIVING BLOCKING (WHAT ARE
YOUR USERS USING)
BROWSER USAGE
d
Source: Adobe / Pagefair
• Google chrome has been driving
desktop usage, increasing 50%
to 126 million MAU in 2015
• Firefox increased 17% to 48 million MAU
• Safari up 71% to 9 million MAU and will
increase sharply with latest iOS stats
• Mobile blocking browsers are available
(Adblock plus)
•Opera just released browser with ad blocking
built in
#adblockingxyz

6. USER BEHAVIOUR - WHY PEOPLE USE AD BLOCKERS
d
Source: IAB UK
The IAB also reports only 1% of users would switch
off all adblocking if asked, with 46% of 18-24s
willing to do so on their favourite sites
Interrupting what a user is doing (73%) and Annoyance
(55%) are big reasons for users to block ads. We’ll assume
‘slowing down web browsing’ also includes ‘costing me
more for data’.
Creating better advertising/communications would help.
Whilst Transparency in signing up to trade initiatives sends
a clear message to users
Source: IAB UK
#adblockingxyz

7. USER BEHAVIOUR - THE COST IN DATA AND TIME FOR USERS
• 16mb total size with ads
• 3.5 mb without ads
• 33 seconds to load with ads
• 7 seconds without ads
Boston.com (Boston Globe)
• 6.2mb total size with ads
• 1.7 mb without ads
• 12 seconds to load with ads
• 3 seconds without ads
LA Times
#adblockingxyz

8. MOBILE ARMAGEDDON?
MOBILE NETWORK LEVEL AD BLOCKING
• Cheaper for mobile networks (and consumers?)
• Offload cost to advertisers
• Greater share of revenue from Google/FB for
using pipes
• Move toward controlling digital advertising
Reported trial with caribbean operator digicel
resulted in 0 customer wanting to opt-out of
receiving no ads - out of 14 million customers
“Anywhere between five and 50 per cent of a
consumer’s data plan is consumed by ad tech
Roi Carthy, shine
#adblockingxyz

9. INDUSTRY REGULATION - TRADE
Source: Ofcom
•New codes of conduct (L.E.A.N) UK
•New lighter standards in advertising
•Requires cross industry buy-in
•Hard to implement
TRADE BODY RESPONSES
•Technology solution (D.E.A.L) US
•Open source detection scripts
•Customer receives explanation
•Asked to lift ad blocker
•Or choice to limit content
#adblockingxyz

10. PUBLISHERS FIGHTBACK - WIRED
Wired: Pay $1 per week, whitelist or no access
•Blockers greeted with pre-launch
message. ‘Get ready for the new Wired...’
•‘Help us keep the lights on’ messaging
•Ad blocker detected (updated regularly)
•Whitelist Wired or pay $1 per week for access
•Without the above you can’t get on the site
AD FREE VERSION FOR BLOCKERS
“On an average day, more than 20 percent of the traffic to WIRED.com
comes from a reader who is blocking our ads. We know that you come
to our site primarily to read our content, but it’s important to be clear
that advertising is how we keep WIRED going...”
#adblockingxyz

11. PUBLISHERS FIGHTBACK - #2
Forbes: Turn off blocker for ad light experience.. Search Engine Journal: Nudge to turn off adblocker
Cult of Mac: Nagware, once a day The Atlantic: Support us by subscribing#adblockingxyz

12. SOLUTIONS AND STARTUPS
Replace ads with sponsored content Whichit: Native advertising engagment
People.io: Users get paid for their time
Optimal: block ads support publishers
Pagefair: reclaim lost revenue
Sourcepoint: work with
publishers to show consumers
options
Pagefair: revenue with
unobtrusive ads
#adblockingxyz

13. DOES CONTENT PAY? CAN IT REPLACE ADVERTISING?
Copa90 with Hyundai - Fan film fund
Narcos: Netflix with WSJ: Deep dive into
Medellin, culture and stories
“In 2016, we’re planning updates like
further restricting what can be
advertised, and adding new
protections against malware and bots”
Google SVP ads and commerce
The Message: GE’s branded content activity
resulted in the worlds most popular podcast
#adblockingxyz

14. For ad blocking insights and resources
www.adblocking.xyz
Give us a shout if you want to talk more
roy@bam-mobile.com