A recent survey conducted on ad blockers shows that 77% of them feel guilty about blocking ads on websites.
This goes directly against the common notion that users who block ads don’t care about publishers losing ad revenue. It shows that if the publishers tried to make the ads less intrusive and annoying, the users will likely not block the ads at all.
About the “Gladly” Survey
An advertisement tech start-up, Gladly, surveyed 243 random people who used the Goodblock ad blocking software. The survey focused on what the users thought about online advertising in general, their opinion and reaction towards online publishers who use anti-adblock measures and whitelisting behaviour of the users.
The surprising outcome was that 77% of the users felt guilty about blocking online ads. About 52% of those who were surveyed didn’t like ads but knew that the publishers rely on them for their revenue and for making more content.
What this shows is that a lot of ad blocking users know what the consequences of using an ad block software are and feel guilty about it as well.
Do People Whitelist Websites?
The Gladly survey also found that 77% of the users have whitelisted a website while 40% of the those surveyed have whitelisted at least 5 websites. Once again presenting that majority of the ad blockers are willing to support the website they think provides a good user experience.
Most of the surveyed individuals responded that they hate it when a website forces them to disable their ad blocker or whitelist them to get to the content. 30% said they are less likely to use a website that forces them to whitelist it. Forbes.com is a prominent example of one such website.
Ad Blockers for a Better User Experience
Gladly mentions in their report that majority know of the consequences of ad blocking, so they whitelist the publishers they care about. Moreover, the use of ad blocking comes from a need to fix user experience problems on websites with annoying ads.
So there you have it. According to the survey, if a publisher respects the users, the users will also care for the publishers’ needs. The statistics validate this point and both parties will need to makes compromises for the web to keep growing like it has in the past.
Image Credits: Slideshare
i dont feel the guilt, although i have disabled adblock on the websites i like
I disabled ad-blocks for propakistani, BeignGuru and websites I like who definitely deserves the reward for good work.
Ok. Ok. I just white list first site in adblock filter i.e propakistani.pk. Now you will definitely get some clicks from me ;)
Just use adguard adblocker extension for chrome.
Uhhh…..no they don’t.
Lol, no they don’t. First thing I do on any computer is install adblock, and usually people thank me because they were sick of all the intrusive ads and popups.
Ad blocking is the first thing I do too on all browsers.