Only about 1 in 6 Canadians have ad blockers installed

Despite dire warnings about ad-blocking software's impact on advertising --publishers' main source of revenue -- a new study from IAB Canada, using comScore data, shows that only one in six Canadians (about 17%) have ad blocking installed on their desktops; and even fewer (6%) have it on their mobile devices. The highest usage of ad blockers (28%) is among millennial males.

"Interestingly, the study revealed that 13% of Canadians that had installed ad blocking software/apps at one point have actually disabled or deleted it from their system,The biggest motivators cited for uninstalling/no longer using ad blocking were the fact that the ad blockers didn’t work properly and that they interfered with site functionality."

The study found that Canadians overwhelmingly prefer free, ad-supported online content versus pay-for-content options. The preference was for less intrusive ad formats with skippable video ads and behaviorally-targeted ads getting the highest scores.

Downloadable study