New study by AdDefend and appinio reveals: The perception of online ads by users of adblockers and regular users is almost identical

The results show a nearly equal openness to advertising and a positive impact of adblock advertising on the brand image.

Hamburg, 02 May 2019 – AdDefend, the leading full-service provider for adblock advertising, has launched a study with market research platform appinio. The key question of the study is to what extend users of adblockers and regular users differ in their perception and attitude towards online ads. The survey with more than 1500 respondents shows that the perception of ads is almost identical.

For the online survey, 1511 desktop users were interviewed on a total of 22 questions that focused on both their behavior towards advertising and the perception of online ads. 50% of the participants use an adblocker. A comparison of the basic data of the respondents shows that the average adblock user is between 18-34 years old, active on the internet for several hours a day, has a good, mostly universitary education and a high household net income.

The main finding of the survey is that the use of adblock advertising has no significant impact on the brand perception or the brand image. “We are often asked why we display ads to adblocker users when they do not want to see any ads. However, our experience of the recent years and the performance we are achieving speak for themselves. The survey shows that unobtrusive, high-quality ads also convince users of adblockers and have no negative impact on advertisers. The results do not only prove that ads are accepted, they even reveal a positive perception of the last seen ad of a brand. The results confirm the experience we make every day as a company, ” summarizes Dominik Reisig, CEO of AdDefend.

Blocking technologies have been on the rise worldwide for many years. While it has become rather quiet on the subject of adblocking in the media lately despite rising blocking rates, more and more blocking systems are developing almost unnoticed. Not only online ads, also trackings are blocked and the distribution of blocking is unexpectedly high. In addition to the common adblock providers, Firefox private mode also blocks ads as well as any kind of tracking. Even Apple’s browser Safari and Safari Mobile block trackings. After all, Safari browsers register a market share of 19% among the browsers used in Germany.

How much of the advertising reach is lost due to blocking systems is unknown to most. Adblocking is not a temporary phenomenon but an issue that the digital advertising industry needs to focus on in the future, especially given the growing distribution. Further details on the survey can be found in the evaluation.