An analysis of market data from real-time bidding auctions for mobile ad impressions reveals that advertisers devoted roughly three-quarters of their budgets to iOS devices during Q1 2013. The MoPub report [download page] reveals that iOS ads maintained a significant performance advantage throughout the quarter, as CTRs ranged from 20% to 53% higher on iPhones than Android phones, with iPads performing even better still.
Looking at ad spend share, the iPhone gradually ate up more spending, from 44.5% in January to 50.1% in March. The iPad saw its highest share in January (22.3%), itself rivaling Android’s 25.7% share, although the gap was wider in February and March.
Turning to CPMs, the iPad’s premium over the iPhone stood at about 30% throughout each month of Q1, while the iPhone’s premium over Android was at that level in January and February before jumping to 76% in March.
Separately, the report notes that the proportion of advertising spend devoted to rich media grew from 68.4% in January to 79.1% in March, as MRAID-supported ads continued to show a CPM and CTR premium over ads without MRAID. However, the impact of rich media was less than that of larger ad sizes in Q1: between January and March, ad spend share on the largest ads (480×320) grew by 214.7%, compared to a 12.9% decrease for the smallest units (320×50). During the period, CTRs for the largest ads also grew by 56.9%, compared to a 7% decline in performance among the smallest ads.
About the Data: MoPub Marketplace is the mobile ad exchange product of MoPub, where advertisers and their representatives can bid on ad inventory from thousands of smartphone application publishers. Over 230 Tier 1 brand advertisers, including 58 of the top 100 largest advertisers in the United States bid on inventory through MoPub’s efficient real-time market. Access is provided by 60 bidder platforms that are integrated into the exchange.
The data reflected above is solely representative of exchange-traded media on MoPub Marketplace and does not include any ad network or ad network mediation data. MoPub Marketplace suppliers are smartphone application publishers from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The data is representative of 45 billion monthly ad impressions across two dozen verticals.
