Following a host of new device launches this year, from Samsung’s Galaxy S4 to Blackberry’s Z10, new data released today by ad tech platform Adform has revealed that Europe’s digital advertising community has vastly increased its investment in programmatic mobile marketing, with a near three times (275 per cent) increase in mobile RTB (real-time bidding) spend in Q1 2013.
The figures, published in Adform’s Q1 RTB Trend Report 2013, also highlight the improving health of programmatic advertising across all devices, with a 66 per cent increase in RTB spend by advertisers in March 2013 alone. Further to this, where CPM (cost per mille) rates for programmatically traded inventory had peaked during the 2012 Christmas holiday season and fell as consumer shopping declined in January, the trend was reversed in February and by March CPMs reached an all-time high.
The report also revealed that advertisers are broadening not just the devices they run programmatic advertising campaigns over, but also the type of ad formats they use. While the standard, rectangular ‘article banner’ accounted for 43% of European advertisers’ overall spend, Adform’s data also revealed that newer and larger formats are receiving better traction with consumers. In line with this, European advertisers spent three times more quarter on quarter on the largest programmatic ad format available, the Megaboard, which delivered a three times better click-through rate (CTR) than the article banner.
Analysis of the data also showed that RTB impressions that are above the fold, which require minimum scrolling from the consumer, continue to perform two times better than those below it, yet still only earn just a 22% boost in price.
Martin Stockfleth Larsen, CMO, Adform says “RTB spend has continued to increase as the industry realises the benefits of automated campaigns for reaching and engaging with the most relevant audiences. Coupled with the accessibility of the technology, the availability of more premium inventory and the increasing number of rich media formats in the programmatic arsenal, advertisers now not only have the option to run RTB performance campaigns where direct response is the main goal but also RTB brand campaigns where they can build brand awareness with relevant audiences. The industry has now also made the success of these campaigns measurable by offering new metrics– visibility time, engagement time and engagement rate – signalling a new way for brand advertisers to connect with consumers and analyse the ROI of brand campaigns.”
More data from the report is shown below, displaying click through rate by country (in terms of percentage and time) and the most popular ad size formats.
To access the full report go to: http://www.adform.com
