Dive Brief:
- A study by ad block monitoring services firm Blockmetry has found that mobile webpages are blocked by ad blocking software at three times the rate of desktop pages, according to Marketing Land.
- Blockmetry's August "weather report" on ad blocking found 32.4% of pageviews worldwide are now being blocked, up from 28.5% in May.
- While mobile makes up 30.9% of global pageviews, according to Blockmetry, 62.9% of mobile pageviews were impacted by ad blocking, compared to 21% for desktop and just 4.4% for tablets.
Dive Insight:
Ad blocking technology is a major issue for marketers, ad tech firms and publishers, and it's only growing. The latest report from Blockmetry shows that the issue is particularly pervasive on mobile devices. As mobile continues to grow and take over desktop's share of user time spent, the industry should be concerned about how ad blocking will impact campaigns on mobile.
Users have many reasons for blocking ads, but it typically boils down to a poor user experience — anything from running too many ads, ads that slow down page load times, and ads that deliver malware and are fraudulent. It is incumbent upon the industry to take steps that alleviate these user issues in order to combat ad blocking. There isn’t an easy solution, but one thing is clear — the end user is in control of how this plays out right now, with the industry unable to stem the tide of growing ad blocking adoption.
