RESPONSES TO ANTI-ADBLOCK FILTERS: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS, INFLUENTIAL FACTORS, AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

Ignacio Redondo,Gloria Aznar

doi:10.3846/jbem.2020.13698

Abstract

Ad-supported websites face an increasing loss of monetizable ad impressions due to the rapid spread of adblockers, which allow users to get desired website content without unwanted advertising. As a countermeasure, many of these websites use anti-adblock filters, which detect adblock users and prevent their access to website content unless their adblockers are disabled. Users may certainly respond by disabling their adblockers but also by leaving the website or trying to bypass the anti-adblock filter. To better understand the choice among these responses, we propose a conceptual framework that combines psychological reactance theory along with uses and gratifications theory. We also hypothesize the influence of four user-related factors: (a) more positive (negative) attitudes toward online advertising encourage adblocker deactivation (website abandonment); (b) longer adblock usage experiences enable filter bypassing; (c) wider (narrower) scopes of online activities stimulate filter bypassing (website abandonment); and (d) greater online privacy concerns discourage adblocker deactivation. These hypotheses were supported by a survey conducted by the Spanish advertising industry, but the influence of breadth of online activities was negligible in practice. Our findings suggest the importance of improving attitudes toward online advertising, reducing online privacy concerns, and searching for alternative ways to monetize website visits.

Highlights

Adblockers are rapidly becoming popular as freely available and easy-to-use software tools that allow Internet users ( “netizens”) to avoid unwanted ad impressions during their browsing sessions, with a degree of effectiveness that no mechanical means has previously allowed in the realm of offline media (Redondo & Aznar, 2018)
From the standpoint of website managers, disabling the adblocker is the optimal response because it allows users to visit the website and generate monetizable ad impressions; leaving the website is the worst response because it means losing both the ad impressions and the website visitors; and bypassing the anti-adblock filter is a lukewarm response because it doesn’t generate ad impressions but keeps the visitors, who are part of the website audience and are reachable through alternative advertising formats
Recent studies have called for research on how to mitigate the imbalance that adblocking and anti-adblocking technologies have caused in the online advertising market (Aseri et al, 2020; Gordon et al, 2020). Within this vast and unexplored field of research, the present study focuses on the conflict that arises when adblock users try to access websites with anti-adblock filters, and it has a triple objective: (a) to deepen the theoretical understanding of the motives of netizens behind their responses to anti-adblock filters, (b) to identify some attitudinal and behavioral factors that drive netizens’ responses to anti-adblock filters, and (c) to discuss the management implications for online advertising stakeholders

Summary

Introduction

Adblockers are rapidly becoming popular as freely available and easy-to-use software tools that allow Internet users ( “netizens”) to avoid unwanted ad impressions during their browsing sessions, with a degree of effectiveness that no mechanical means has previously allowed in the realm of offline media (e.g., remote controls and video recorders with respect to television commercials) (Redondo & Aznar, 2018). In order to reduce the loss of ad impressions, many ad-supported websites are using anti-adblock filters to detect the presence of adblockers and prevent their users from accessing the website content unless such adblockers are disabled. These filters are double-edged swords that, depending on the responses by adblock users, can cause both an increase in ad impressions and a reduction in website visitors. From the standpoint of website managers, disabling the adblocker is the optimal response because it allows users to visit the website and generate monetizable ad impressions; leaving the website is the worst response because it means losing both the ad impressions and the website visitors; and bypassing the anti-adblock filter is a lukewarm response because it doesn’t generate ad impressions but keeps the visitors, who are part of the website audience and are reachable through alternative advertising formats

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion