Anecdotally, the number of people who have asked me about VPNs over the last 12 to 18 months has skyrocketed. I probably get a message a month from people of all backgrounds.
The average user isn't going out of their way to use ad block, at least globally. Last estimates I remember are still around only 30% of internet users using an ad blocker unfortunately. Ad blocker adoption is heavily skewed toward techies.
It's an even lower amount of people on mobile, where the 'average user' spends the majority of their time.
If you can get 30% of the population to boycott anything it’s not only significant but forces a response out of the group on the other side. You’re talking almost 1 in 3 people. Those are literally historic numbers.
Do you have any idea how much companies spend to increase their conversions by single digits?
That's probably more to do with the increasing popularity of China-style national firewalls/tracking (sorry, "age verification") than ads.
There is a boiling point for user tolerance when it comes to ads. Google has been pushing that needle deep into the red for years now.
