Author: AAX Team

How old are ad filterers?

Posted on by AAX Team

They say that age ain’t nothing but a number, but the fact of the matter is: we’re all influenced by how many trips around the sun we’ve taken. Everything from the quality of our sleep to how loud we like to play our music, from our idea of the perfect Saturday night to how long we like to sleep in on Sunday morning…has a little something to do with age.

We’ve previously examined various reasons that ad filterers of all ages choose to block ads, but we’ve never looked into the age breakdown of the ad filtering demographic. And what has been revealed is that young people are more likely than older people to curate their ad content in the specific way that makes them “ad filterers,” the 95% of ad blocking users that have an ad blocker installed but elect to be served respectful and non-intrusive ads.

Nearly a quarter—24.7%—of ad filterers are 25-34 years old. The second-largest group is even younger—22.2% are only 16-24 years old.

From the mid-thirties onwards, the percentage of ad filterers keeps decreasing with age. 20.8% of ad filterers are 35-44, 17.8% are 45-54, and a mere 14.5% are 55-64.

So what does that have to do with politics?

Age is often correlated with political leanings, with some believing that people tend to become more conservative as they age. But the last half decade of political life in the USA has
shown that the truth is a little more nuanced.

A lot of this has to do with the graying of America. In the 2020 presidential election, a staggering amount of voters were fifty or older.

From Pew Research:

More than half of Republican and GOP-leaning voters (56%) are ages 50 and older, up from 39% in 1996. And among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, half are 50 and older, up from 41% in 1996. (Source)

The rest of Pew’s data is divided in two: those aged 18-29, and those aged 30-49. The 2020 election marked the first real election that many Gen Z’ers were eligible to vote, and it was interesting to examine the turnout among the youngest subsection of voters.

The result: 19% of Democratic-leaning voters were 18-29, while only 13% of Republican-leaning voters were 18-29.

That leaves those voters in solid middle-adulthood, who also make up a high percentage of ad filterers. But the breakdown among those voters is surprising: there was virtually no difference between the percentage of Democrats and Republicans. An even 30% of Democratic-leaning voters were 35-44, and 29% of Republican-leaning voters were 34-55.

This fairly even split in terms of voting patterns makes it imperative to look at more data samples when analyzing political leanings. We know that a 27-year-old is significantly more likely to stay out late, live with roommates, and—yes—block ads than a 54-year-old…but they’re not that much more likely to vote Democratic.

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AAX is devoted to knowing everything there is to know about ad filterers. In one previous study we looked into what makes this demographic unique, another study examined their purchasing habits, and our most recent study dug deep into ad filterer motivation: the reasons ad filterers avoid advertisements, and how and why those reasons change.
Our passion for all things ad filterer is why we’ve turned our attention to an issue that’s capturing everyone’s attention: ad filterers’ political profiles. We’ve looked through the fascinating findings over at the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) to compile a new study—American Ad Blocking Users’ Political Profile—available for free download in May 2022.

Where Do Ad Filterers Live?

Posted on by AAX Team

And what does the location of American ad filterers reveal about their political leanings?

The last time we looked at the question of location, one trend emerged: cities. In 2017, the data we examined revealed that 68.8% of ad blockers lived in urban areas. But the world has changed a lot since 2017. And the pandemic ushered in an unprecedented era of remote work, allowing former urbanites to relocate.

And relocate they did.

In 2017, 21% of respondents lived in the suburbs. Now that number has more than doubled and a half of all ad filterers—48.9%—call the suburbs home. One third—exactly 33.3%—live in urban areas. And 17.8% live in the countryside.

So: what does that mean in terms of political affiliation?

Urban vs. rural: the traditional approach

Prior to 2020, the trend was clear: city-dwellers leaned Democrat, and rural folk leaned Republican.

From Pew Research:

Rural areas tend to have a higher concentration of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, while a majority of Americans in urban communities identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party. These patterns have become more pronounced over the past two decades as rural areas have moved in a Republican direction and urban counties have become even more Democratic. (Source)

But who lives in the suburbs, according to Pew Research? That’s where things get interesting. According to research done before the pandemic, “Americans who live in the suburbs are about evenly divided in their partisan loyalties.”

The Great Covid Relocation

As we know, COVID-19 changed everything. And that includes demographics. People left dense urban areas in large numbers, choosing sparsely-populated suburbs, large backyards, walkable neighborhoods and nearby parks as urban amenities shuttered for months, if not years, at a time.

The exodus was particularly pronounced from New York and San Francisco, according to The New York Times. Approximately 30 million households changed address.

But what’s interesting is that the same places that attracted people in 2020, at the height of pandemic relocation, were the same places that attracted people in 2019, before the world had heard of COVID-19 and a most people thought of a pandemic as the plot from a Steven Soderbergh movie.

And the places people located to contain large swaths of suburban areas.

These smaller metros—Boise, Idaho; Sarasota, Florida; Youngstown, Ohio—were attractive to people looking for a new home even prior to the era of Zoom and mask mandates. And they’ve remained appealing options for people being priced out of other, larger metropolitan areas, professionals looking to make a change, and employees whose families are growing and whose need for local playgrounds are more pressing than the need to be in the center of it all.

This suggests that, despite reports that a great COVID-related flight would turn American demographics on its head, things have remained the same.

And this aligns with what we know about the way that ad filterers vote: the majority vote Democrat, the smallest percentage vote Republican, but more than a quarter are undecided or elect not to say—in other words, the political profile of a suburban American voter.

AAX is devoted to knowing everything there is to know about ad filterers. In one previous study we looked into what makes this demographic unique, another study examined their purchasing habits, and our most recent study dug deep into ad filterer motivation: the reasons ad filterers avoid advertisements, and how and why those reasons change.

Our passion for all things ad filterer is why we’ve turned our attention to an issue that’s capturing everyone’s attention: ad filterers’ political profiles.
We’ve looked through the fascinating findings over at the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) to compile a new study—American Ad Blocking Users’ Political Profile—available for free download in May 2022.

What’s the Party Allegiance Breakdown Among American Ad Filterers?

Posted on by AAX Team

AAX is getting ready to publish another insight-rich report, filled with fascinating findings gleaned from the vaults that the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) keeps about internet behavior.

We’re interested in all internet behavior, of course, but we’re especially interested in the behavior of the demographic GWI calls “selective ad blocking users.”

Otherwise known as ad filterers, this is a demographic composed of the 95% of internet users that choose to run an ad blocker but have consented to see some ads—like the unobtrusive, respectful forms of advertisement known as “Acceptable Ads.”

We know a few things about these interesting individuals. We know they’re more affluent and more engaged than other groups. We know they spend both more time and more money on the internet.

And now we know about their party affiliation.

When examining the party affiliation among USA-based ad filterers, a few things become immediately clear: the largest percentage (nearly 40%) of ad filterers vote Democrat, and the second-largest percentage (roughly 26%) vote Republican.

But it’s important as well to examine the next three most popular choices: Independent, Undecided/unsure and Prefer not to say. Because those three fields, when added up, make 26.6%—larger than the percentage of Republican ad filterers, and enough to tip the balance in a meaningful way.

Red + Blue = Purple

So what do we know about these independent, undecided, and secretive voters?

One thing that’s been made clear is that many independent voters—especially the younger ones—“focus on issues, not party.” That’s one reason we at AAX have compiled a study that connects “party affiliation” with questions about voters’ stated values and their stance on a variety of issues.

Only slightly more than half of voters ages 18-24 were affiliated with one party in 2020. These voters, it’s suggested, “want[ed] to be involved in the issue, not the ideology.” In other words, they were more interested in the values of the candidate than they were with identifying as a donkey or an elephant.

In general, independent voters of all ages tend to lean towards a party…even if they’re not ready to pledge allegiance to that party, put up lawn signs, go to election night parties at the local Democrat or Republican headquarters, or otherwise absorb that party into their identity.

According to recent Pew Research:

An overwhelming majority of independents (81%) continue to “lean” toward either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. Among the public overall, 17% are Democratic-leaning independents, while 13% lean toward the Republican Party. (Source)

But, the Pew article goes on to state, the rest of the independent voters are still a wild card, with many of them staying away from political activity altogether, and many more of them keeping their political identity a secret forever.

Whether the trend towards identifying as an independent voter continues upward will remain to be seen, but one fact remains: more than a quarter of the ad filtering demographic are neither blue, nor red…but a shade of purple.

Announcing AAX’s New Forthcoming Study!

Posted on by AAX Team
We know people in the USA are blocking ads.

And we know who they are: ad filterers, the affluent, well-educated, and engaged 95% of users that choose to run an ad blocker but have consented to see ads like the unobtrusive, respectful forms of advertisement known as “Acceptable Ads”—ones that fit the criteria set forth by the independent Acceptable Ads Committee.

AAX is devoted to knowing everything there is to know about ad filterers. In one previous study we looked into what makes this demographic unique, another study examined their purchasing habits, and our most recent study dug deep into ad filterer motivation: the reasons ad filterers avoid advertisements, and how and why those reasons change.

Our passion for all things ad filterer is why we’ve turned our attention to an issue that’s capturing everyone’s attention: ad filterers’ political profiles.

In other words: what party do American ad filterers’ affiliate themselves with? And beyond simple party distinctions:

• how do American ad filterers align with various political profiles?
• what roles do attributes like location, age, and education play?
• what are their stated values, and what adjectives do they feel describe them?

We consulted the trove of data that the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) keeps about internet behavior. This data is accumulated by actual users responding to questions, and GWI amends it on a frequent, rolling basis.

And we found out a lot.

American ad filterers—which GWI refers to as selective ad blocking users—are an eclectic bunch, and examining their political affiliation, their self-identified values, and the descriptors they feel best summarize them gave us a stunning amount of insight into this dynamic demographic.

In the service of looking at political profiles, we also got to revisit issues of location, age, and education—which we’d examined in previous years—and explore how demographics have shifted during the COVID era. All of the data we explore is from 2020 and 2021.

And we’ve used all these fascinating findings to compile a new study—American Ad Blocking Users’ Political Profile—available for free download in May 2022.

AAX’s 2021 Roundup!

Posted on by AAX Team

Let’s be real: 2021 wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. If we’re going with water metaphors, it was more like a stormy ocean than a placid lake—ups and downs, swells and ebbs. There were times when we might have felt a little bit seasick.

But now, with the holidays upon us and the year in the rearview mirror, we can reflect on the ride we took throughout 2021.

Here at AAX, we think it’s important to end the year looking back even as we look forward, and to contemplate our past achievements even as we plan for the future.

In that spirit, here’s a roundup of some of the highlights from our year:

We Added To Our Team

The AAX team is a growing one, and one of our first additions this year was Euan Johnson, our Business Intelligence Manager.

We profiled Euan back in January, when he talked to us about the path that led him to Business Intelligence, the fascinating intricacy and possibility of mathematics, and whether there are strict limits to Business Intelligence or if it can stretch to encompass any number of exciting forms.

Check out our piece on Euan to learn more.

We Continued Studying Ad Blocking Users

You may have noticed that ad blocking users are an especially fascinating demographic—especially ad filterers, or the 95% of people who have ad blockers installed on their devices but consent to be served non-intrusive, respectful ads.

AAX continued our study of these educated, affluent, and highly-engaged users in our new study, “Why Block Ads? Behind User Reasons and Motivations.”

And we learned a lot. You’ll want to check out the entire study (available for free download) but some of the most salient points include:

• users concerns and fears surrounding privacy, battery life, and data allowance

• how the motivation for ad blocking has changed since 2017

• whether men and woman have different motivations for ad blocking…and why that matters

• the impact of the generational divide—how Boomers, Zoomers, and everyone in-between, feel about ad blocking

We Made Some Changes—Because Language Matters

We listened and we learned, and we noted that certain outdated and problematic terms needed to be abandoned. AAX announced that we will be using the terms “blocklist” and “allowlist” instead of any words associated with color-related imagery.

We believe, furthermore, that using “blocklist” and “allowlist” will enhance the clarity of our communication.

After all: a blocklist blocks and an allowlist allows. What could be simpler than that?

We Isolated The Top Three Motivations For Ad Blocking

It’s a question that challenges everyone affiliated with the ad space: why do ad blocking users block ads in the first place? What is it about ads that makes people uncomfortable?

Thanks to data gleaned by the ever-helpful GlobalWebIndex, we were able to isolate the three most important and pressing issues for ad blocking users: the trio of attributes that make ads undesirable.

Check out our findings!

And We Wished You A Happy New Year!

We at AAX hope you have a peaceful, stress-free end to 2021. You’ve earned it.

And, on the stroke of midnight on January 1, we look forward to making some noise, throwing some confetti, and ushering in a bright new 2022.

The Ultimate Ad Blocking User Holiday Gift Guide

Posted on by AAX Team

We know that ad blocking users, and especially ad filterers, who are defined by the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) as “users who have blocked ads in the past month but discover brands or products through ads seen online and have clicked on an online ad in the past month” love brand discovery, being engaged online, and buying digital content.

But what’s less known about ad filterers is their love of online shopping.

Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve all spent more time online: working, socializing, and, yes, participating in a little retail therapy. But studies show that ad filterers are perhaps even more interested in buying online than their non-ad blocking counterparts.

And we even know a bit about what they like to buy.

So what are the ad filterers in your life likely to be buying—and wrapping, and topping with a bow—this holiday season? We have a few ideas.

The Pricey Splurges

If the ad filterer in your life is feeling indulgent, they might decide to give you a wellness experience—think a day at a spa. Data from the GWI show that ad filterers are twice as likely as non-ad blocking users to buy experiential gifts like day spa treatments online.

Or they might elect to purchase some tech: think headphones, gaming consoles, computer games, or desktop PCs.

Ad filterers are between two and a half and three times more likely than non- ad blocking users to online ship for some nice noise-cancelling headphones, a PS5, or Call of Duty Vanguard for their nearest and dearest.

The Small Tokens

But it’s not all grand gestures with ad filterers. They also buy little things online—the kind of gifts that make ideal stocking stuffers, fourth- or fifth-night-of-Hannukah gifts, Kwanzaa extras, or just a small little somethings to show they care.

So if your favorite ad filterer hands you a tiny box, what might it contain?

According to GWI, ad filterers make a lot of what are called “minor purchases” online. Minor purchases are divided into three categories:

• media like music, movies, newspapers, and magazines
• hygiene articles like shaving equipment, personal grooming products
• gift cards

On average, ad filterers spend two- to three times as much on these minor purchases as non-ad blocking users.

So if you’re unwrapping a flat present from a beloved ad filterer, chances are pretty good that it’s a gift card.

And if the gift is in a box? Well, chances are you’re in for a wellness-related treat. Maybe it’s a fancy shaving kit or some luxurious body butter, some K-beauty face masks or cuticle oil, foot scrub or beard balm. Whatever it is, you’re bound to feel pampered.

Happy Holidays, Ad Filterer-Style

We hope this guide doesn’t affect the magic and suspense of your holiday season. But we don’t think it will.

After all, if we know one thing about the dynamic, curious, intelligent demographic of ad filterers…it’s that they’re always full of surprises.