1. business and industrial
2. advertising and marketing
3. advertising

Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
INSIGHTS FROM OPERA MEDIAWORKS
The first mobile ad platform built for brands, delivering breakthrough marketing at scale
90% of the top
850 million+
Over 18,000
AD AGE GLOBAL ADVERTISERS
UNIQUE USERS
SITES AND APPLICATIONS
HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2015
Android leads in traffic and
revenue generation,
but iOS and tablets
lead in monetization
www.operamediaworks.com
Social Networking leads all media
categories for impression volume
and revenue generation
Asia, Americas and Africa
show strong growth
[email protected]
Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
Android is global leader for traffic and revenue, but iOS and tablets
are tops for monetization
Traffic and revenue share by device OS
One year ago, in the first quarter of 2014, we witnessed a key
moment in mobile advertising: Android overtook iOS as the
top platform for traffic, as measured by mobile ad impressions
served. Now, in the first quarter of 2015, Android continues to
dominate the market, with a 65.2% share of impressions – a
nudge higher than the 62.7% of Q4 2014, but a big push up
from its 42.8% share of one year ago.
Now, Android is starting off the year by setting another
benchmark. For the first time since we started The State of
Mobile Advertising report in 2012, Android is leading revenue
generation across our platform, albeit by only a fraction of a
percentage point.
OS / device
% of traffic
% of revenue
Android
65.17%
45.77%
Phone
62.45%
42.46%
Tablet
2.72%
22.34%
45.44%
iOS
iPhone
iPad
17.22%
3.99%
3.31%
27.29%
17.45%
iPod
1.14%
0.69%
BlackBerry
1.87%
1.96%
Symbian
3.99%
1.27%
Windows
0.16%
0.09%
Other
6.46%
5.48%
Traffic & revenue share by OS
Traffic
Revenue
Android
iOS
Other
Symbian
BlackBerry
Windows Phone
65.17%
45.77%
22.34%
45.44%
6.46%
5.48%
3.99%
1.27%
1.87%
1.96%
0.16%
0.09%
Video and rich media
Looking at how video ads
perform on each of the two
major mobile operating systems,
we found that iOS outperforms
Android for both percentage of
impressions served and revenue.
Apple device users also have a
significantly higher completion
rate than Android users (87.2%
vs. 76.7%).
Impression share and completion rates, by mobile OS
100%
90%
80%
87.15%
76.72%
70%
60%
62.69%
56.57%
50%
40%
30%
42.84%
36.23%
20%
10%
0%
Android
% of impressions
www.operamediaworks.com
iOS
% of revenue
Completion rate
p.2
Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
However, in terms of monetization potential (the ratio of revenue to impressions), iOS still leads among all
device platforms. The iPad generates the highest revenue per impression of any device / platform
combination; in fact, its monetization share in Q1 was over 4X that of its traffic volume. Android tablets
are making headway, too, as revenue increased this quarter now to be just over par with their traffic
volume. Look for Android tablets to continue this trend over the coming months.
Ratio of share of revenue to share
of impressions served (:1)
5:1
4.38
4:1
3:1
2:1
1.59
1.21
1:1
0.68
0
Android tablet
iPad
Android phones
iPhones
It’s important to note that iOS devices reach higher monetization levels, primarily because those devices
have a larger market share in regions where advertising rates are higher, such as Western Europe and the
United States.
Impression share by OS, global comparison
US & EU5
(UK, GE, SP, IT, FR)
Rest of world
0%
10%
other
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20%
iOS
30%
40%
50%
60%
Android
p.3
Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
Social sites, apps get most traffic – and are no. 1 for revenue
Social Networking apps continue to reign supreme in terms of total traffic across the Opera Mediaworks
platform, with a 30.2% share of impressions. Social Networking is also now our largest revenue producer,
taking over the leading spot from Music, Video & Media. The Games category is in the no. 2 position for
revenue, less than 0.15% behind Social Networking. Meanwhile, the Business, Finance & Investing
category continues to carry the highest-valued inventory, delivering the greatest revenue per impression.
Traffic and revenue to pubs / apps from brand advertising
Other
Business, Finance & Investing
Productivity
Sports
Shopping & App Stores
Arts & Entertainment
Games
News & Information
Communications Services
Music, Video & Media
Social Networking
0%
5%
10%
% of revenue
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
% of impressions
Video advertising is growing in popularity across a number of brand verticals. Movie & Television
Entertainment advertisers are the clear leader for use of video ads in their campaigns. Video ads are
also prominent in Food & Drink and Automotive campaigns.
Share of video brand ad impressions & revenue by brand vertical
Games
Sporting Goods
Computer and Electronics
Insurance
Automotive
Food & Drink
Movie & Television Entertainment
Other
0%
5%
% of revenue
www.operamediaworks.com
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
% of impressions
p.4
Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
The mobile ad market continues to globalize
Revenue and impressions are increasing across virtually all geographies, and this quarter’s traffic and
revenue analysis by geography revealed the ongoing globalization of the mobile advertising market.
While the United States is still the clear leader in terms of traffic and revenue generation, there is
significant expansion of mobile advertising in Asia, the Americas and Africa. This expansion inevitably
causes a relative decline in market share across both metrics for the United States and Europe, as seen in
the table, but we are seeing that those markets continue to grow in volume, too.
Top 25 countries
United States
India
Indonesia
Russian Federation
Mexico
United Kingdom
South Africa
Brazil
Canada
Argentina
Nigeria
Italy
Venezuela
Bangladesh
Australia
1.82% 0.71%
Pakistan
5.71%
Japan
Turkey
9.97%
42.76%
France
Germany
%
9.93%
Vietnam
impressions
Ukraine
Spain
29.09%
Philippines
Colombia
Q1 2014 to Q1 2015 growth rates
measured by impressions in the fastest-growing global markets
United States
Asia Pacific
Europe
Americas (non-U.S.)
Africa
Middle East
Oceania
70%
60.95%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
32.31%
18.79%
10%
0%
APAC
Americas
Africa
Compared to Q4 2014, very little changed in the top 25 countries, by ad impressions served. There were
two newcomers to the list (Columbia and Venezuela), while Malaysia and Saudi Arabia dropped off the
Top 25, as they slipped to no. 26 and no. 27 respectively – though less than .01% separates Columbia from
Saudi Arabia.
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p.5
Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
Video advertising ratios across 7 countries
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Video advertising is growing at a rapid rate
across multiple geographies, but there are
a few countries that are seeing far higher
use of the format than others. Looking at
the list of the top 25 countries on our
platform, we found, for instance, that the
U.S.s’ market share of video ads is 2.5X its
share of our total reach of users. In other
words, U.S. consumers are viewing
significantly more video ads than
consumers in the rest of the world, as are
consumers in the other countries shown
here.
Ratio of video impressions
to unique users
Video advertising is booming
The growth of video
% of Opera Mediaworks demand-side business
60%
55%
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
Share of impressions
5%
0
Q1 2014
Q3 2014
Q1 2015
Share of revenue
delivered to publishers
& app developers
In the past year, the share of impressions from video ad formats has increased over 5X, from 2.5% of all
impressions in Q1 2014 to now just over 12.8% of impressions. Meanwhile, revenue from video has
grown to become over 55% of revenue delivered to publishers.
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p.6
Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
MOBILE ADVERTISING SPECIAL FOCUS
Intelligent Audience Creation
You can’t walk within two feet of a conversation about mobile advertising without hearing the term “big
data.” Publishers and app developers are gathering more and more data from their users, and the ability to
efficiently collect, store and access data at scale to target advertising is becoming one of the most critical
elements of the mobile advertising industry.
It all starts with collection of raw data from three pillars of information: context, activity and demographics.
Context
Activity
Demographics
The “right now”
Context across time
Personal characteristics
However, data collection is only half the story; turning that data into actionable intelligence about an
audience is the real challenge. Globally, using some form of contextual information to target campaigns
has been the norm for years. However, the use of custom audience-creation methodologies is gaining
momentum, and, in some regions, over 85% of campaigns are targeted to an audience that was created
specifically for one particular advertising campaign.
Almost 80% of mobile users spread their mobile activity across multiple site and app categories, while
approximately 21% focus on a single app category. By collecting and combining observations of context,
activity and demographics into these audience segments, we can develop a more complete view of users'
intent and their likelihood of engaging with a particular type of ad.
The graphic on the next page depicts our three user groups on the left. On the right, you can see a
breakdown of the sites visited by users of three different site categories. Bubble size is relative to the
number of unique users in each group.
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Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
User clusters by number of sites visited
7
6
8
14
15
22
16
17
9
21
13
23
18
24
5
20
19
12
10
11
4
1
2
3
Education
Shopping
3-sites
Society
Law Government
& Politics
Health &
Fitness
Careers
Sports
Family &
Parenting
Hobbies
& Interests
Food & Drink
Personal Finance
Science Automotive
Real Estate
Home & Garden
Technology &
Computing
Style & Fashion
Email
News
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Games
Religion & Spirituality
Travel
Business
Arts &
Entertainment
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Q1 2015
The State of Mobile Advertising
The most contextually diverse group of user (28% of all users) has a very broad range of interests, visiting
seven or more site categories. The chord diagram below shows how one of these segments (users who
spend most of their time on education sites) disperse their visits across other site categories. The size of
the connecting lines represents the volume of traffic going to the site categories shown on the outside of
the circle.
So how do you create an audience given all the complexities? Starting from the data collected from our
three pillars of information, you integrate that data through four core activities:
1. Unleash contextual information with segmentation.
2. Refine audiences with behavioral insights.
3. Accelerate into real time with machine learning and measurement strategies.
4. Be transparent about privacy.
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Real Estate
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Soc
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Style & Fashion
Through these four activities, advertisers can build audiences, homing in on a very specific subset of
consumers that will be most receptive to the ad messaging of their campaign. Click here
http://www.operamediaworks.com/innovation-and-insights/intelligent-audience-creation to download
our in-depth look at how to use these four
activities for intelligent
audience creation.
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