How to track ad block traffic in 5 minutes

Product

·

September 26, 2023

How to track ad block traffic in 5 minutes

Product

·

September 26, 2023

↑30%
increase in ad revenue
700M+
monetized pageviews
Better Ads Standards compliant

Ad blockers have exploded in usage over the last decade. The average ad block rate for website owners is 10 - 40%. With 10 - 40% of your online advertising revenue at stake, detecting ad blockers and tracking your exact ad block rate is crucial. Read on to discover what solutions can measure your adblock rate.

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are two popular tools for tracking adblocker users. But we received feedback from our customers on two major issues:

1. Inaccurate data

Most major ad blockers block Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. Consequently, their ad block detection, tracking, and measurement data are inaccurate.

2. Nonintuitive and overwhelming

Both Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics support ad block tracking, but neither comes “ready-made” with such a feature. Set up is manual, and while guide articles are available online, it can be overwhelming for marketers - especially when they’re busy tracking countless other metrics. Our customers needed a simple, easy method for their ad ops and marketers to track ad block metrics.

Ad-Shield Analytics

Ad-Shield Analytics is completely free and only takes 5 minutes to set up. We developed Ad-Shield Analytics to help publishers easily detect, track, and measure their ad block analytics. Our next-generation ad block recovery technology ensures our trackers are not being blocked and that the data is accurate. If you want to use Google Analytics with Ad-Shield Analytics, Ad-Shield Analytics can forward events to Google Analytics.

To get started, follow our step-by-step guide below.

Step 1: Create an Ad-Shield account

To create an Ad-Shield account, fill out a short form on our contact page. After verifying that your website is legitimate, we’ll promptly share a sign-up link.

Step 2: Insert ad block detection script into your website

As soon as your account is created, you’ll be provided with an ad block detection script.

To view the script, select “Adblock Recovery” from the Dashboard’s left-hand sidebar.

Insert the script into your website’s <head> The script must be inserted directly into your website. If you use Google Tag Manager to insert the script, your ad block data may be inaccurate because most ad blockers block Google Tag Manager.

Step 3: Detect, measure, and track your ad block stats in real-time

Select “Analytics” from the left-hand sidebar. Check real-time analytics for the following:

  • Adblock pageviews
  • Adblock ratio
  • Impressions
  • Publisher revenue
  • Total pageviews
  • CPM
  • Gross Revenue

(Optional) Step 4: Forward ad block users’ events to Google Analytics

If you want to track ad block users in Google Analytics, events from the Ad-Shield dashboard can be forwarded to your Google Analytics property.

Select “Website setting” from the left-hand sidebar. Input your Google Analytics API Secret (found here) and Measurement ID (found here).

After a few minutes, you’ll be able to see your ad block users’ events in Google Analytics.

Looking to recover your lost ad revenue?

Ad-Shield’s ad block recovery solution has been consistently recovering 90%+ of ad-blocked impressions for publishers across the globe. To find out how much revenue you’ve lost to ad blockers - and how much Ad-Shield can help you earn - check out our recovery calculator.

Joon Yu
Founder & CEO
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