This document summarizes a study conducted by Secret Media on the influence of advertising on the user experience of websites. The study measured various metrics like page load time, bandwidth usage, and third-party requests on the top 25 media websites in the US, France, and Germany with and without ad blocking. It found that while ads only took up a small percentage of page space, they accounted for over 50% of page load time and bandwidth usage on average. The excessive load from ads and third-party trackers was likely a contributing factor to the rise of ad blocking.

1. MAY 2016
ADS OVERTOOK CONTENT
The influence of advertising on user experience

2. The purpose of this study is to show that while premium publishers care deeply
about the ad exposure that they impose on their users, they lack control over the
advertising technologies that power their websites.
We believe that the misuse and lack of control over advertising technologies is a
major, if not the major, contributing factor to the increasing use and adoption of
Ad blocking solutions.
It is our hypothesis that advertising technologies are negatively impacting publi-
sher websites and causing users to be frustrated by slow page load, tracking that
exploits personal data, and the over exposure to ads.
We conducted this study in order to measure the role of ads in poor user
experience.
Take Aways
• Ads only take up 9% of the surface of the average webpage in
the US
• But the time needed to load ads represents over 50% of the total
load time of page
• On average, 53 third-parties are involved behind the scenes of a
page, syncing data, cookies, etc.
ABOUT THIS STUDY
SECRET MEDIA Ads Overtook Content

3. We selected three geographies for this study: the United States, France, and
Germany.
These countries were chosen because they have some of the highest proportions
of ad block users.
In order to understand how much advertising was affecting user experience, we
selected the top 25 media companies in each geography based on audience size.
For each media website, we focused on 5 measurements:
1. The total load time of the page
2. The bandwidth required to load the page
3. The number of URL calls
4. The number of 3rd parties called
5. The graphical/physical space taken up by ads
We collected each measurement multiple times for each website:
1/2 of the time with an Ad blocker enabled and 1/2 of the time without.
*All cookies and browsing history was deleted between measurements in order to avoid bias from
cached cookie/session data.
The difference between the non-Adblocked measurements and Adblocked
measurements allowed us to identify what part of the load time, of the URL
requests, and of the bandwidth was directly due to ads.
To calculate measurement #5, we calculated the percentage of each webpage
taken up by ads and then combined the data of all 25 websites in order to have
one final average per country.
We have provided the logos of those media companies that were selected for this
study but have anonymized the data in order to not point direct fingers.
There is no correlation between the order of the logos and the numbered graphs.
METHODOLOGY
SECRET MEDIA Ads Overtook Content

4. Ads represent 9%
of the graphic space
of the page
BUT ACCOUNT FOR
54%
of the load time
55%
of the bandwidth
There are 279
ad URL requests
From 53
3rd parties collecting
data
and
US
Full study available at http://www.secretmedia.com/secretmedianews/

5. Ads represent 4%
of the graphic space
of the page
BUT ACCOUNT FOR
70%
of the load time
39%
of the bandwidth
There are 372
ad URL requests
From 58
3rd parties collecting
data
FRANCE
Full study available at http://www.secretmedia.com/secretmedianews/
and

6. Ads represent 6%
of the graphic space
of the page
BUT ACCOUNT FOR
59%
of the load time
33%
of the bandwidth
There are 215
ad URL requests
From 38
3rd parties collecting
data
GERMANY
Full study available at http://www.secretmedia.com/secretmedianews/
and

7. TOP 25 MEDIA US
TOP 25 MEDIA GERMANY
TOP 25 MEDIA FRANCE
SECRET MEDIA Ads Overtook Content

8. 0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
US
URL REQUESTS (per page)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
BANDWITH (in MB)
LOAD TIME (in sec)
Adblock
No Adblock
Due to ads
SECRET MEDIA Ads Overtook Content

9. FRANCE
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
URL REQUESTS (per page)
Adblock
No Adblock
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
BANDWITH (in MB)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
LOAD TIME (in sec)
Due to ads
SECRET MEDIA Ads Overtook Content

10. GERMANY
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
URL REQUESTS (per page)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
BANDWITH (in MB)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25
LOAD TIME (in sec)
Due to ads
SECRET MEDIA Ads Overtook Content
Adblock
No Adblock

11. Secret Media, launched in 2014, is a New York-based advertising technology
company focus on helping publishers create a sustainable user ad experience.
Our technology allows publishers to visualize and control the advertising
technologies that impact the user experience they provide.
With better control, publishers can recapture adblocked inventory while
simultaneously creating a better experience for their users.
ABOUT SECRET MEDIA
www.secretmedia.com
For more information, contact us at customer@secretmedia.com