Mobile Advertising Performance Continues to Improve

The growth in mobile display advertising performance witnessed in the previous quarter continued in the third quarter across key engagement metrics, such as ad expansion rate, ad engagement rate and time spent, according to a report from Celtra.
The report found smart video ad formats are still outperforming other format types in engagement rate and time spent, while ads placed within apps witness longer time spent on ad unit and higher video play rates than ads placed in Web browsers.
Overall ad engagement rate rose by 16 percent since the second quarter for standard format ads, while it remained roughly the same for other format types.
The highest unit engagement rates for expandable banners were witnessed in technology (18.2 percent) and entertainment verticals (17.4 percent).
“Both verticals are typically advertising products and services that are closely associated with mobile and increasingly consumed on mobile, such as TV shows or music in entertainment, or mobile devices or apps in tech vertical,” Matevz Klanjsek, co-founder and chief product officer at Celtra, told eWEEK. “In both verticals, advertisers are also paying more attention to the creative aspect of the ads, they design ads specifically for mobile. They also use content, especially video, that’s better suited and edited for such ads.”
As far as ad features are concerned, presentation features achieved higher engagement rates than video and gaming features, mainly because of Swipey, the most used presentation feature, the report noted.
The retail vertical received the most requested impressions this quarter (19.6 percent), followed very closely by the entertainment vertical (19.4 percent).
Manual video play rate was slightly lower this quarter for standard ads, while smart video format ads continued to use auto-play video settings, which are not included in video play rate performance benchmark.
Technology vertical again stood out compared to other verticals in video play rate performance with 30.2 percent, while video completion rate reached an impressive 41.5 percent in the third quarter, which means that more than 40 percent of users complete watching videos in display ads.
“Higher video completion rates clearly validate the value of video content in display advertising,” Klanjsek said. “It’s a type of content that’s very native to mobile environment and at the same time offers a powerful and convenient way for brands to communicate with their consumers, especially when combined with other high-value interactive ad elements, such as store locators or product galleries.”
Klanjsek explained rising rates also demonstrate that video content used in display ads is increasingly being edited and curated for such ad formats and not simply transplanted from other channels, such as TV.
Similar to the previous quarter, technology the vertical yielded the highest ad expansion rate (0.80 percent) again.
The majority of all impressions were requested for smartphone devices, while 14 percent were requested for tablet devices.
“One of the more interesting developments we’ll see in the near future will be the fusion of display and video ads. Such ads will use both types of inventory, traditional video in-stream as well as display placements,” Klanjsek said. “This will open up a lot more inventory and at the same time will see a lot of innovation in terms of new ad formats and products that will utilize the best of both worlds. Both video and display ads will become much more interesting and effective.”