One in seven mobile ad impressions from tablets by Q4 2012
Tablets achieve 40% increase in mobile ad requests over the festive period led by Amazon Kindle Fire HD
Press release
January 30th 2012. Adfonic, the smarter buying platform, has released its Global AdMetrics Report for Q4 2012, showing that tablets’ share of mobile ad impressions climbed from 9 per cent in Q2 2012 to 14 per cent in Q4, indicating that nearly one in every seven mobile ads was displayed on a tablet by the end of the year. Tablets also made impressive gains over the festive period, increasing share of ad requests by 40 per cent, with Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD nearly doubling its share of Android tablet ad requests.
The report, which draws data from Adfonic’s single buying point into over 100 billion monthly impressions, also found that iOS and Android are still fighting for ad impressions, as iOS regains ground lost earlier in the year to end 2012 just two percentage points behind Android; and that that Apple devices continued to offer the strongest clickthrough rates (CTRs) for both tablets and mobile devices.
For the first time, Adfonic’s Global AdMetrics Report is now split between the main body of the report with global narratives available as a PDF, and local region charts available directly online. To see both, go here.
Tablets are hot, but Android tablets are on Fire
Adfonic’s Q4 2012 Global AdMetrics Report showed that tablets steadily gained share of mobile ad impressions throughout the year, reflecting trends seen across the mobile industry, while Android tablets and in particular the Amazon Kindle Fire HD performed strongly over the festive season.
Adfonic first revealed the tablet share of impressions in its Q2 2012 report, which showed tablets accounting for 9 per cent of all ad impressions.
This rose to 11 per cent in Q3 and, in the Q4 2012 report, tablets stood at 14 per cent, representing an increase in share of 56 per cent from Q2 to Q4. This indicates that, by Q4 2012, nearly one in every seven mobile ad impressions was on a tablet device
Tablets also made impressive gains in ad requests over the festive period, increasing from 10.2 per cent share of overall ad requests on 18th December 2012, to 14 per cent share by 1st January 2013, to achieve a gain in ad request share of 40 per cent.
These tablet gains were mostly driven by increases in Android ad requests, especially for tablets manufactured by Amazon (from 32 per cent to 34.9 per cent of Android tablet requests) and Google (7.6 per cent to 9.3 per cent).
Of these, Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD was the device showing the strongest gains, from 6.9 per cent to 13.2 per cent of Android tablet ad requests, followed by Google’s Nexus 7 (from 7.3 per cent to 9 per cent), indicating that these were the two most popular mobile gifts over Christmas.
Victor Malachard, Adfonic’s CEO and co-founder, said, “Major tech brands such as Google, Samsung, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are jostling for supremacy in the tablet space, with significant devices launched in the run-up to Christmas.”
“We know that tablets perform well for advertisers and publishers alike so a combination of more devices, with superior advertising performance, can only be good news for mobile advertising in 2013.”
Android and iOS continue to fight for ad impressions
In its Global AdMetrics Report for Q2 2012 Adfonic showed how, for the first time, Android achieved dominance over iOS within its smarter buying platform, increasing its share from 38 per cent in Q1 to 46 per cent in Q2, while iOS declined from 45 per cent in Q1 to 34 per cent in Q2.
However, as 2012 progressed iOS regained ground. In Q3 iOS increased its share to 37 per cent of ad impressions, while Android decreased to 45 per cent. In Q4 iOS gained a further 4 percentage points to achieve 41 per cent share, while Android ended the year at 43 per cent share of ad impressions, just 2 percentage points ahead of iOS.
Share of ad impressions for Android v iOS throughout 2012
Android iOS
Q1 2012 38 per cent 45 per cent
Q2 2012 46 per cent 34 per cent
Q3 2012 45 per cent 37 per cent
Q4 2012 43 per cent 41 per cent
Apple remains the best-performing brand for clickthrough rates
The Adfonic Global AdMetrics Report also showed that, among the top ten devices by ad impressions, Apple was the manufacturer whose devices provided the best CTR performance in Q4 2012, both for mobile devices and tablets.
This was another trend that was set earlier in the year, with Apple devices only failing to achieve the number one slot on one occasion, to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab in Q2 2012. The iPod Touch achieved the strongest CTRs for every quarter across 2012.
Devices with strongest CTRs among top ten by ad impressions throughout 2012
(CTR uplifts when compared to averages in parentheses)
Tablet Mobile
Q1 2012 iPad (+9 per cent) iPod Touch (+25 per cent)
Q2 2012 Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 (+25 per cent) iPod Touch (+22 per cent)
Q3 2012 iPad (+23 per cent) iPod Touch (+30 per cent)
Q4 2012 iPad (+37 per cent) iPod Touch (+40 per cent)
About the Adfonic Global AdMetrics Report
The Adfonic Global AdMetrics Report pulls data from Adfonic’s smarter buying platform to provide actionable insights to inform campaign planning and optimise performance. The main body of the report, available as a PDF from Adfonic’s website, covers global narratives, with at-a-glance insights into the top mobile advertising channels, verticals, devices, platforms and brands across Adfonic’s platform, plus demographics, inventory shares and performance data. The supplementary data, available directly as charts via Adfonic’s website, covers Adfonic’s regions worldwide, including North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
About Adfonic
Adfonic is a mobile advertising buying platform that gives advertisers and agencies access to global mobile web and app inventory through a single buying point. Adfonic’s customers can run performance, rich media and video ad campaigns across a wide range of inventory sources to drive direct response, increase consumer engagement and build brand awareness. Through Adfonic, advertisers and agencies benefit from access to over 100 billion monthly impressions. Their campaigns are also powered by pioneering technology, big data and smart algorithms which optimise performance and drive the best results. Adfonic is headquartered in London with further operations in New York, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Singapore.
