A quarter of US internet users to use ad blockers his year: eMarketer
The number of Americans using ad blockers is set to rise 34% to 69.8m this year, or 26% of all internet users, according to eMarketer. That will jump a further quarter to 86.6m in 2017, the study showed.

by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, July 1, 2016

According to new data from eMarketer, ad blocking in the US will continue to cause headwinds for online advertisers, as the phenomenon is expected to grow by double digits this year and next. In 2016, 69.8 million Americans will use an ad blocker, a jump of 34.4% over last year. Next year, that figure will grow another 24.0% to 86.6 million people.

US Ad Blocking Users and Penetration Year Users MM % Change % of Internet Users 2014 39.7MM 61.5% 15.7% 2015 51.9 30.7 20.0 2016 69.8 34.4 26.3 2017 86.6 24.4 32.0 Source: eMarketer, June 2016

The report defines an ad blocking user as an internet user who accesses the internet at least once a month via any device that has an ad blocker enabled. This year in the US, 26.3% of internet users, more than one in five people in general, will use an ad blocker.

eMarketer senior analyst, Paul Verna, says “… ad blocking is a detriment to the entire advertising ecosystem… affecting publishers, marketers, agencies, and others whose businesses depend on ad revenue… to tackle this problem… deliver compelling ad experiences that consumers won’t want to block…”

This year, 63.2 million people will use an ad blocker on their desktop or laptop PC, vs. 20.7 million on their smartphone. 90.5% of ad blocking users will block ads on desktops and laptops, while just 29.7% will do so on smartphones. (There is overlap among the groups, notes the report)

US Ad Blocking Users (MM) And Penetration by Device (% Web Users) Device 2014 2015 2016 2017 Desktop/laptop ad blocking users 38.0MM 48.6 63.2 77.1 % of internet users 15.0% 18.7 23.8 28.5 Smartphone ad blocking users 7.2MM 12.8 20.7 29.7 % of internet users 2.8% 4.9 7.8 11.0 Total ad blocking users 39.7MM 51.9 69.8 86.6 % of internet users 15.7% 20.0 26.3 32.0 Source: eMarketer, June 2016 (Internet user, any age, access Web ≥ 1X/month, on any device w/blocker enabled)

Verna continues “Ad blocking is more common on desktops and laptops because screen sizes are large enough to accommodate multiple ads. This includes videos… out of view but still audible… especially annoying to users… ad blockers typically don’t work on apps, where users spend most of their mobile internet time…”

The number of people using smartphone ad blockers will jump 62.3% this year, while the number of PC-based ad blocking users will grow 30.1%, concludes the report.

For additional information from eMarketer, please visit here.