MOBILE RESEARCH

Tiny Screen

Huge Results
Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance
1.15

0.07 %

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TINY SCREEN
MAXIMIZING MOBILE ADVERTISING PERFORMANCE
1.15%
1.4% CTR

HUGE RESULTS
The best time for mobile
Users are most likely to click mobile ads in the evening
0.8%

0.07%
0.0%

0:00

11:00am

Mobile banners

Standard banners

8:00pm

11:00pm

iOS

0.37%

The big Apple

Apples iOS has double the standard banner CTR performance of Android OS

Apple

Android

0.14%

Palm OS

0.09%

BlackBerry OS

0.07%

0.61%

More clicks than your PC

Mobile standard banners get nine times the CTR of browser banners

0.37%
0.40% CTR

The busy BlackBerry

Business oriented BlackBerry users are less likely to click on ads

0.20%

0.07%
Mobile standard banner Standard banner

0.00%

Apple

LG

Motorola

Samsung

HTC

Verizon

BlackBerry

Other

Click through rate

Served impressions

1.04%
CTR

Entertainment and Retail standout

Nearly all verticals outperform browser banners.

0.84%

0.73 %

0.58 %

0.47%
News/ Media

0.19%
Electronics

Entertainment

Retail

Financial

Travel

$ 2014

2550
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Doubling in three years

eMarketer expects mobile ad spending to double from 2011 to 2014

$ 2013 $ 2012

2037

1501

$ 2009

416

$ 2010

743

$ 2011

1102

Table of Contents
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Key Mobile Trends Reaching One of Every Three Consumers HTML5 iPad Ads at Your Fingertips Mobile Ads Outperform Browser Based Standard Ads You can beat the CTR, but can you beat the ROI? Handset PerformanceiPhone Leads the Way Retail and Entertainment with the Highest Performance The Evening Browse Conclusion

Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

Key Mobile Trends 1 2 3 4 5

Mobile ads deliver significantly higher Click Through Rate, as compared to browser banners.

7pm to midnight is the most effective time for mobile advertising, with the highest CTR.

The iPhone delivers the highest Click Through Rate, BlackBerry the lowest.

The CTR performance of Apples iOS is nearly double that of Android based phones.

The Retail and Entertainment verticals achieve the highest CTR.

Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

Reaching One of Every Three Consumers

Mobile display advertising, which until recently was regarded as experimental or only for advertisers on top of the innovation cur ve, has been gaining rmer ground as a mainstream channel. In the past year, MediaMind has seen more blue-chip advertisers allocate a portion of their budget to mobile, complementing their investment in the traditional display and search. The increasing popularity of smartphones, including Apples iPhone, has signicantly increased the reach of online display advertising among young and afuent consumers, one of advertisers most prized audiences. Today, according to comScore, 34.4% of US mobile phone owners and 28.8% of European mobile owners use their phone for online browsing and view mobile ads. Furthermore, the increasing market penetration of smartphones means that signicantly more devices are able to display banners ef fectively. According to eMarketer, by 2015, 43% of US mobile phones will be smartphones, up from 31% in 2011. Now that many of the technological barriers on mobile browsing have been lifted, industry analysts predict that spending on mobile advertising is going to increase signicantly. eMarketers analysts project that mobile ad spending will double from 2011 to 2014, amounting to more than $2.5 billion, or 7.5% of spending on online advertising.

Chart 1: US Mobile Ad Spending, 2009-2014

Note: Includes Display (Standard banner, Rich media and Video), Search and Messaging-based advertising. Source: eMarketer, Sep. 2010.

Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

HTML5 iPad ads at your fingertips

Tablets are an opportunity to take engagement to a new level, by adding touch to the visual stimuli. In the case of the iPad, advertisers need to leverage the power of HTML5 instead of Flash to create powerful visual ads. However, as shown by the Avatar DVD Release campaign, HTML5 ads on the iPad can be as sophisticated as Flash ads. In this innovative ad, Fox Home Entertainment allowed users to preview exclusive movie scenes and behind-the-scenes footage in a way that corresponds to the films augmented-reality-based plot. Using fingertips, users can drag and resize clips on top of the web pages content, taking advantage of the full screen of the iPad to convey the advertising message. The immersive trailer ads were produced in dual HTML5 formats for the iPad and Flash ads were created for Flash-enabled sites. To view the full ad, click here: http://bit.ly/AvatarDemo

Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

Mobile Ads Outperform Browser Based Standard Ads

They may be tiny, they may be new, but mobile ads trump browser based standard banners. A review of more than 230 million mobile impressions shows that users are more likely to click on mobile ads than on Standard Banners.

Chart 2: Cross Channel Campaign Performance by Ad Format

Note: Includes campaigns with at least one active mobile ad. Source: MediaMind Research, Q4 2010 - Q1 2011 North America.

The higher performance of mobile can be attributed to the technology innovation curve. New types of online advertising tend to achieve higher CTR that declines over time, once the technology becomes more widespread and mature.
The analysis used a sample of cross channel campaigns. These campaigns utilized both mobile and browser based banners, and therefore it is possible to compare similar creatives across channels to minimize skewing of results due to creative implementation. The analysis evaluated Click Through Rate (CTR), the only comparable metric between mobile and Standard formats. Overall, advertisers have achieved significantly higher response from mobile advertising as compared to more traditional display. Results show that for the same campaigns, mobile ads outperformed all other formats with a Click Through Rate of 0.61%, while the Standard Banners recorded a CTR of 0.07%.

Although mobile banners are relatively small and mobile browsing on some phones is still somewhat cumbersome, the high Click Through Rate (CTR) isnt the result of fat fingers. It can be attributed to the technology innovation curve. New types of online advertising tend to receive higher CTR that declines over time, once advertising technology becomes more widespread and mature. This phenomenon was also evident in the early days of browser based banners. Global performance data for Standard Banners show that CTR for Standard Banners declined from 0.15% in 2006 to 0.09% in 2010 (and to 0.07% in the US). The main reason for the decline is that the additional clicks that users were willing to make did not catch-up with the huge increase in impression volume during these years. Therefore, advertisers in 2006 enjoyed less crowded online advertising space, and were thus more likely to get clicks from userssimilar to the mobile display landscape today. Mobile banners arent just on top of the innovation curve, but also occupy a bigger portion of the screen relative to browser based banners. In many cases, there is only one banner on the page. Furthermore, people tend to browse with their phone closer to their eyes, unlike the screen of a laptop or a desktop. 7

Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

A study by InsightExpress also confirms that mobile banners outperform browser based banners for branding. InsightExpress compared the response of users who were exposed to browser based ads and mobile ads, and compared them to a control group of unexposed users to measure the brand impact of the ads.

Mobile banners occupy a bigger portion of the screen as compared to browser based banners. In many cases, there is only one banner on the page.

Chart 3: Mobiles Effect on Brand Metrics

Note: *Delta is defined as point difference between the exposed and the control groups. Source: InsightExpress, May 4, 2010. Cited from eMarketer.

Results show that mobile outperformed browser based banners across all brand metrics by a factor of three. Mobile can help advertisers to drive consumers through the purchase funnel even more effectively than larger browser-based banners.

Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

You can beat the CTR, but can you beat the ROI?
While the evidence shown here clearly demonstrates the higher effectiveness of mobile in CTR and branding performance, mobile advertising still carries higher costs, specifically when compared to Standard. Nevertheless, even when considering the incremental cost, mobile still delivers a higher return on investment (ROI). An analysis of a recent campaign served by MediaMind of a large global financial services firm that used a combination of Standard Banners, Rich Media and Mobile Banners shows that Mobile Banners achieved the lowest cost per click. Mobile ads commanded a higher CTR, as compared to their Rich Media and Standard counterparts, which was large enough to offset the higher cost of mobile media. In this campaign, mobile proved to be the most financially rewarding format in the media mix.

Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

Handset Performance iPhone Leads the Way

The iPhone leads the mobile advertising revolution. The touch screen and the enhanced browsing experience entice users to click more on banners, as can be seen by the higher CTR.

Chart 4: Performance by Manufacturer

Source: MediaMind Research, Q4 2010, North America.

An analysis of CTR and the proportion of impressions served by device reveal high variability between manufacturers. Apples iPhone and LG devices lead the pack in terms of CTR performance, although a relatively low proportion of impressions were served to LG devices. RIMs BlackBerry, which comes in second in terms of the proportion of impressions served, also commands the lowest CTR.

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Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

Chart 5: Performance by Operating System

Source: MediaMind ,Q4 2010 and Q2 2011, North America.

Similar analysis of performance by operating system shows that the performance of Apples iOS is nearly double that of Android based phones.

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Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

Retail and Entertainment with the Highest Performance

Nearly all verticals achieved a relatively high CTR of between 0.3% to 1.2%, which is higher than the benchmark for browser Standard Banners. Entertainment and Retail enjoy the highest mobile CTR, while Apparel and Government have the lowest CTR. Government has lower CTR performance also for browser based banners.

Chart 6: Performance by Vertical

Source: MediaMind ,Q4 2010 - Q2 2011, North America.

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Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

The Evening Browse

Mobile browsing habits are a whole different ball game when compared to traditional browsing. A large proportion of the browser based banners are viewed between 9am and 5pm, when people are at the office. An analysis of impressions served by hour shows that the most popular hours for mobile browsing tend to be early evening, between 7pm to 9pm, with elevated activity throughout the evening.

Chart 7: Mobile and Browser Ads Serving by Time of Day

12am

10am

11am

12pm

10pm

Source: MediaMind ,Q4 2010-Q1 2011, EST, North America.

Furthermore, an analysis of Click Through Rate by hour shows that performance is also above average between 7pm and midnight. CTR reaches its peak at 8pm. Serving ads in the evening can prove much more effective as compared to earlier in the day, and can reduce the cost per click of mobile.

11pm

1am

2am

3am

4am

5am

6am

7am

8am

9am

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

6pm

7pm

8pm

9pm

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Tiny Screen, Huge Results. Maximizing Mobile Advertising Performance

Chart 8 : CTR for Mobile and Browser Ads by Time of Day

Source: MediaMind ,Q4 2010-Q1 2011, EST, North America.

12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm

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Conclusion
Mobile is moving from the fringe to the mainstream, helped by the tailwind of higher performance and better ROI. Today, mobile ads reach one of every three consumers, and mobile spending is expected to double by 2014. As in the early days of browser based display, the innovation of mobile advertising elicits higher response from users. Mobile achieves the highest performance out of display ad formats for CTR, leaving Standard Banners in the dust. Mobile also outperforms browser based banners in branding performance. Evidence shows that browsing experience does affect users response to online mobile advertising. Apples iPhone achieves the highest CTR performance, while BlackBerry the lowest. The CTR performance of Apples iOS is nearly double that of Android based phones. Evenings tend to be most active, when it comes to online browsing and ad exposures. This is also the time when users tend to be most responsive to mobile display ads, commanding the highest CTR. With ever-expanding reach, higher performance, and evidence of better ROI than traditional display, mobile advertising can complement any display campaign. Dont let the tiny size fool you; mobile can yield huge results.

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