Publishers’ Toolkit: How to Detect Ad Blockers Efficiently in 2025

Tired of AdBlockers stripping away your revenue? Explore effective techniques to detect ad blockers and gain your lost ad revenue, and maintain the balance between the user experience and revenue generation.

While ad blockers enhance the browsing experience for users, they are an absolute nightmare for publishers as they take away a hefty chunk of revenue. We know how frustrating that can be, so we have found some ways through which you can detect ad blockers and earn back your lost revenue.

According to a report from Blockthrough 912 million internet users were using ad blockers while in Q2 2023 . That’s not it; In 2024, ad blockers caused a $54 billion loss in global advertising revenue, which is 8% of the total ad spend. 

In this blog, we’ll walk you through how ad blockers work, why it is necessary to detect ad blockers, effective techniques to spot them, and how to monetize your adblock inventory. 

How does AdBlocker work?

Users install Ad blockers in the form of plugins or browser extensions to disable ads on websites. Ad Blockers help users to avoid getting interrupted during their browsing journey. They function by breaking the communication between ad servers and the user’s web browser. Then, the ad blockers refer to a list of known ad servers and some pattern-watching rules to block ads appearing on the web page.

In simple words, ad blockers prevent ads from being displayed on the user’s webpage by blocking ad servers. The ad space on the website appears to be blank for users who have installed ad blockers on their web browsers.  

Adblockers get activated as soon as the web page loads and navigate the user’s webpage for ad scripts by ad servers, and then compare those scripts with the database. If any of the scripts in the database match the script of the user’s webpage, AdBlocker blocks the ads from being displayed on the webpage. 

How Can Publishers Detect Ad Blockers?

As a publisher, you might be generating decent revenue by running ads on your website. But you could make even more if ad blockers weren’t blocking ads.

This brings us to the topic of how publishers can detect ad blockers. There are a few known applications, plugins, and JavaScript codes available, using which a publisher can detect whether ads are being displayed on their site or not. Let’s explore:

Bait Content for the Ad Blockers

As the name suggests, this technique works by placing bait content on the webpages. It contains a hidden <div> which consists of an embedded ad script.  This content is impossible to detect by the user as it is as small as a pixel, but it appears as advertising content to the ad blockers. Once, the ad blocker examines and removes the bait content, the detection script is triggered, confirming that an ad blocker is being used on the web pages. 

Here is an example of bait content:

 <div id=”ad-container”>

 <script src=”https://example.com/ad-script.js”></script>

</div>

Through this code, you can create a fake ad container that will load an ad script. If the ad blocker recognises and blocks it, you can detect its presence easily. 

Bait content is an effective method to identify ad blockers and change your ad strategy accordingly. 

Publishers like Forbes and Business Insider are already using anti-ad-block methods.

Adpuhsup Ad Block Recovery

Since ad blockers can cause substantial revenue loss, Adpuhsup’s AdBlock recovery solution can help you by addressing the issues with our pro-user ad reinsertion technology. With this technology, publishers like you can regain the lost revenue without any negative impact on user experience. 

We combat aggressive ad blockers through acceptable ads guidelines, plus consent control for re-inserted ads, with the main aim to help publishers recover their lost revenue. 

“Adpushup provides ad-block recovery solutions that can help you recover 99% of your ad-blocked inventory without intrusive ads”

Get Started

Where are the Ad Blockers Located? 

There are several ways you can use to detect ad blockers and save your ad revenue. You can install plugins to detect page elements blocked by an ad blocker in your web page, or  try the following methods: 

Ad Block Detection Scripts

Anti-ad blocker technology is a business now. There are a lot of providers offering applications, plugins, and scripts for publishers to put on their websites. Many ad-block detection scripts are available online, which are easy to implement.

IAB Script

IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) is an advertising business organization. Their tech lab has designed an ad block detection script. According to IAB, the script is easy to implement.

You check the IAB GitHub page to access the detect ad-block script. The JavaScript (adblockDetector.js) has been tested on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari Browser. You can find the installation and implementation details on the GitHub page of the IAB.

DetectAdBlock

DetectAdBlock simplifies the process of ad blocker detection. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: It starts with creating a hidden ‘div’ section to a file called “ads.js” and placing it in the root directory of your website.

var e=document.createElement('div');
e.id='mnMzPGBywKre';
e.style.display='none';
document.body.appendChild(e);

Step 2: Now it’s time to place the ad block detection code in the HTML source code, just above the </body> tag. The purpose of this code is to detect if “ads.js” exists (ads are allowed) or not (ads are blocked).

<script src=”/ads.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
if(document.getElementById(‘mnMzPGBywKre’)){
 alert(‘Blocking Ads: No’);
} else {
 alert(‘Blocking Ads: Yes’);
}
</script>

After detection, you can add a message asking to disable the ad blocker to access the content.

F**kAdBlock

F**kAdBlock also provides a free ad blocker detection script. Publishers can check out the GitHub page for the code and steps to implement it. The code presented by F**kAdBlock is more formalized. There are function declarations for ad block detection and no ad block detection. And then function definition, respectively.

The script works perfectly for AdBlock and AdBlock Plus. Also, it supports multiple web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera). Here is an example of how to detect ad blockers using the F**kAdBlocker code.

Why Publishers Must Detect Adblockers?

Ad blockers are a nightmare for publishers. With over 42% of global internet users using ad blockers, publishers are beginning to worry about how this will affect their revenue in the future.

But ad blockers don’t affect all publishers equally. In order to calculate its effect, publishers need to know whether their visitors are using ad blockers or not.

Detecting ad blockers can provide insight into the revenue they are losing. Once that is known, publishers can work on measures to recover the lost revenue.

• So, how can a publisher detect an adblocker?
• Is ad blocker detection possible?
• What anti-ad blocker measures can publishers try?

Here are the answers.

If you detect ad blockers, you can ensure that the ads are only being shown to users who have not blocked them. This allows them to protect their revenue and maintain the financial sustainability of their website.

Additionally, having the ability to detect ad blockers allows website owners to identify which ads are being blocked and adjust their strategy accordingly.

It’s important for website owners to employ a method to detect adblocker that is both effective and user-friendly to avoid losing visitors due to a poor user experience.

What To Do After Ad Blocker is Detected?

MarketingDive reports that around 30% of publishers are using some form of anti-ad blocker technology. This means that publishers are aware of this technology, and they are ready to take their chances with anti-ad blocking methods.

After a publisher detects that a user has an ad blocker enabled on their browser, there are several actions that they can take:

1. Show Non-Intrusive Ads

Publishers can consider showing non-intrusive ads, such as text-based ads or sponsored content, that are less likely to be blocked by ad blockers.

2. Request Users to Disable Ad Blocker

The publisher can display a message to the user asking them to disable their ad blocker in order to access the content on the website.

Publishers such as Forbes and Business Insider also display anti-ad blocker messages once they detect ad blockers. In order to access the content, the user needs to disable the ad blocker. And according to data, half of the users agree to disable their ad blocker to view the content.

3. Improve Ad Relevance

Showing relevant and interesting ads to the user may reduce the use of ad blockers as users may not feel the need to block them. In fact, according to Think with Google, viewers are 3X more likely to pay attention to ads that are relevant to them or feature people like them. Most of all, the audience will find the ads non-intrusive or annoying.

4. Improve Website Speed

Publishers can improve website speed to reduce the use of ad blockers, as slow-loading ads often cause users to use them.

Ultimately, it’s important for publishers to strike a balance between protecting their revenue and providing a positive user experience. They should carefully consider the options and the potential impact on their audience before deciding on a course of action.

How to Monetize in the Post-Adblock World

It can be beneficial for some publishers to look for an alternative rather than going for anti-ad block technology. Here are some methods to start with:

Adblock Recovery

Ad reinsertion technology has been in the market for quite some time now. Using this technology, the publisher can recover revenue lost to ad blockers without hurting the user experience. The idea is to serve acceptable ads to browsers actively using an ad blocker. However, ad reinsertion requires your ad tech partners to be whitelisted by the ad blocker creator.

Native Advertising

Native advertising is hard to detect with adblockers. This is due to the fact that native advertising blends with the webpage and its content. Have you noticed ‘sponsored’ posts on Facebook? These are native ads. Many magazines and news platforms are now also opting for native ads. One thing to keep in mind here is that native ads are hard to detect with ad blockers. But they are not impossible to detect and block.

Offer ‘Ad Free’ Subscriptions

This can be a good idea for publishers with rich content sites. Bloggers in the news and magazine niche have no product to sell, meaning that their content is their product. They make money by displaying ads. If visitors start using ad blockers, they notice a major drop in revenue. In such a case, creating an ‘ad free’ subscription for users can work well. This method is popular with mobile applications where the app publisher pitches the subscription by promising no ads.

Ask Nicely

If you detect ad blockers, requesting users to disable their ad blockers can work. You can explain that display ads are important for your business. Explain your ad policy and reassure the user that you are not going to overwhelm them with loads of ads. In doing so, publishers can hope that their loyal users will disable the ad blocker and allow ads to be displayed on their web page.

Key Takeaways (Quick Summary)

• 40% of internet users use Ad blockers globally, which has led to the loss of billions of ad revenue for publishers every year. 
• Ad blockers can disrupt website UI because they sometimes misidentify plugins or widgets as ads. It impacts the overall user experience. 
• Bait Content is a great method to detect ad blockers. Publishers can embed bait content in disguised scripts and monitor them to detect ad blockers.
• Ad Block detection scripts like IAB. DetectAdBlock and F**ckAdblock can detect ad blockers very easily.
• Adpushup’s Adrecover allow the publishers to regain lost ad revenue through pro-user insertion technology without disturbing the user experience throughout the website.
• To combat ad blockers, publishers can use Non-intrusive and relevant ads. These ads are widely accepted by users, increase engagement and reduce ad fatigue.
• Detecting Ad Blockers allows publishers to adjust their ad stack and ad inventory to recover lost revenue and ensure the authority of their website. 

Frequently Asked Questions

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