Ad Blocking Can Halve Loading Times, says Study

Ad block graphAd blockers can reduce the loading time of websites by as much as 43 per cent, according to a Catchpoint study.

While rendering time was largely unaffected, ads increased loading time across the four verticals tested. News sites were worst affected, taking an average of eight seconds to load – or just five seconds with an ad blocker enabled, a drop of 43 per cent, as the amount of data downloaded was cut nearly in half.

eCommerce sites saw a 23 per cent decrease in loading time when an ad blocker was enabled, and travel sites a 20 per cent decrease.

As well as being the fastest to load, with or without an ad blocking, banking sites were least affected. Ad blocking caused the loading time to decrease by just seven per cent – presumably because theyre the least likely to feature third-party ads.

The sites were tested using a Chrome browser on desktop, but mobile is just as guilty of bulky ad formats.