Opera Software, makers of the web browser, released its first State of Mobile Advertising report Friday. The company found that iOS leads in effective cost per thousand impressions, followed by Android, and then in a very distant third place is Windows Phone.
The findings were shared by Mahi de Silva, Executive Vice President of Consumer Mobile for Opera at the Mobile + Web DevCon in San Francisco. In his keynote address “The State of Mobile Advertising” he presented the following results.
The average eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) on iPhone was determined to be US$2.85, on Android to be $2.10, and on Windows Phone to be $0.20. The performance gap between iOS and Android alone is significant, and will play a role in ongoing development efforts for both platforms. The performance of Windows Phones, however, is abysmal, and will help ensure limited efforts from developers on that platform.
The company also found that that rich media ads that takes advantage of a smartphone’s capabilities encourages click-through rates and better customer engagement, both good indicators of revenue potential.
Interestingly, apps in the Business & Finance category were found to generate more revenue per impression than any other category, and Opera said that advertisers need to use more than one network to maximize profit and reach. A single network’s performance can vary significantly at any point in time, which means that advertisers could conceivably miss out on opportunities by sticking with one network.
The company said that report was based on data mined from more than 35 billion ad impressions and $240 million in mobile advertising revenue.