Apple's iOS most effective mobile advertising platform, report says
A recent study from Opera Software, makers of the popular Opera web browser, released a study on Friday quantifying advertising effectiveness across the gamut of mobile operating systems and found Apple's iOS to lead the pack.
According to the first edition of Opera's State of Mobile Advertising report, during the second quarter of 2012 iOS devices averaged an effective cost per mille (eCPM) of $2.85, managing to edge out handsets running Google's Android OS which came in second with an average $2.10 eCPM.
Marketing reports usually use the eCPM standard to measure the effectiveness of an ad or campaign by calculating ad impressions versus click-throughs.
The report looks at ad monetization from multiple perspectives within what the company calls the "ad delivery value chain" including devices, publishers, ad networks and advertisers.
As iOS and Android dominate the market, other platforms like RIM's BlackBerry and Nokia's now-defunct Symbian OS are left far behind with $0.64 eCPM and $0.59 eCPM, respectively. Coming in last among the branded platforms is Microsoft's Windows Phone which managed an eCPM of $0.20. The Java-based J2ME platform was combined with all other operating systems to average a $1.01 eCPM.
The results are unsurprising given the amount of marketshare owned by the two top mobile platforms, which equated to a combined 83 percent of the sector in the three months ending in May. Android continues to outnumber iPhones, however, and accounts for over half of the U.S. smartphone market.
Average eCPM by platform. | Source: Opera Software
Devices with larger screens with touch capabilites unsurprisingly performed better in the study while interactive ads saw more click-throughs than their static banner-type counterparts. Opera gave the example of ads built using HTML5 Canvas, which requires a mobile version of Safari 3.2 and Android 2.1 or higher to run.
Apple's iPhone garnered the highest amount of revenue for the quarter with a 43.54 percent share and also saw the most traffic with 29.88 percent. Following Apple's smartphone was all Android devices which together accounted for 26.56 percent of revenue and 24.43 percent of traffic.
The iPad stood out as the most profitable device and achieved the highest eCPM on Opera's network, averaging $3.96 which accounted for 14.26 percent of revenue and 6.86 of traffic.
Source: Opera Software
The U.S. came as the most lucrative country for ad publishers and joined forces with Canada to take a market-dominating 73 percent of all ad impressions. America's average eCPM came out to $1.98, slightly higher than the global average of $1.90.
Interestingly, the Business and Finance category of ads brings in the most revenue per impression and more than doubles profits from runner-up News and Information.
Opera Software's mobile ad platform serves over 9,000 customers worldwide and tallies more than 35 billion ad impressions per month. The company's network delivered some $240 million of revenue to mobile publishers in 2011.
According to the first edition of Opera's State of Mobile Advertising report, during the second quarter of 2012 iOS devices averaged an effective cost per mille (eCPM) of $2.85, managing to edge out handsets running Google's Android OS which came in second with an average $2.10 eCPM.
Marketing reports usually use the eCPM standard to measure the effectiveness of an ad or campaign by calculating ad impressions versus click-throughs.
The report looks at ad monetization from multiple perspectives within what the company calls the "ad delivery value chain" including devices, publishers, ad networks and advertisers.
As iOS and Android dominate the market, other platforms like RIM's BlackBerry and Nokia's now-defunct Symbian OS are left far behind with $0.64 eCPM and $0.59 eCPM, respectively. Coming in last among the branded platforms is Microsoft's Windows Phone which managed an eCPM of $0.20. The Java-based J2ME platform was combined with all other operating systems to average a $1.01 eCPM.
The results are unsurprising given the amount of marketshare owned by the two top mobile platforms, which equated to a combined 83 percent of the sector in the three months ending in May. Android continues to outnumber iPhones, however, and accounts for over half of the U.S. smartphone market.
Average eCPM by platform. | Source: Opera Software
Devices with larger screens with touch capabilites unsurprisingly performed better in the study while interactive ads saw more click-throughs than their static banner-type counterparts. Opera gave the example of ads built using HTML5 Canvas, which requires a mobile version of Safari 3.2 and Android 2.1 or higher to run.
Apple's iPhone garnered the highest amount of revenue for the quarter with a 43.54 percent share and also saw the most traffic with 29.88 percent. Following Apple's smartphone was all Android devices which together accounted for 26.56 percent of revenue and 24.43 percent of traffic.
The iPad stood out as the most profitable device and achieved the highest eCPM on Opera's network, averaging $3.96 which accounted for 14.26 percent of revenue and 6.86 of traffic.
Source: Opera Software
The U.S. came as the most lucrative country for ad publishers and joined forces with Canada to take a market-dominating 73 percent of all ad impressions. America's average eCPM came out to $1.98, slightly higher than the global average of $1.90.
Interestingly, the Business and Finance category of ads brings in the most revenue per impression and more than doubles profits from runner-up News and Information.
Opera Software's mobile ad platform serves over 9,000 customers worldwide and tallies more than 35 billion ad impressions per month. The company's network delivered some $240 million of revenue to mobile publishers in 2011.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Android is winning¡
Don't forget the "/s"...
Quote:
Originally Posted by muppetry
Not surprising. iSheep are obviously more susceptible to advertising.
You are so right because I, for one, am totally gullible, do not have a mind of my own and click on any ad that shows up on my screen¡
/sarcasm.
Interesting, since Google's main business is ads.
It would appear that Apple is beating them in their core competency.
Quote:
Originally Posted by muppetry
Not surprising. iSheep are obviously more susceptible to advertising.
I think it's just that iOS users actually spend money on things. You know, like . . . apps. That are made by people who are interested in providing a product in exchange for money. Because they'd like to eat. And because they have an expectation that they'd get something in return for all their work.
Weird, huh?
Well probably a combination of that and also the huge lead that iOS has in web traffic. Even if all other things were equal, if many more iOS users are seeing the ads then the click through rate will almost inevitably be higher.
Quote:
Originally Posted by muppetry
Well probably a combination of that and also the huge lead that iOS has in web traffic.
This is true.
I'd hope by now my use of the sarcmark (irony mark) would be well known.
Apple is beating them at attracting users who want smartphones to be smartphones. Note this is for iOS, not iAds. Google is clearly winning with mobile ads and the iOS paltform is where they most of their mobile ad revenue despite Android winning¡
I think that plays a part but I think what I said in the previous comment is most powerful reason. Most Android-based devices are not being used as smartphones and aren't being sold in the more wealthy nations. I think I saw a chart this week, perhaps by Horace Deidu, showing that the iPhone is dominating on the MNOs. Remember when some people said "Yeah, well, the iPhone sales are high on AT&T because it's the only carrier selling the it."
The main graphic shows "Android" vs "iPhone"… *sigh* there it is again. That inability to meaningfully differentiate between a platform (OS) and a device.
The second graphic with "iOS" summarized is the one that's the most meaningful. The breakout of the iPhone or iPad should be of secondary interest (and along with that, why not show something like the Samsung Galaxy S3 broken out? What are the numbers like on that phone vs the iPhone, a more valid comparison?)...
A recap of the platform performance:
iOS is outperforming Android significantly across the board, and doing so with a smaller overall market share. iOS has almost double the traffic (46% vs 24%) bringing 2.5 times the revenue (61% vs 26%) of Android, with a 20% higher eCPM ($2.49 vs $2.10).
That's the really stand out news here.
Can anyone explain how the iPad generates $3.96 and the iPhone generates $2.85, but iOS only averages $2.49?
Their numbers suggest that iOS devices other than the iPad and iPhone account for almost 10% of the total traffic. First, I find it hard to believe that iPod Touch amounts for 1.5 times the traffic of the iPad. Second, if you do the math, iPod Touch revenues would have to be under $0.10 for the iOS total to be correct (far lower than anything else out there except Windows Phone) which doesn't seem plausible.
I'm skeptical about believing much of anything from someone who can't even get the basic math right.
From those figures, the remaining unaccounted for 9.79% of traffic from iOS devices would have to have an eCPM of 0.36 to make that add up. I guess that would have to be iPods, but if there really is more traffic from iPods than iPads, why would they not explicitly list them? I agree - seems wrong.
I see that a delusional Android cult member has gotten everybody's goat with two short sentences. Why is that?
If you are referring to #3, I apologize for omitting the /s. Seemed obvious at the time, but, of course, was not.
Fandroids rule¡
Maybe they are accounting for Apple TV? It does run a version of iOS. As someone stated above, measure the entire platform. I'm not sure I'd subscribe to that theory though and I'm just throwing it out there.
Apple TV is a relatively tiny portion of the total - and when you look at the number of Apple TVs that access the Internet, the number is even smaller.
People really click on the adverts in free apps. I have only ever done so in error.
Maybe these are the people that made "pump and dump", nigerian 401s, etc., viable..
Sometimes I tap on the ads for iStuff. Like cases and such for example. I always wonder why this site predominantly features ads for android devices. I've only tapped on them occasionally, and mostly just to learn, no intent to purchase anything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610
Interesting, since Google's main business is ads.
It would appear that Apple is beating them in their core competency.
Which is interesting as to why Google alienated themselves from Apple.
They could have gone hand-in-hand with Apple down the yellow brick road right to the bank but instead decided to compete with Android.
Google could of had it all.