1 July 2016

Smaato charts effectiveness of mobile video ads in Q116

Source: Smaato website. Cover for the Q116 report on mobile ad trends.
Source: Smaato website.
Smaato, the global real-time advertising platform for mobile publishers and app developers, has released its Q1 2016 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising report. To identify the trends, Smaato analysed data from billions of mobile ad impressions served on its exchange during the first quarter of 2016.

The report shows strong growth for mobile video advertisements, delivering 11 times higher eCPMs (effective cost per thousand impressions) for publishers – a 1,042% uplift compared to any other ad format. Mobile video ads drive higher revenue when shown in-app versus in the mobile web, with iOS apps delivering almost 3x higher eCPMs over the mobile web.

In terms of app categories that deliver highest eCPMs: music saw a 54% eCPM uplift, followed by video and computer games (+38%), society (+29%) and then real estate (+15%). This makes intuitive sense, as people using apps in the arts and entertainment category are already being exposed to rich media (including sound), and mobile video ads may seem less invasive.

Additional findings:

  • Mobile ad spend grew 89% in Q1 year-over-year
  • Larger ad formats like interstitials (320x480 pixels in size) delivered triple the eCPM for publishers versus traditional banner ads (320x50).
  • As the world’s second largest advertising market, China saw a +1,198% rise in ad spending.
  • Countries that celebrated Chinese New Year - Greater China, Singapore, and places where there is a sizeable Chinese population - saw a 33% bump in pre-holiday mobile ad spending on average over their Asia Pacific neighbors who did not celebrate the holiday.

“Mobile video advertising is showing enormous growth potential, helping publishers to boost their monetisation efforts and advertisers to engage their target audiences better,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and co-founder of Smaato. “It’s very encouraging to see the continued overall strength of quarterly mobile ad spend growth, which is up 89% globally. I’m also impressed by the immunity of mobile ad spend to downward macroeconomic factors."


Interested?

Download the report