Dive Brief:

• Teads, a video ad tech company, surveyed 9,000 people and uncovered that pre-roll video ads were seen as the most intrusive format users are regularly exposed to and caused 41% of ad block software installations.
• The research also found that 88% of respondents thought pop-up ads were intrusive, but Teads president Jim Daily told Ad Age, "None of the top tier 1 publishers are using popup ads. I think we can all agree they're annoying."
• This evidence that pre-roll video ads are a user experience issue is a blow to publishers' strategies of offering content in exchange for users watching the short ad.

Dive Insight:

Marketers would be well served to pay attention to their audience. Getting into some of demographics of the Teads research, men are 22% more likely to use ad blocking tech on mobile devices, and Hispanics are 78% more likely to add ad blocking software on mobile devices. The survey included active users of ad block tech, including on mobile devices, as well as people who were aware of ad blockers but hadn’t install the tech yet.

Almost 75% cited intrusive ads as the motivator for using ad blocking tech. Other reasons included website performance at 64%, and excessive volume of ads cited by 62%. At the low end, a mere 18% installed ad blockers out of curiosity.

The survey results come at a time when tensions about ad blocking are rising. This week at the IAB Annual Leadership meeting, President Randall Rothenberg said ad blocking software was at war with freedom of expression, saying, "It is the rich and self-righteous, who want to tell everyone else what they can and cannot read and watch and hear – self-proclaimed libertarians whose liberty involves denying freedom to everyone else."

There are no easy answers for the ad blocking challenge, but in the world of transparent marketing, publishers, advertisers and marketers shouldn’t be going to war with the end user.