We partnered with Proton to analyse 54,000 demographic profiles using 2025 ad auction data. The insights show that the gap in user value is much wider than most people imagine. While the average American generates $1,605 in annual ad revenue, the range is eye-opening.

Advertisers spend over $17,900 a year to reach a single corporate professional in Bozeman, MT. For a young father in Fort Smith, AR, that figure drops to just $31. That represents a 577x difference in the price of your attention.

The Metrics of Human Value

The data reveals that your worth isn’t a flat rate. It’s a shifting calculation based on your life stage and the hardware in your hand.

• The Device: Desktop users are worth 4.9x more than those on Android. An iPhone user is worth 2.7x more than an Android user. Advertisers treat your phone choice as a proxy for income and your readiness to spend.
• The Parent Trap: Non-parents are worth 17% more on average. Once the system flags you as a parent, your profile is shifted from $6 per-click wealth management ads to $2 per-click ads for preschools and minivans.
• The Age Peak: Your value to the auction peaks between ages 35 and 44. By age 65, your average value drops to $511 as you are reassigned to a narrower set of high-spend categories like Medicare supplements and pharmaceuticals.

The Geography of the Auction

Likewise, ad value is heavily dictated by your zip code. Google’s auction is driven by local service providers: lawyers, real estate agents, and financial planners, bidding against each other for local clicks.

In areas like Edmond, OK and Bozeman, MT, the density of high-value professional services drives up the bidding floor for every single resident.

The Cost of Digital Lock-in

The math explains why big tech is so focused on engagement. Over a decade, the average American represents roughly $16,050 in ad value. For high-value profiles, that number approaches $180,000.

Every cross product integration and every friction point that makes it hard to export your data is designed to protect this revenue. Most people would not knowingly hand a corporation hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetime just to process their email, but that is exactly what the current system is built to collect.

We worked on this analysis to shed light on the opaque mechanics of the ad economy. When a service is free, you are the asset being valued.

Read the full detailed article here: What is your data worth to Google?