Tubemogul, the programmatic video ad buying platform, issued its latest quarterly report on mobile video viewing habits and found tablet users adopting the traditional primetime viewing habits of TV viewers.
The report shows smartphone and tablet video viewing habits are fairly consistent until evening. Beginning at 7 p.m., tablet usage escalates, peaking at 11 p.m. In fact, just over a quarter — 25.7 percent — of all tablet video views occur between 8 p.m. and midnight.
Tablet usage is similar across iPad and Android devices throughout the evening until 10 p.m.. Android tablet video views drop significantly after 10 p.m., while iPad usage actually rises sharply between 10 p.m. and midnight.
Interestingly, smartphone use follows the opposite trend. iPhone video views actually decline after 5 p.m., while Android video views increase in the evening and peak in primetime — following more closely with tablet usage. Over one-third of all views on Android phones occur between 8 p.m. and midnight.
Another peak viewing period on tablets is in the pre-work hours. Tablet video views spike around 8 a.m. before users settle into work.
Video views across devices are highest later in the week, when completion rates are also higher. Completion rates average 52% on weekends compared to 44% on weekdays. Monday through Wednesday are the slowest mobile video viewing days. Apple iOS users are most active on Saturday, while Android users view videos most heavily on Thursdays and Fridays.
Completion rate trends actually look quite different from the overall viewing habits. Completion rates rise around 4 a.m. and remain stable until the afternoon, when they drop precipitously between 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Completion rates do increase again in the evenings, peaking at 10 p.m. Still evening completion rates never rival those of daytime.
Mobile completion rates remain lower than desktop, ranging between 45-65 percent globally. In the U.S. mobile completion rates have risen 7.1 percent month-over-month.
Higher Pre-Roll CTR On Mobile Devices
Still, while completion rates may be lower than on desktop, click-through rates (CTR) for pre-roll ads are higher on mobile devices. Pre-roll mobile video ad CTRs in the U.S. hit 4.9 percent compared to just 0.6 percent on non-mobile devices.
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