Ad Blocking On The Rise -  Kids to blame

Ad Blocking On The Rise - Kids to blame

A new report by pagefair and Adobe has suggests that online advertising annoys ever increasing numbers of people and they install ad blocking software in their browsers.

Almost 150 million browsers now have ad blocking software and to be honest I find it hard to discourage. I’ve used Adblock for years and any time I use another computer I remember why it’s installed in the first place - pages are just too distracting otherwise! 

41% of American internet users between 18 and 29 agree. Adblock software is also mainly installed by men and in some countries almost a quarter of all users are controlling the content they see. Use of adblockers “is really concentrated on exactly the kind of people that advertisers are targeting,” explained Blanchfield. 

This obviously causes a conundrum for online publishers and ad agencies. How do you market to a group that actively goes out of it’s way not to be marketed to? Users also need to be educated on the ramifications of refusing to enter into the contract agreed by the Publisher and Advertiser. The web sites you like so much may not exist without the advertising that pays for it.

This has been likened to what happened 10 years ago with Napster and the recording industry. Will the advertisers and web publishers attempt to punish the users that block the ads, or will the advertising model change into something more palatable with the next generation of internet users?

Only time will tell but if you would like to try the ad free browsing experience have a look here

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