Ad Blockers and Ad Quality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Li, Jingyan; Zheng, Quan; Li, Shichang; Wu, Jie; Shi, Duo
• 署名单位: University of International Business & Economics; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Science & Technology of China, CAS; Anhui University; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
• 刊物名称: M&SOM-MANUFACTURING & SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1523-4614
• DOI: 10.1287/msom.2023.0377
• 发表日期: 2026

摘要

Problem definition: There has been a fierce debate among practitioners regarding ad blockers. On one hand, ad blockers are considered a serious threat to content platforms because advertising is a key revenue driver. On the other hand, people argue that ad blockers improve the advertising industry by pushing the creation of more attractive ads. This paper investigates the impact of ad blockers on a content platform when the advertiser's ad quality decision is taken into account. Methodology/results: We develop an analytical model with an advertiser, a content platform, and a mass of consumers. Consumer valuations of advertising involve three aspects: information value-the knowledge about product attributes, entertainment value-the engaging text/image/video included, and nuisance disvalue-the interruption caused during content consumption. The advertiser can invest in ad quality to enhance its ad's entertainment value. Consumers are classified into effective and ineffective types based on whether they derive information value and potentially purchase the advertised product. We identify two effects of ad blockers: the consumer screening effect filters out ineffective consumers who cannot generate revenue for the advertiser; the quality adjustment effect may induce the advertiser to improve ad quality to better serve effective consumers. As a result of these two effects, the presence of ad blockers can lead to a win-win-win outcome for all parties. This occurs if nuisance disvalue is high with intermediate information value or if nuisance disvalue is low and effective consumers are few. We further examine six extensions that reflect various industry structures and market microdynamics to demonstrate generalizability of the all-win outcome. Managerial implications: Advertisers and content platforms should manage ad blockers strategically, which possibly makes the system more efficient and benefits every stakeholder. Always opposing ad blockers is not the best solution, and permission should be given, particularly when the ad features a highly interruptive format (e.g., embedded videos) but provides consumers with some useful product knowledge, or when the audience contains few potential buyers and the ad format is mildly interruptive (e.g., texts only).