The Drivers and Consequences of Ad Blocking: A Self-Filtering Mechanism That Increases Ad Effectiveness

Abstract

A growing group of consumers uses ad-blocking software, preventing advertisers from reaching them and resulting in a loss of ad revenue for publishers. Ways to resolve this issue include blocking these users, disguising ads, or paying the developer of the ad blocker so that ads will not be blocked. The question is to what extent these solutions are effective and desired. This study uses an experimental setup followed by an extensive survey to answer this question. The findings show that, when banner ads are forced on ad blocker users, these users (vs. ad blocker nonusers) spend 10%–20% less time on the web page, evaluate the website as worse, and pay less attention to the banners, while the ads are 190% more effective for ad blocker nonusers. Thus, ad blocking serves as a self-filtering mechanism that filters out consumers who are less responsive to advertising. Ad blockers thus help advertisers target the right consumers and increase the value of the remaining ad slots for publishers. Moreover, ad blocker users are more likely to pay for ad-free content, offering publishers an alternative business model for these consumers.