Latest ad-blocking figures make grim reading for IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau might want to look away now; despite insisting that ad-blocker downloads had levelled out, a new survey reveals that 44% of consumers have now installed one on at least one device, with laptops and PC/Mac users leading the way.
That is according to the Connected Screens Survey from Mediatel, which interviewed 2,000 adults in broadband homes.
The findings are in stark contrast to the IAB’s research – carried out by YouGov and released in August – which showed there had been a slight decrease, with 21.2% claiming to be blocking ads in July down from 21.7% in February – nearly half the figure quoted by Mediatel. YouGov is obviously interviewing a different 2,000 adults.
The latest wave of the Connected Screens Survey is for H1 2016. It is the fifth survey but only the first to include a question on adblocking.
When grouped together, 44% of those surveyed have installed an adblocker on at least one of their connected devices, with 40% of laptop and PC/Mac users doing so.
However, while ad-blocking on mobile devices is still in its infancy, the fact that it is not as straightforward to install an adblocker on a mobile device compared to a PC browser should be factored in.
According to an analysis of the data by Research the Media managing director Richard Marks, not only are ads on smartphones less likely to be blocked, smartphones have an advantage over tablets when it comes to targeting, as they are less likely to be shared devices.
Some 87% of smartphone users said they never let others use it, compared to 59% of tablet users. So arguably ‘targeted’ advertising will be less of an irritant on smartphones than on shared devices, Marks argues.
He draws the conclusion the rise of adblockers has to be the fault of the advertising itself. “They are a wake-up call to online advertising to get its house in order and learn from ‘traditional’ established media how to deliver a blend of content and advertising that people will embrace rather than reject. Because deep down I genuinely don’t think people have adblockers because they ‘hate advertising’. They just want a good user experience on their devices.”