The Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI) report was created to provide both publishers and advertisers with key insights into the mobile advertising industry. By analyzing the billions of daily impressions that flow through our platform, we are able to observe real-time developments in the mobile space that allude to broader digital industry trends. To provide best-in-class mobile tools and services, we believe that information sharing is crucial in aligning the digital industry towards best practices and ultimately growth in mobile.
In our first ever QMI report for Q3 2015, we have established a baseline of benchmarks for mobile advertising performance around pricing, volume and growth. Five key trends have emerged in this report, specifically:
Key Trend #1
Mobile CPMs are higher and growing faster than desktop CPMs
Key Trend #2
Significant growth opportunity lies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM) regions, while sheer scale makes mature markets—North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)—highly attractive
Key Trend #3
Apple app ads are increasing fastest in both price and volume, while mobile web inventory is still growing
Key Trend #4
Mobile optimization (i.e. developing mobile-friendly or “responsively-designed” sites that adapt to mobile viewing) is progressing rapidly and improving mobile web inventory quality
Key Trend #5
Private marketplace (PMP) CPMs are higher than non-PMP CPMs, by a factor of 5-6x for mobile PMP and 3-4x for desktop PMP
What does this mean for publishers and advertisers?
- Mobile monetization is increasing and improving, driving growth within digital media organizations across all regions, globally. APAC and LATAM regions represent the fastest growing opportunities, but North America and EMEA represent the largest opportunities.
- Mobile app inventory price and volume are increasing, but mobile web inventory quality is improving due to mobile optimization (i.e. shift to mobile-friendly sites) and an industry shift to mobile “responsive” web design. High-impact mobile formats, such as video and rich media, will help publishers and advertisers continue to both grow revenues and command higher CPMs.
- Private marketplaces (i.e. directly-sold inventory packages from publishers) are an attractive proposition for publishers and advertisers because of the premium, transparent environment, which commands higher prices for publishers, and higher-quality inventory for advertisers.
We hope you find this report to be informative and thought provoking. Please feel free to reach out to discuss the report with your PubMatic sales representative or contact PubMatic and someone will follow up.