• by Sara Guaglione , February 21, 2018

Adults use ad blockers because of ineffective ad targeting, rather than an objection to advertising, according to Kantar Media.

Kantar Media interviewed 5,213 “connected adults” -- people 18+ who have access to the internet via both a PC/laptop and a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet. The adults surveyed are from the world’s largest advertising markets: Brazil (1,097 interviews), China (1,067), France (1,000), the UK (1,035) and the U.S. (1,014). 

Overall, 20% of “connected adults” interviewed claim they always use an ad blocker. Among those with ad blockers, 47% claim to like or tolerate advertising. “Their concern is with aspects of online advertising, as opposed to with advertising as a whole,” per the report.

“The message to take from this is that blockers don’t install blocking software because of an active dislike of all advertising, rather they become annoyed and irritated by certain elements of online advertising,” Kantar noted.

Those elements are “excessive frequency and an unsophisticated use of retargeting to contact those who have already purchased.”

This data comes as Google’s new ad blocker on its Chrome web browser goes into effect, in an attempt to weed out annoying and intrusive ads.

Publishers that already lose a huge segment of digital advertising revenue to Google and Facebook will largely be unaffected, per Axios. Last October, data from OnAudience.com estimated a loss of more than $15.8 billion in publisher revenue from ad blockers, up from nearly $11 billion last year. 

Previous Kantar Media studies show those who block ads are most likely to be millennials and males.

Men are 28% more likely to have downloaded an ad blocker and 27% more likely to use one. Women are 26% less likely to have downloaded an ad blocker and 25% less likely to use it. Millennials are also more likely to use an ad blocker than older generations.

Users who are 18-24 years of age are 109% more likely to use an ad blocker than older users. 

Adults over 65 are 53% less likely to use an ad blocker.