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But what's the prevalence of people installing ad blockers? None of my non-techie friends do it, and many of my techie friends willfully choose not to (moral re

by derwiki 11y ago

But what's the prevalence of people installing ad blockers? None of my non-techie friends do it, and many of my techie friends willfully choose not to (moral reasons). Edit: I'll answer that for myself: as of 2015, about 15% of US internet users had ad blocking software[1]. Much higher than I expected. [1] https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/adblock-explorer/ https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/adblock-explorer/

malka 11y ago
depends on your public. If you target young males (video game for instance), you can expect ~30% block IIRC.
natrius 11y ago
Blocking ads isn't just moral, it is imperative. Capitalism is an evolutionary force that selects for the most profitable business practices. Advertising allows businesses to buy profitable changes in behavior. If you understand why we fear biological superbugs, it should be clear why you should keep capitalist superbugs away. Advertising is destined to evolve into a perfect tool for behavior change. If it hasn't already.
- TheLogothete 11y ago
  Propaganda for fun, for profit, and for political gains dates a lot earlier than modern advertising.
  - ethanbond 11y ago
    And so does combating it.
- sangnoir 11y ago
  Ads aren't going anywhere - there is too much money riding on it. I am willing to bet all that I possess that ads will be with us 20 years from now. Your comparison with superbugs is apt: ads will evolve into hardier, less blockable forms (native ads, and as soon as someone figures it out, serving ads from the same domain as content)
  - soperj 11y ago
    Native ads are less likely to be malware vectors no?
- matt4077 11y ago
  Yeah... Or maybe it's just a (sometimes annoying) part of a market which, despite its flaws, has created the largest reduction in human suffering ever.
debacle 11y ago
More and more people are using blockers. The problem is that the utility of the software is high, so the number of users installing ad blockers (Which is really easy. Thanks Chrome!) is going to outpace the number of users not using ad blockers. Depending on your demographics, over 50% of your traffic might be using an ad blocker. I recall reddit reporting numbers of over 80% in some instances.
michaelbuckbee 11y ago
I did some testing earlier this year on a well trafficked YC companies site (so something with a pretty technical audience) and it was around 40% Ad Blocking and half of that analytics blocking. The overall portion of a sites visitors doing blocking is all over the place (from 10-50%), but the Ad / Analytics blocking ratio has been pretty steady at around half. As blocker users shift from ADP to uBlock (for performance or b/c they don't like 'acceptable ads') I suspect that ratio to really go up.

by derwiki 11y ago

malka 11y ago

depends on your public. If you target young males (video game for instance), you can expect ~30% block IIRC.

natrius 11y ago

Blocking ads isn't just moral, it is imperative. Capitalism is an evolutionary force that selects for the most profitable business practices. Advertising allows businesses to buy profitable changes in behavior. If you understand why we fear biological superbugs, it should be clear why you should keep capitalist superbugs away. Advertising is destined to evolve into a perfect tool for behavior change. If it hasn't already.

TheLogothete 11y ago
Propaganda for fun, for profit, and for political gains dates a lot earlier than modern advertising.
- ethanbond 11y ago
  And so does combating it.
sangnoir 11y ago
Ads aren't going anywhere - there is too much money riding on it. I am willing to bet all that I possess that ads will be with us 20 years from now. Your comparison with superbugs is apt: ads will evolve into hardier, less blockable forms (native ads, and as soon as someone figures it out, serving ads from the same domain as content)
- soperj 11y ago
  Native ads are less likely to be malware vectors no?
matt4077 11y ago
Yeah... Or maybe it's just a (sometimes annoying) part of a market which, despite its flaws, has created the largest reduction in human suffering ever.

debacle 11y ago

More and more people are using blockers. The problem is that the utility of the software is high, so the number of users installing ad blockers (Which is really easy. Thanks Chrome!) is going to outpace the number of users not using ad blockers. Depending on your demographics, over 50% of your traffic might be using an ad blocker. I recall reddit reporting numbers of over 80% in some instances.

michaelbuckbee 11y ago

I did some testing earlier this year on a well trafficked YC companies site (so something with a pretty technical audience) and it was around 40% Ad Blocking and half of that analytics blocking. The overall portion of a sites visitors doing blocking is all over the place (from 10-50%), but the Ad / Analytics blocking ratio has been pretty steady at around half. As blocker users shift from ADP to uBlock (for performance or b/c they don't like 'acceptable ads') I suspect that ratio to really go up.