Tag: study

How Do Ad Filterers Vote? Our New Study Finds Out.

Posted on by AAX Team

We live in a political world.

In 2022, politics informs more of our personal lives than ever before. And there’s an overwhelming understanding that partisanship—being affiliated with either the left or right, donkey or elephant, Democrat or Republican—is the name of the game.

But, as it turns out, there are plenty of people who occupy a political middle ground.

We penned American Ad Blocking Users’ Political Profile because we wanted to know how American ad blocking users, otherwise known as ad filterers—the 95% of users that have an ad blocker installed on their device but still consent to be served ads—fall on the red/blue divide.

We consulted the treasure trove of data that the GlobalWebIndex (GWI) keeps about online behavior. We examined voter affiliation, of course, but we also looked at reported values, demographic information, and the adjectives ad blocking users felt best described them.

And what we found is that, rather than being red or blue, ad filterers are…purple. This dynamic demographic doesn’t fit neatly into the Democrat or Republican box.

We’ve done a lot of deep digging into the ad blocking user profile in previous studies. In our last study, looked at the main—and auxiliary—reasons they block ads. In the previous study, we examined how and why ad filterers have such unsurpassed purchasing power and online activity. And, in our first report, we peered into why ad filterers lead the pack in terms of brand discovery and their appetite for digital content.

Interested in learning more about the motivations behind ad blocking? Just fill out the contact form below and American Ad Blocking Users’ Political Profile will be emailed to you—free of charge, of course.

Please fill in the contact form below and the report will be sent to you.

How ambitious are American ad filterers?

Posted on by AAX Team

We know that the average American ad filterer—ad filterer being the term used to describe a user who has an ad blocker installed on their device but still consents to be served ads—is successful.

This is a demographic, after all, that is more educated than average, has the disposable income to make significant purchases online as well as small ones, and takes on professional and leadership roles at work.

But despite all this success, ad filterers don’t seem content to rest on their laurels.

We took a look at how ad filterers describe themselves, as part of a larger project of understanding the political profile of American ad blocking user.

And, although ad filterers don’t describe themselves as affluent, they do describe themselves in terms of ambition. More than 40% self-identify as “ambitious.”

That ambition may or may not extend to wanting cold, hard, cash, however. Fewer than 1⁄4 of ad filterers describe themselves as “money driven.” Another interesting wrinkle: almost exactly the same percentage of ad filterers describe themselves as “traditional” as describe themselves as “ambitious.”

Who describes themselves as ambitious?

When looking at the descriptors that people employ to describe themselves, it’s vital to realize one particular thing about human nature: people are more likely to refer to themselves using words they have positive connotations with.

Just as we tend to choose flattering light and angles that minimize double chins when we take selfies, we pick words that we think will portray ourselves in the best possible manner, even to complete strangers asking the question “How would you describe yourself?”

And when it comes to descriptors like “ambitious” and “money-driven,” well…let’s just say that those words can be more than a little fraught.

Just take a look at a recent Harvard Business School article that asks the question, “How ambitious should you be?” In this piece, a committee chair in charge of hiring ruminates on the fact that it’s easy for people to dismiss you as too ambitious or not ambitious enough and it’s very hard for someone to hit the perfect, Baby-Bear’s-porridge-in-Goldilocks spot of just right.

The pitfalls of having too much or too little ambition are very real, the author of the piece states:

In excess, ambition damages reputations, relationships, and can lead to catastrophic failure. On the other hand, too little ambition can make the person in question look lazy and unmotivated. Further, it can result in mediocre performance, boredom, and a bleak sense of futility.

But how does someone go about finding the sweet spot that occurs halfway between these two extremes? Unfortunately, there’s no real roadmap. And that leads to people tending towards whichever option seems like the lesser of two evils. Is it better to be viewed as someone who might “damage reputations and relationships,” i.e. someone with too much ambition? Or is it better to risk being seen as lazy and unmotivated, i.e. someone with too little ambition?

The answer, as it turns out, depends a lot on your gender. According to a recent Forbes article,

the majority of women consider themselves to be ambitious, but only three in 10 (31%) overall say they are proud to call themselves “ambitious.” Their preferred euphemisms are motivated or confident.

The takeaway, we at AAX believe, is that the ad filtering demographic would be a lot more likely to define itself as “ambitious” if ambition were an attribute that more Americans felt comfortable with.

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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.

How free-spirited are ad filterers?

Posted on by AAX Team

No deep dive into the values and politics of American ad filterers—the name given to the 95% of people who use an ad blocker but still consent to be served ads—would be complete without asking ad filterers how they perceive a very special and specific demographic.

Themselves.

We looked at who ad filterers see when they look in the mirror, because one of the most interesting indicators of political affiliation has to do with how voters see themselves.

So what does their reflection look like? Are they artistic? Successful? Family-oriented? Self-perception can go a long way toward forming political allegiances.

We looked first at descriptors that can be grouped under the umbrella term “Bohemian.” And, when it comes to ad filterers, these free-thinkers love creativity, adventure, and keeping an open mind.

Or to be more precise: almost 3⁄4 say that they’re known for being open-minded, more than half describe themselves as bursting with creativity, and slightly less than half are adventure-seekers.

The voting pattern of free spirits

But what does it mean to self-identify as a free spirit? Which party attracts members that think of themselves as having Bohemian qualities?

It’s an interesting question, and to answer it fully we have to look at two questions: how partisans view themselves, and how they view each other. In other words: how do people who dependably vote Democrat/Republican view other members of their party…and how do they view members of the opposite party?

According to Pew Research, when Republicans were asked to describe fellow Republicans, 42% answered that “Republicans are more open-minded compared to other Americans.” And when Democrats were asked to describe fellow Democrats, 70% answered that “Democrats are more open-minded” compared to other Americans.”

This would suggest that open-mindedness is a quality that’s highly-prized by Democrats, and slightly less a priority for Republicans. This also would suggest that ad-blocking users, 73.4% of whom feel described by the adjective “open-minded” would be more likely to vote Democrat than Republican.

But things get a little more complicated when you realize how Democrats and Republicans view each other. The open-mindedness gap closes somewhat.

When asked “Is the other party a lot/somewhat more close-minded compared to other Americans,” both Republicans and Democrats pointed fingers. 64% of Republicans said that Democrats were more close-minded than other Americans, and 74% of Democrats said that Republicans were more close-minded than other Americans.

This suggests that both Democrats and Republicans view close-mindedness as an undesirable trait. From that we can infer that, when asked, members of both parties might opt to self-identify as “open-minded.”

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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.

What lifestyle choices do ad filterers make?

Posted on by AAX Team

We know that American ad filterers are a highly educated bunch of people. We know they tend, on average, to be younger and more committed to be open-minded than other demographics. We even know where they like to live—like many former city-dwellers hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve moved to suburbia.

But what about the lifestyle choices that define the day-to-day for ad filterers, the 95% of users who have an ad blocker installed on their device but consent to be served respectful, unobtrusive ads? We wanted to take a look at how these users view themselves, what adjectives they choose to express their identity.

The first thing we learned was a little surprising, especially for a demographic that makes a higher-than-average income and loves to spend its hard-earned cash on any number of items both big and small.

But few (a mere 12%) of ad filterers actually refer to themselves as “affluent.”

Who Defines Affluence?

Why does the ad filtering demographic, which is so high-achieving and high earning, fail to recognize itself as affluent? The answer might just lie in psychology.

According to Business Insider, very few people who are rich…think that they’re rich. Only 13% of millionaires would refer to themselves as “wealthy,” according to BI findings. And according to Charles Schwab’s 2019 Modern Wealth Survey “on average, Americans think it takes $2.3 million in the bank to be wealthy.”

…which seems like a lot.

But this plays into something more interesting: the fact that the feeling of wealth can exist independent from money. Some respondents making less than $50,000 report feeling affluent, and some respondents making over $100,000 reported feeling poor.

A lot of this has to do with location, location, location…and how much that location costs. An annual income of $75,000 means something different in San Francisco than it does in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In San Francisco the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,895. In Little Rock, Arkansas the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $746. And the difference extends beyond just rent: in San Francisco, for example, a liter of milk costs $1.40; in Little Rock, it costs $0.92.

So location could be the root of the reason that ad filterers tend not to view themselves as affluent—since they tend to live in larger cities and the suburbs of larger cities, they might be constrained by the higher cost of living that exists within these places.

Fashion and Health

Even though we know that ad filterers spend time and money on fashion, only 1/5 of ad filterers describe themselves as “fashion conscious.” It’s unclear whether this 22.3% of ad filterers care more about the clothes that they themselves wear, of if they’re just preoccupied with trend-spotting and reading Vogue.

When it comes to health, however, things are different. Almost half of ad filterers are happy to describe themselves as “health conscious.” We think that this has to do with how health consciousness is valued in American society. Bragging about wealth and confessing to being committed to charting runway fashions isn’t always seen as a positive attribute—these are the kinds of things that people might be tempted to downplay.

But with the rise in wellness culture, more and more people are vocally interested in staying healthy. The 44.8% of ad filterers who describe themselves as health conscious are boosted by a society that prizes the virtues of health above trends…and wealth.

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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.

Ad Blocking Users and Traditional Values

Posted on by AAX Team

When people talk about “values” and “values voters,” they’re often referring to values surrounding tradition: carrying on the attitudes of previous generations when it comes to gender roles, faith, outlook, and financial stability.

So to understand the relationship that American ad filterers— the 95% of users that choose to run an ad blocker but have also consented to see ad—have to so-called “traditional values,” we looked at the question posed by GlobalWebIndex (GWI).

GWI asked ad filterers, “Which of the following is important to you?” about the following four categories:

    • Being financially secure
    • Having a positive attitude
    • Maintaining traditional gender roles
    • My faith/spirituality

So how do ad filterers fare? Are they keeping the traditions of their parents and grandparents alive, or seeking out new values?

74.6% of ad filterers value financial stability, and they’re almost as impassioned about having a positive attitude, with 73.4% responding that a positive attitude is important. They’re also interested in faith and spirituality: 43.6% respond that it’s a vital part of their lives.

But as far as gender goes, they’re forward-thinking. Only about 17.7% value maintaining traditional gender roles.

Traditional Roles + Political Roles

Of the categories responded to, the most consistently accurate gauge of political affiliation is answering “My faith/spirituality […] is important to me.” In general, faith and spirituality is more important to Republicans than Democrats.

According to Pew Research, a mere 9% of Republicans consider themselves “unaffiliated” with any particular religion. But does that mean that the 43.6% of ad filterers who replied “My faith/spirituality is important to me,” most likely vote Republican?

Not quite.

As it turns out, the percentage of religiously unaffiliated Democrats isn’t remarkably higher: only 14% of Democrats consider themselves either “Atheist,” “Agnostic” or believe in “Nothing in particular.”

This shows something we’ve observed throughout the analysis of this study: even the trends and values that end up being mostly strongly correlated with one half of the voting public affect the other half of the voting public significantly.

When it comes to values of all sorts—those that can be best described as traditional, those that signal selflessness and altruism, and even those that indicate strong ambition and hunger for success—we’ve learned that stated values don’t necessarily correspond with voting practices.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zQ7RoPlLnUY_XSIKGlACZFv64OM67WmHKo568juTF9c/edit#gid=788261264We take that as an indication of a few things: that American ad filterers are an eclectic group, who feel that a number of aspects in their lives are all worthy of value, that values exist independent of political parties, and that certain values are considered important across the board, whether you count yourself as Democrat, Republican, or independent.

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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.

Are Ad Blocking Users Success-Driven?

Posted on by AAX Team

When we talk about values, and how these values impact and inspire voting habits and political affiliation in any given demographic, we’re usually talking about selfless, altruistic values like building community, helping others before yourself, and helping the environment. (Interested in learning more? We talked a lot about these values and their relationship to political leanings in a recent post!)

But values are about more than helping others. Sometimes, they’re about helping yourself get ahead.

Values that revolve around success and self-interest motivate American ad filterers— the 95% of users that choose to run an ad blocker but have also consented to see ad—and reveal a striking fact: ad filterers are motivated to improve their lives and livelihoods.

In particular, ad filterers have a thirst for knowledge. They never want to stop learning. More than 2/3 of American ad filterers are inspired to keep acquiring new skills, answering affirmatively that “Learning new skills is important to me.”

They’re also interested in being successful (59%) and in challenging themselves (57.4%). But notably, they’re not in it for the attention: only 15% of ad filterers value “standing out in a crowd.”

So what inferences can we draw from this data?

How Do Republicans and Democrats View Success?

The definition of “success” varies depending on who you ask—as do the meanings behind “challenging yourself” and “learning new skills.” We turned to Pew Research for a little more information on what values, and what the definitions of personal challenge, skills, and success, might mean for Democrats and Republicans.

And we found that similar groups of values are at the core of both Democrats and Republicans’ list of what gives meaning to life.

These are listed as “material well-being, stability, and quality of life,” and “occupation and career,” by Pew, and both rank 3rd and 4th (out of a total of 5) for people across the political spectrum. (Source)

When asked which values gave life meaning, 21% of Democrats answered, “material well-being, stability, and quality of life,” placing it as the 3rd most important cluster of values. 19% of Democrats answered, “occupation and career,” meaning it ranked in 4th place.

Interestingly, these categories were ranked identically by Republicans. 17% of Republican voters felt that “material well-being, stability, and quality of life” gave meaning to their lives, and 17% of Republican voters felt “occupation and career” did.

We know that slightly more American ad filterers vote Democrat than Republican—although many are undecided or vote independent as well—so this data isn’t altogether surprising. Slightly more than half of ad filterers find success-driven values, a value set deemed marginally more vital for giving meaning to life by Democrats than by Republicans, “important to me.”

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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.

How Selfless Are Ad Blocking Users?

Posted on by AAX Team

Politics isn’t just about Democrat vs. Republican.

Political decisions are predominantly values-based, especially among undecided voters, voters considering a change in political party allegiance, or voters that don’t have a strong tradition of voting one way or another.

That’s why AAX wanted to look into the nuances of the values that ad filterers, the 95% of users that choose to run an ad blocker but have also consented to see ads.

We took a look at some of the altruistic values that ad filterers hold. It’s an interesting split:
more than half of ad filterers are concerned about helping others and helping the environment, and less than half are concerned with feeling accepted and contributing to their immediate community.

The question was phrased in terms of importance: which of the following things are important to you. The possible categories?

    • Contributing to my community

    • Feeling accepted by others

    • Helping others before myself

    • Helping the environment

The last two categories saw positive response rates of 56.1% and 54.5%, respectively. The first two sections? 46% and 37.6%.

Is Altruism Politicized?

And, although finding these altruistic values important doesn’t necessarily correlate with voting either Democrat or Republican, there is a link between several of these stated values and an overall pattern of party allegiance.

For example, as stated by Pew Research, “trust in climate scientists is low among Republicans; considerably higher among liberal Democrats.” Belief in climate change is similarly politically charged: only 15% of conservative and 34% of moderate Republicans believe that “Earth is warming due to human activity,” whereas 63% of moderate Democrats and 79% of liberal Democrats believe the same. (Source)

Altruism, it seems, runs the gamut, from being seemingly universal and unconnected to any particular political party or affiliation to being deeply politicized and particularly attached to allegiance to either Democrats or Republicans.

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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.

Ad filterers: an educated demographic

Posted on by AAX Team

Education levels among ad filterers, or the 95% of users that have an ad blocker installed but also consent to be served respectful, non-intrusive ads, is something we’ve examined in the past.

And here’s what we found:

Whereas only 23.3% of non- ad blocking users held a university degree, and only 4.9% held a postgraduate degree, an impressive 27% of ad blockers held a university degree and 11.7% of ad filterers had a Masters or higher. (Source)

But that doesn’t mean that, within ad filterers as a demographic whole, there isn’t a range of education levels. Approximately 60% have either a high school degree or some amount of college education, and more than a quarter hold a university degree. The only outlier is high school: only 0.9% percent of ad filterers fail to graduate.
In light of the global upheaval caused by COVID, which saw bedrooms become studies, Zoom grids replace seminar rooms, and graduation ceremonies take place online, we thought that the subject of education among ad filterers required a updated, closer look.

And we noticed in interesting trend: ad filterers are still a highly educated bunch, with a higher percentage holding a university degree than previously.

A scant 1.2% of ad filterers only completed schooling up until age 16. A full 28.2% had finished school at age 18—the average age to finish high school and receive a diploma.

A lot of ad filterers had even more education, with 25.7 graduating technical school or completing “some college.”

And 29.3% had completed a university degree (meaning a Bachelors’) and 15.6% received a postgraduate degree, or an MA/PhD. That’s a significantly larger percentage than in the recent past, and represents a jump of 2.3 percentage points and 3.9 percentage points, respectively.

Education and politics

According to recent Pew Research, people with post-graduate degrees are considerably more likely to consider themselves Democrat than Republican, and slightly more likely to consider themselves Democrat if they’ve received some college or a university degree.

Democrats lead by 22 points (57%-35%) in leaned party identification among adults with post-graduate degrees. The Democrats’ edge is narrower among those with college degrees or some post-graduate experience (49%-42%), and those with less education (47%-39%).

This suggests, again, that the highly educated ad filterer demographic is more likely to skew Democrat than Republican. But only slightly.

After all, the majority of ad blocking users have “some college” or a Bachelor’s degree—a demographic that, according to Pew Research, is less strictly committed to voting Democrat than those with postgrad degrees, and more evenly split along party affiliation lines.

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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.

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.