MoPub’s Global Mobile Programmatic Trends Report: Four years of growth and new opportunities for buyers

This quarter’s report marks the four year anniversary of MoPub‘s Mobile Programmatic Trends Report (find the first report here). Since that time, the landscape for in-app mobile advertising, particularly through real-time bidding exchanges like MoPub Marketplace, has changed dramatically in terms of players, technology standards, and even platforms.

On MoPub Marketplace alone, monthly ad impressions in mobile programmatic are now 30 times the volume than when we launched our first report in August 2012. In addition to the widespread adoption of real-time bidding in mobile, we’ve also seen the monthly spend from DSPs multiply by over 55 times over the past four years, reinforcing the overall efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency that programmatic offers. For publishers, exchanges have helped drive more consistent ad revenue and a more sophisticated monetization strategy where they can predict and control the types of advertising they use to drive their business forward. For DSPs, mobile programmatic has introduced an entirely new way to reach audiences on the second screen, driving effective scale for brands and performance advertisers.

You can get the full report here or read on for the highlights.

While brand spend jumps, desktop advertisers may still be missing the opportunity to capitalize on mobile-first formats

We’ve continued to see the shift in advertiser budgets from desktop and major brands into mobile exchanges, particularly with increases in spend and CPMs on traditionally-desktop formats.

For example, there was a significant increase in spend, CPMs, and the number of buyers for medium rectangles, the 300×250 format that many advertisers are familiar with from desktop sites. A deeper look at the types of advertising campaigns also indicates that Fortune 1000 brands are driving many of the increases on medium rectangles, with a 175% increase in the number of advertiser domains between Q1 and Q2 of this year.

Despite these strong positive signs of desktop spend finally moving into mobile programmatic, many buyers are still seeing better results with mobile-first formats like native ads. With significantly higher clickthrough rates on native ads, DSPs increased spend on the mobile-first format, driving an increase in spend of over 29% in Q2 2016 alone.

Surges in spend during key TV events reinforce the power of reaching audiences on the second screen

We continue to see a wide range of advertisers, from politicians in Q1 to alcohol brands ramping spend in mobile aligned with major TV moments around the world. Moreover, these advertisers demonstrated clear regional targeting with their campaigns, with a focus on Europe during the UEFA Euro games and on North America during the NBA Finals.

Fullscreen, immersive ad experiences dominate for both publishers and buyers

Interstitial video continues to be a popular monetization source for publishers as DSPs increasingly seek more captive engagement from users. Rewarded video and rich media also emerged as high growth opportunities for both publishers, as their strong user value proposition drives broader adoption of these formats, and advertisers translate video and other budgets into this new supply.

Regional trends in EMEA and APAC show untapped opportunities for advertisers

Supply increases were met with nearly equivalent increases in the number of DSPs in both EMEA and APAC, particularly for popular formats like interstitial video and native ads. However, despite overall increases in ad spend in both regions, competition has remained consistently spread across supply, revealing potential opportunities for advertisers to get in front of audiences using particular ad formats.

Source: MoPub

  Advertising, Brands, Marketing, Mobile, MoPub, Programmatic, Reports, Technology