Commentary

Yet Another Study Claims Ad Blockers Will Decimate Ad Revenue; This Time It's $12 Billion by 2020

What's an advertiser to do? Millennials hate your ads. GenZ hates your ads. Ad blockers are killing revenue. Following a Juniper Research study, which predicted ad blockers will cost publishers $27 billion globally in lost revenues by 2020, a new study from Optimal and Wells Fargo Securities says the U.S. market will see a $12 billion loss in revenue by 2020 caused by ad blockers. 

The study claims that usage of ad blockers hit 12% last year and will hit 16% this year. By 2020 that figure will be 37%. The $12 billion in lost revenue includes a predicted increase in ad rates of 5% this year and 15% by 2020 due to reduced usable ad space.

Google and Facebook will fare better as the ads on those platforms are not currently blocked by ad blockers, but smaller publishers and ad networks will be hard hit.

In perhaps the best quote commenting on the havoc ad blockers have wreaked, Optimal CEO Rob Leathern said: “The ad-blocking toothpaste is not going to go back in the tube.”

I'd say he's right and those practicing content marketing are smiling.

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