2016 Bile Ad
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M BILE AD BL CKING 2016 Ad blocking app installs just spiked 3x (here's what marketers need to know) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ADVERTISING AND PRIVACY HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY TOP-OF-MIND IN THE LAST YEAR. Recent data suggests that up to 70% of mobile users are either blocking ads or interested in blocking ads, and that a strong majority of smartphone owners are concerned about how advertisers monitor and track their digital behavior. What we’ve seen in surveying almost 4,000 smartphone owners in the U.S. and Europe confirms that interest in ad blocking and actual ad blocking on mobile is accelerating. Fast. In just the last three months, the growth rate of new users downloading and installing mobile ad blockers has more than tripled. Shockingly, if this recent accelerated growth rate of ad blocking growth were to continue, more than 80% of smartphone owners could be blocking ads by mid to late 2017. In spite of that massive growth, there is still a huge amount of confusion and uncertainty about what ad blockers do, how they operate, and whether or not they protect digital privacy in mobile environments. Consumers are confused, and so are publishers and marketers. In this report, we break down: What smartphone owners are saying Who is installing ad blockers Why smartphone owners are installing ad blockers What ad blocking does and how it works What limit ad tracking does and how it works What mobile platform players such as Google, Apple, and Facebook are doing How marketers should respond MOBILE AD BLOCKING 2016: AD BLOCKING APP INSTALLS JUST SPIKED 3X (HERE'S WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW) Executive Summary CONTENTS SHOCKING,. EXPLOSIVE. GROWTH. .1 . 25%. HAVE. DOWNLOADED. .AD . BLOCKING. .APPS . .1 . AD. BLOCKING. IS. ACCELERATING. FAST. .2 . IMPORTANT. NOTE:. DOWNLOADS. DO. .NOT . .EQUAL . .USAGE . .3 . WHO. IS. .INSTALLING . AD. .BLOCKERS? . 4. YOUNG. .VS . .OLD . .4 . MEN. .VS . .WOMEN . .5 . ANDROID. .VS . .IOS . .5 . USA. .VS . .EUROPE . .6 . TECHIES. .VS . .MUGGLES? . .7 . WHY SMARTPHONE OWNERS. .ARE . INSTALLING. .AD . BLOCKERS. 8. USER. .EXPERIENCE/PERFORMANCE . .8 . PRIVACY. .10 . DATA. USAGE. .11 . INSTALLS. .VS . .USAGE . 12. INSTALLATION. .IS . ONE. .THING; . .USAGE . ANOTHER. .12 . MOBILE. .WEB . VS. MOBILE. APP. .12 . SIGNIFICANT. .AND . .RECENT . RAMP-UP. .14 . NUMBER. .OF . AD. .BLOCKING . APPS. .GROWING . FAST. .16 . USAGE. AND. COMPLEXITY. .18 . MARKETERS:. WHAT. .TO . DO. 19. MARKETING. STILL. .EXISTS . .19 . ADVERTISING. .WILL . ADAPT. .19 . NATIVE. .ADVERTISING . IS. .GROWING . .20 . PATIENCE:. .THE . PENDULUM. IS. .SWINGING . .20 . GET. THE. .APP . RELATIONSHIP. .21 . APPENDIX. .22 . AD. BLOCKING. .22 . LIMITING. AD. TRACKING. .23 . MOBILE. .WEB . .23 . MOBILE. .APPS . .23 . A. NOTE. ABOUT. THE. .DATA . .23 . ABOUT. TUNE. .24 . AUTHOR JOHN KOETSIER @johnkoetsier John Koetsier is TUNE’s mobile economist. He studies, analyzes, and forecasts trends affecting the mobile ecosystem. MOBILE AD BLOCKING 2016: AD BLOCKING APP INSTALLS JUST SPIKED 3X (HERE'S WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW) Contents EXPLOSIVE GROWTH 25% HAVE DOWNLOADED AD BLOCKING APPS That’s likely a higher install rate than desktop ad blockers, particularly in the US, where actual usage of ad blockers was at 10% in 2012 and is currently somewhere between 10 to 20%, depending on whose numbers you trust most. (European and Asian desktop ad blocking is much higher, in the 20-30% range, and at least one American study, for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, placed ad blocking prevalence at 34% in the US in 2014.) Have you installed an ad blocking app? NOT SURE: NO: 21% ? 54.4% US/UK 2,141 US/UK 829 US & UK mobile users YES: 24.6% US/UK 969 As of January 2016, 25% of mobile users in the U.S. and UK have installed an app or browser that can block ads. (Total sample size: 3,939. No: 2,141; Yes: 969; Not sure: 829) The fact that 25% of mobile users report having downloaded an ad blocking app is significant, and an indicator of changing attitudes and behavior. Given that time spent on mobile is increasing and time spent on desktop is decreasing, this has to be a concerning development for both advertisers and publishers, who rely on ads to sell products and services, and to fund content development, respectively. MOBILE AD BLOCKING 2016: AD BLOCKING APP INSTALLS JUST SPIKED 3X (HERE'S WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW) 1 AD BLOCKING IS ACCELERATING FAST More concerning to both advertisers and publishers is that the number of people using ad blockers is growing, and growing fast. In fact, according to our data, the growth rate of ad blocking mobile users more than tripled in the last three months alone. While only 2.4% of our almost 4,000 respondents said that they installed an ad blocking app or browser in the previous 4-6 months, 7.8% said they had done so very recently (in either November or December 2015, or in January 2016). That’s a more than three-fold jump. Ad blocking app downloads: growing fast 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q4 2016 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Downloads of ad blocking apps and browsers have been growing fast in 2015 and early 2016. At the current rate, 80% of mobile users could have the capability of blocking mobile ads by late 2017.(Projections based on surveyed changes in 3,939 smartphone owners’ behavior from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016) MOBILE AD BLOCKING 2016: AD BLOCKING APP INSTALLS JUST SPIKED 3X (HERE'S WHAT MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW) 2 If growth rates in ad blocking continue as we’ve seen from Q2 2015 to January 2016, mobile ad blocking will not be a minority behavior for long. Far from it: mobile users who have installed ad blockers will be in the majority in late 2016, and breach the 80% benchmark in the third quarter of.