The state of mobile advertising is one of contrasts and imbalances according to Opera Mediaworks’ end of year report. It presents data drawn from 18,000 sites and 800 million users globally. The company also says its network represents 90 percent of top AdAge global advertisers.
In the past few years mobile advertising around the globe has picked up considerably. However the US market still dominates traffic and revenues generated. According to Opera’s data the US is followed by APAC and then Europe.
No imbalance there.
The first of the reported imbalances is the gap between category traffic (mobile sites and apps) and ad revenues. Social networking overwhelmingly dominates traffic but doesn’t command commensurate ad revenues. Music, Video & Media and Games lead advertising revenue, though social isn’t that far behind.
In the near term (next 6 months) I would expect the gap between social media traffic and revenues to close. Facebook’s recent earnings suggest that its mobile advertising momentum will continue to grow and mobile advertising on Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and others will gain as well.
Apple’s devices have lost share relative to Android (more than 1 billion units shipped in 2014). On a global basis Android now generates roughly 63 percent of the impressions on the sites/apps in the Opera Mediaworks network, while iOS is responsible for 27 percent. That means that Apple devices are driving less than half the traffic of Android devices around the world.
But that traffic is worth more.
Despite Android’s massive global impressions lead, iOS generated 52 percent of ad revenues vs. 41 percent for Android in 2014 on a global basis. Android ad revenues have grown steadily in accordance with its installed base of users. Apple’s revenues have been more stable or flatter as a percentage of overall revenue.
Comments