The use of ad blocking technology is constantly rising, but the actual impact it has on marketing efforts is always underestimated. Everyone knows that it blocks ads, and that directly impacts performance marketing by reducing the number of people who see the ads. But in reality, ad blockers do much more.

This article covers some high-level stats about ad blockers, how they work, and what impact they really have on digital marketing. But first, let’s start with an exercise to demonstrate the extent of ad blocking power.

Using ad blocking on netflix.com

Let’s do a practical example by visiting netflix.com with an uBlock Origin open-source browser extension turned on and see what it will block just on the homepage.

uBlock Origin logger console screenshot for netflix.com

By inspecting the logs showing which URLs have been blocked by the extension, we can see what impact that has on Netflix and any other business in a similar position.

* I can’t know the exact way Netflix integrates and uses the below-mentioned platforms, but this is my educated evaluation.
** This was logged only by visiting the homepage and making a few clicks around. I believe the list would be longer if the product would be used in depth like a real user.

Blocked URLPlatform
https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=XXX&ev=Purchase&eid=&dl=Netflix.comFacebook Pixel

URL used by Facebook Pixel to track a purchase event on Netflix’s website. This tracking helps Netflix measure ad effectiveness, optimize ad targeting, and improve overall marketing efforts on Facebook.

Blocked URLPlatform
https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=XXXGoogle Tag Manager

This blocked the Google Tag Manager initialization script, and consequently all scripts and SDKs implemented through GTM. We don’t know what those are, but an example could be Google Analytics or a similar analytics platform.

Blocked URLPlatform
https://privacyportal.onetrust.com/request/v1/consentreceiptsOneTrust
(privacy & security compliance platform)

This blocked the Cookie consent pop-up, which means Netflix can’t get my consent, impacting Netflix’s ability to collect data for analytics, personalization, advertisement, etc.

Blocked URLPlatform
https://logs.netflix.com/log/www/cl/2In-house solution for data logging.

This seems to be Netflix’s in-house solution to log user behavior across their website. By blocking it, they lose all events used for monitoring, business intelligence reporting, debugging, and other purposes.

By running this quick analysis, we see that ad blocking tech does more than just block ads. It also blocks trackers, scripts, pop-ups, and potentially all JavaScript code. In the world of digital marketing, where everything relies on data and tracking, we quickly see that the whole marketing funnel is heavily impacted.

A list of things that could potentially be blocked:

  • Ads
  • Tracking scripts (Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel…)
  • Cookies
  • Pop-ups (e.g. Cookie notice)
  • Email metrics like opens and clicks by blocking the tracking pixel
  • SDK’s and API’s
  • Social media widgets
  • Affiliate links
  • Third-party widgets and plugins (Live-chat, comment systems, embedded videos…)
  • Fingerprinting scripts
  • JavaScript code

Users can customize the ad blocking settings, but only the very few advanced users do that. Most users use the default settings — these always block ads, tracking, and analytics scripts, as well as many SDKs and APIs. This basically means that the majority of data for these users is compromised, leaving a huge gap in data collection and measurement.

Ad Blocking Stats

Let’s lay out some high-level stats so we can understand how common ad blocking is, and how big is the potential impact on businesses around the world.

  • 37% of internet users worldwide use ad blocking technology.
  • Asian countries have the highest usage rate, up to 40%, followed by Europe and North America.
  • African and South American countries traditionally have lower ad blocking percentages – around 20%.
  • People younger than 34 years tend to use it more compared to older generations.
  • Men use it more than women. There is about a 5% difference.
  • Ad blocking is much more prevalent on desktop devices, but mobile ad blocking is on the rise.
  • Ad block use is more prevalent among people working in tech.

This leads us to the conclusion that around a third of your traffic and marketing efforts are likely to be impacted by ad blocking tech, so a big group of users might be underrepresented in your audience as you can’t accurately track them.

How does ad blocking work?

When you load a website, its content is fetched from many different sources (URLs). The ad blocking software checks every single URL against a list of known ad servers and trackers. If there is a match, that content is blocked and not loaded. One such popular list is called EasyList and is used by default across the majority of popular ad blocking software. It is literally just a .txt file.

EasyList ad filter list

Some people might ask why advertising platforms don’t just change their URLs. The answer is that it’s not worth it, as it takes 5 minutes to add a new URL to the existing filter list.

Most people are aware of browser extensions as the most common way to use this tech, but there has been a big increase in the number of options in the last few years with rising consumer privacy concerns.

Types of ad blocking:

  • Browser Extensions – Installed within a web browser. Popular examples include uBlock Origin, Adblock Plus, DuckDuckGo, and Ghostery.

  • Built-in Browser Features – Brave, Opera, and DuckDuckGo have native ad blockers that do not require additional extensions. Others like Firefox have settings that can be turned on to enhance protection.

  • Mobile Apps – Phones present a challenge as content is commonly consumed through apps, not browsers. But nowadays, apps like AdGuard and Blokada can be used to filter out ads.

  • Network-Level Ad Blocking – DNS filtering or router-based blocking. This method filters out ads for all devices connected to the network. The devices themselves don’t need to set up anything.

  • Built-in Device OS Features – Some mobile operating systems like iOS allow for content blockers that integrate with Safari to block ads.

  • VPN services – Some services like NordVPN offer built-in ad blocking features for all traffic when connected to a VPN server.

  • Enterprise Solutions – Business networks often use firewalls and security software that filter ads and trackers.

The Conclusion

The number one reason why people use ad blocking, based on a survey, is that ads are annoying, intrusive, and disruptive – all factors derived from years of our collective actions for more attention.

There are efforts to fight ad blockers – some businesses use content blockers or paywalls, some develop bespoke solutions. YouTube, for example, started testing limiting the number of videos ad blocking users can watch, slowing down the website or blocking it all together.

 I think such efforts are futile. They might bring short-term gains, but will just build more disdain for ads and push people even further away. I think the solution is to integrate ads more natively, non-disruptively, and hold them to a high standard of quality. It pains me to say this, but I think a good example is set by social media networks like Instagram and Facebook, where many users report actually enjoying ads and finding them really helpful.

To conclude, I don’t propose any doomsday theories about digital advertising, or say that ad blocking will drastically change how we do things already. But I do think it’s important for everyone to be aware of the real impact it has on our everyday work, and to feel the responsibility when publishing ads and implementing tracking solutions. The collective effort in the right direction can help shift the perspective of how ads are perceived. A good for all of us to start is to research ad standards by the Coalition for Better Ads – a set of guidelines for creating less intrusive and more effective online advertisements. 

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