Acceptable Ads are ads that comply with the Acceptable Ads Standard, which is defined by the independent Acceptable Ads Committee (AAC). The Standard is designed to protect the browsing experience of ad block users while providing publishers and content creators with meaningful opportunities to fund their work.

In 2023, following research involving ad block users in the United States, Germany and France, the AAC amended the Standard to permit certain forms of in-view ad refresh. Those rules took a deliberately cautious approach. They allow only one ad unit on a page to refresh, require the replacement ad to be the same size, and restrict the refreshing unit to the side rail beside the Primary Content.

The AAC has now conducted further research to determine whether those restrictions can be relaxed without negatively affecting users. Following its review of the results, the Committee has voted to approve a proposed amendment on a preliminary basis. In accordance with the AAC Bylaws, we are publishing the proposal and the underlying research for one month of public feedback before the Committee considers whether to give the amendment final approval.

Why the AAC revisited ad refresh

The AAC periodically revisits the Standard as technology, publishing practices, and user expectations evolve. Publishers had asked whether the existing ad refresh rules could be implemented more flexibly. The restrictions adopted in 2023 limited the number and placement of refreshing ads, created implementation complexity, and could reduce the additional revenue that refresh makes available.

That was a legitimate subject for further study. One of the AAC’s core responsibilities is to protect the user experience. Another is to ensure that the Standard provides meaningful value to publishers and content creators. A change should not be made merely because it increases revenue. But where a less restrictive implementation can create meaningful publisher value without causing a measurable deterioration in the user experience, the AAC should be prepared to consider it.

The earlier research also left important questions unanswered. Because panel-based studies require researchers to build and test individual mock browsing experiences, only a finite number of variations can be examined within reasonable time and resource constraints. The 2022 study did not fully test:

• multiple in-view ad units refreshing on the same page;
• replacement ads that differ in size from the ads they replace;
• refresh following an unsuccessful ad bid; or
• combinations of these features.

What the new research tested

During the month of May 2026, a controlled A/B experiment involving approximately 49.5 million Adblock Plus non-Premium users was undertaken to test different ad refresh implementations. Users were randomly assigned to five similarly sized groups of approximately 9.9 million users each:

• Control: The ad refresh experience currently permitted by the Standard (i.e. one in-view unit, the same ad size, and a side-rail placement).
• After Unfilled: An eligible placement could refresh following an unsuccessful ad bid, subject to the applicable minimum interval.
• Any Size: A replacement ad could differ in size from the ad it replaced, provided that it otherwise complied with the Standard.
• All In-View: Any eligible in-view units on a page could refresh, without being restricted to the side rail.
• All Features: All of the above features could be used in combination.

The applicable minimum interval remained 30 seconds on scrollable pages and 60 seconds on non-scrollable pages. All generally applicable Acceptable Ads requirements, including those governing distinction, size, placement, ad density and animation, continued to apply. The experiment generated more than 320 million aggregate page views. It measured strong behavioural signals (such as extension uninstalls, Acceptable Ads opt-outs and issue reports), a moderate engagement signal (page views per session), and publisher revenue. 

What the research found

The expanded implementations did not produce a meaningful deterioration in any measured user-experience signal (see: the research report itself for particular details).  Publisher revenue, however, saw a meaningful increase where All Features were implemented. Specifically, it resulted in a 16.5% increase in publisher revenue without exceeding any of the experiment’s user-experience thresholds.

Why the AAC considers this research appropriate

The AAC’s January 17, 2025 announcement regarding a more principle-based approach explained why the Committee must increasingly evaluate the overall effect of an ad experience rather than considering individual formats in isolation. The AAC’s Research Framework gives effect to that direction by recognizing both user-perception data, which tells us how users describe an experience, and user-behaviour data, which tells us how users respond in practice.

The 2022 panel study provides direct evidence of users’ perceptions of in-view ad refresh. The 2026 experiment builds on that foundation by measuring how users actually responded to expanded implementations in live browsing environments. Read together, the two studies provide complementary evidence: direct user perceptions, followed by large-scale observation of real user behaviour.

This approach also allowed the AAC to evaluate substantially more users, test several implementation variables efficiently, obtain results more quickly, and measure publisher value at the same time as user response. The Committee has therefore preliminarily determined that, when appropriate to the research question and supported by relevant prior or parallel user-perception evidence, properly designed A/B or multivariate behavioural testing can be an acceptable alternative to commissioning a new panel-based study.

The AAC is seeking public feedback on both that methodological determination and the proposed amendment described below.

The proposed change to the Standard

The current Standard provides:

07 In-view ad refresh

Refreshing ads are ads that replace the content of the existing ad unit with new ad content. Ad refreshes are permitted on desktop browsers, provided that:

• only a single ad unit on the page is refreshed;
• the refreshed ad is the same size as the ad that it replaced; and
• the refreshing ad unit is located in the side rail (i.e. beside the Primary Content).

In addition, only the following ad formats can be refreshed, at the stated frequency:

On a scrollable single-page (e.g. article): a 300×250 or 160×600 static banner ad or smaller, with a refresh rate of 30 seconds or longer.

On a non-scrollable single-page (e.g. game): a 300×250 or 160×600 static banner ad or smaller, with a refresh rate of 60 seconds, only if there are no other ads on the page.

The AAC proposes replacing that language with:

07 In-view ad refresh

Refreshing ads are ads that replace the content of an existing ad unit with new ad content. Ad refreshes are permitted on desktop browsers, provided that:

• each refreshing ad otherwise complies with all applicable requirements of the Acceptable Ads Standard, including requirements relating to distinction, placement, size, ad density and animation; and
• the refresh does not cause the Primary Content or other page content to move. Where a refreshed ad may differ in size from the ad it replaces, sufficient space must be reserved in advance to accommodate the refreshed ad.

On a scrollable single-page (e.g. article), an otherwise compliant ad may refresh after 30 seconds or longer.

On a non-scrollable single-page (e.g. game), an otherwise compliant ad may refresh after 60 seconds or longer.

User-action or event-based refresh triggers, including refresh following an unsuccessful ad bid, are permitted only when combined with the applicable minimum time interval above.

The proposed language would permit more than one eligible ad unit to refresh, remove the requirement that the replacement ad be the same size, remove the refresh-specific side-rail restriction, and allow any static ad that otherwise complies with the Standard to refresh. It would preserve the existing 30- and 60-second minimum intervals and all generally applicable requirements of the Standard.

Six-month probationary period

If the amendment receives final approval, it will be implemented on a probationary basis for six months. Approximately 90% of eligible traffic will receive the revised ad refresh experience, while 10% will remain subject to the current Standard as a control group.

Throughout that period, the AAC will monitor extension uninstalls, Acceptable Ads opt-outs, issue reports, available engagement measures, and other relevant user-experience signals. At the end of the six months, the AAC will review the evidence and determine, in accordance with its Bylaws, whether the amendment should remain in place or whether further action is required.

Ad refresh best practices

Ad refresh can affect not only users and publishers, but also advertisers, agencies and other participants in the advertising supply chain. The AAC is therefore also publishing a separate set of recommended Ad Refresh Best Practices. These recommendations address transparency, measurement, advertiser choice, inventory quality, layout stability, page visibility, refresh limits and page performance.

The best practices are not part of the Acceptable Ads Standard and are not mandatory conditions of compliance. Nevertheless, the AAC strongly encourages publishers and other industry participants to follow them to protect the user experience and the integrity and value of advertiser placements.

Have your say

We invite Acceptable Ads users and other interested stakeholders to review the full research report, the proposed Standard language and the Ad Refresh Best Practices, and provide feedback by submitting it to the president of the AAC, Terry Taouss, at info@acceptableads.com. The AAC will accept feedback for one month, ending on September 20, 2026, after which it will render a final decision on the proposal.