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The effect of ad blocking on website traffic and quality
Author(s) -
Shiller Benjamin,
Waldfogel Joel,
Ryan Johnny
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the rand journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.687
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1756-2171
pISSN - 0741-6261
DOI - 10.1111/1756-2171.12218
Subject(s) - blocking (statistics) , revenue , the internet , business , quality (philosophy) , computer science , point (geometry) , software , advertising , internet privacy , world wide web , computer network , finance , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , programming language , epistemology
Ad blocking software allows Internet users to obtain information without generating ad revenue for site owners, potentially undermining investments in content. We explore the impact of site‐level ad blocker usage on website quality, as inferred from traffic. We find that each additional percentage point of site visitors blocking ads reduces its traffic by 0.67% over 35 months. Impacted sites provide less content over time, providing corroboration for the mechanism. Effects on revenue are compounded; ad blocking reduces visits, and remaining visitors blocking ads do not generate revenue. We conclude that ad blocking poses a threat to the ad‐supported web.