U.S. Publishers: $15.8B Annual Revenue Lost To Ad Blocking

by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, October 16, 2017

Consumers in Europe are more likely to block ads, but the United States isn't far behind. About 26% of U.S. consumers use some sort of ad-blocking software, according to data released Monday. And soon, Google will give consumers another way to block ads, through its Chrome browser scheduled to launch in 2018.

The OnAudience.com study reveals the use of ad blockers continues to rise in the U.S., with 26% of consumers now using them, up from 22% in 2016. OnAudience.com estimates a loss of more than $15.8 billion in publisher revenue, up from nearly $11 billion last year. The U.S. contributes just under $45 billion to the $100 billion global display market.

Internationally, the loss of publisher revenue from ad blocking rose to $42 billion -- up from $28 billion in 2016. At the time, the worldwide display market was valued at $84 billion.

eMarketer in March 2017 reported a slightly lower number -- with about 28% of U.S. consumer-blocking ads on desktop and laptop, and 11.8% do so on a smartphone.

The results from the U.S. reflect a broad increase globally in ad blocking, although consumers in Europe are most likely to block ads, with 32% of internet users in the region using ad-blocker plugins.

Poland has the highest rates at 46%, followed by Greece at 44%, Norway at 42%, Germany at 41%, and Denmark at 40%. The UK, the Netherlands, and Ireland all rank at 39%.

Internet users in Japan are equally as likely as consumers in the U.S. to block ads, at 26%, but the lowest rates were found in Latin America. Paraguay recorded the least ad-blocked page views at 5%, while Peru and Venezuela scored the second- and third-lowest ad-blocking rates globally at 13% and 10%, respectively.

Maciej Sawa, chief commercial officer at OnAudience.com, does not believe enough is being done to resolve the issue for the industry.

The report also analyzes the impact of ad-blocking on the e-commerce industry, revealing that more than $600 billion -- in a market worth $2 billion -- is generated globally by users with ad blockers installed.

ad blocking, advertising, europe, latin america, online publishing, publishing, search, united kingdom

4 comments about "U.S. Publishers: $15.8B Annual Revenue Lost To Ad Blocking".

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Benjamin Cohen from Confiant, Inc., October 17, 2017 at 10:43 a.m.
Great article Laurie! Confiant has a tool that enables publishers protect themselves and their user base by only blocking the bad ads (forced redirects, IBV, etc.) that come through the programmatic open market. Confiant's aim is to eradicate security and quality issues for the entire ecosystem, starting from the supply side.
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Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, October 17, 2017 at 10:55 a.m.

Unedited, grand dumps created this mess to save $. Their upper crusts bailed with buyouts and golden parachutes and left the mess.

Augustine Fou from FouAnalytics, October 17, 2017 at 2:16 p.m.

This can be done simply (and at no cost) if publishers properly sandboxed the javascript in their damned iframes.

John Grono from GAP Research replied, October 17, 2017 at 8:41 p.m.

Augustine, what a publisher-centric suggestion.

First, it ignores the consumer experience. There is a reason people use ad-blockers. Sandboxing in iFrames does not address that.

Second, advertisers run campaigns. I am yet to come across any campaign, let alone a digital campaign that utilises a single publishing entity. The brand's target is much broader than one publisher. Advertisers want to know more than the PVs, timspent etc. They want to know the reach of their campaign. With everything sandoxed within iFrames that won't happen.

This is media's equivalent of myopic introversion.