Global real-time bidded (RTB) media inventory grew by 61% year-over-year in Q4 2012, per study results from Accordant Media. While a healthy rate of growth, that 61% increase represents a slowdown from Q3’s 88% year-over-year rise, Q2’s 128% surge, and Q1’s 120% jump. The Q4 slowdown can be largely attributed to a waning growth rate in North America (41% in Q4 versus 62% in Q3). In turn, that is due in large part to the US, which held 47% share of the global inventory. The US’s inventory grew by 76% in 2012 overall, compared to 101% growth globally. In Canada, meanwhile, supply surged in Q4 to its highest levels for the year.
Focusing on the North American market, the study finds that in Q4, cost-per-thousand impressions (CPMs) declined by 9% year-over-year, reversing Q3’s 2% rise. While edging up by 1% year-over-year, click-through rates were down 12% from Q3.
Other Findings:
- During the Q4 holiday season, CPMs grew by 20-30% beginning on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
- Mobile RTB’s performance was nearly 80% as productive as programmatic display tactics in Accordant’s cross-channel campaigns.
- Russia, Turkey, Poland and Mexico experienced the fastest RTB inventory growth of the largest 15 global markets.
About the Data: The Accordant Media report utilizes aggregated data sets to showcase year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter trends. During Q4, Accordant tapped 1,500 sites to drive 80% of its scale, and also used a long-tail of 475,000 sites to achieve incremental reach, with sites spanning display, video and mobile inventory on behalf of leading media agencies and in-house marketing teams.
