Category: Data, Studies, Insights

We know that ad filterers—defined 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”—are hungry for knowledge and spend a ton of time online.

But we didn’t realize the extent of it.

Especially when compared to the segment of the population that doesn’t use an ad blocker at all, ad filterers are voracious readers of websites. In any given month, ad filterers in the United States are 100% more likely to visit business news websites, 35% more likely to visit travel websites, and 29% more likely to visit a news website than non-ad blocking users.

Of course, there are many implications to this website-loving behavior. The fact that ad filterers devour business and non-business news alike points to a dedication to keeping up-to-date and abreast of current events. And the fact that they visit travel websites hints at another characterizing trait of ad filterers: they tend to be affluent, with the means to travel off to that dream beach getaway or wilderness adventure.

However, when you start to look deeper into these insights, an even more compelling portrait of ad filterers starts to emerge.

What are some personality traits that define the individuals that dream of far-away places, new experiences, and remote destinations—the kind of person, in other words, who spends a lot of time on travel websites?

It’s what Condé Nast Traveler calls the “science of wanderlust,” and recent science suggests that people who have a desire to explore new destinations are also motivated by a strong sense of curiosity, thrill-seeking, and restlessness. That means that the urge to fill your passport with new stamps is connected to the urge to go on roller coasters, go big in Vegas, plan a spontaneous trip to a museum, or dye your hair a bright pink on a whim.

But what about the personality traits associated with the typical news junkie: the kind of person who can’t start their day before reading through five different newspapers, whose Twitter feed is littered with Reuters and AP tweets, and who always wins the “Current Events” section at Trivia Night?

One of the standout traits associated with reading the news every day is, perhaps unsurprisingly, success. When Business Insider looked at the habits of the wildly successful—from Warren Buffet to Bill Gates—everyone reporting that reading the news built the foundation of their days.

So the fact that ad filterers love reading news and travel websites doesn’t just point to a love of political facts and pictures of palm trees. It also hints at curiosity, a tendency to take risks, and overall success.

***

In January of this year we published our groundbreaking study, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ad Blocking Users,” which drew back the curtain on the youthful, affluent, and well-educated users that have ad blockers installed on their devices.

But it turns out that there was even more to discover about this dynamic demographic.

We’ve once more consulted the trove of data that GlobalWebIndex (GWI) keeps about internet behavior and teased out more insights ad filterers, who GWI defines 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.”

The result? AAX’s second study: Ad Filterers Online: Purchasing Habits and Media Consumption In The USA.

We’ll be publishing the study in full in November, but we wanted to give our followers a preview of the insights to come. That’s why, for the next five weeks, we’re highlighting our findings in a series of posts that consider some of our findings in a new light.

When the New York Times announces that 2020 is “shaping up to be a huge year for gaming,” you know it’s not just the world of tried-and-true gamers that’s about to be turned upside down. We’re all going to be affected.

This is because the release of two eagerly-awaited gaming consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the XBox Series X, has turned autumn 2020 into what the New York Times has described as “the return of the game console wars.” The fact that these “wars” are breaking out mid-pandemic, when people are staying indoors and turning to the enjoyment and creative immersion of gaming more than ever before, raises the stakes even higher.

But if there’s one demographic that’s going to be especially implicated by the console battles of late 2020, it’s ad filterers. (Ad filterers are users defined by 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.”)

Ad filterers in the USA nurture especially steady gaming habits, with 11.4% reporting spending thirty minutes to one hour on their gaming consoles each and every day. And it doesn’t end there. 10.8% of USA-based ad blocking users spend 1-2 hours each and every day on their gaming consoles. And 3.3% percent comprise elite-tier gamers: people who spend 6 to 8 hours on their gaming consoles per day.

And, when compared to the segment of the population that doesn’t have ad blockers installed on their devices—known as “non- ad blocking users”—ad filterers appear even more as consummate gamers. A mere 8.4% of non- ad blocking users report spending thirty minutes to one hour on gaming consoles.

If late autumn 2020 is truly shaping up to be “the return of the game console wars,” we anticipate that ad filterers are going to be at the vanguard of every battle. Because the users that spend more time on gaming consoles are more likely to upgrade each and every time a new console appears…and, of course, they’ll also be the first in line for new games as well.

So it seems like the “game console wars” won’t really have any losers. Everyone will be victorious… maybe especially the ad filterers excited to use their new consoles.

***

In January of this year we published our groundbreaking study, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ad Blocking Users,” which drew back the curtain on the youthful, affluent, and well-educated users that have ad blockers installed on their devices.

But it turns out that there was even more to discover about this dynamic demographic.

We’ve once more consulted the trove of data that GlobalWebIndex (GWI) keeps about internet behavior and teased out more insights ad filterers, who GWI defines 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.”

The result? AAX’s second study: Ad Filterers Online: Purchasing Habits and Media Consumption In The USA.
We’ll be publishing the study in full in November, but we wanted to give our followers a preview of the insights to come. That’s why, for the next five weeks, we’re highlighting our findings in a series of posts that consider some of our findings in a new light.

In January of this year we published our groundbreaking study, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ad Blocking Users,” which drew back the curtain on the youthful, affluent, and well-educated users that have ad blockers installed on their devices.

But it turns out that there was even more to discover about this dynamic demographic.

We’ve once more consulted the trove of data that GlobalWebIndex (GWI) keeps about internet behavior and teased out more insights on the people GWI defines 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.”

We call these users ad filterers.

The result? AAX’s second study: Ad Filterers Online: Purchasing Habits and Media Consumption In The USA.

We’ll be publishing the study in full in November, but we wanted to give our followers a preview of the insights to come. That’s why, for the next five weeks, we’re highlighting our findings in a series of posts that consider some of our findings in a new light.

The first point we wanted to examine in our study lays the foundation for understanding ad filterers’ purchasing habits and media consumption: we wanted to see just how many hours per day American ad filterers spend online.

And what we found was that this famously online segment of the population was…extremely online.

When examining the population as a whole, we found that the largest segment of ad filterers (18.4%) spent 6-10 hours on a PC, tablet, or laptop but that significant percentages were also online for slightly less time, with 16.4% logging approximately 4-6 hours per day and 13.7% spending 3-4 hours online.

And these findings are especially striking when compared to non- ad blocking users. The largest percentage of people who don’t have an ad blocker installed spent only 1-2 hours online per day.

These numbers align with what we already knew about ad filterers, who are, overall, younger, more educated, and more affluent than their non- ad blocking user counterparts. After all, it’s widely documented that, as an Atlantic Monthly article titled “Rich, Young, Educated People Spend the Most Time Online,” phrases it, “all over the world, the people who spend the most time online tend to be young, educated, and wealthy.”

But it might also signal another defining feature of ad filterers: high rates of productivity. As delineated in the Wall Street Journal, studies have shown that higher rates of time spent online correspond with higher rates of productivity; that “browsing the internet at work […] may actually improve your performance.”

This is because time spent online can be refreshing, invigorating tired workers and increasing overall productivity. And this isn’t just in comparison to working straight through without taking a pause to read a favorite news site—it turns out that checking the internet is actually more relaxing (and therefore ultimately productivity-boosting!) than other leisure time activities like making personal phone calls or sending texts or emails.

Maybe this holds the key to the ad filtering demographic’s success in work and in the field of higher education: could it be that it’s easier to get an advanced degree or make strides in the workplace when you’re refreshed by frequent internet-browsing breaks?