Mobile metrics reports from mobile ad networks: head 2 head

Arguably mobile ad networks know as much about much about mobile advertising, the behavior of mobile consumers and the popularity of mobile Websites as anyone. There was a time when ad networks’ mobile metrics reports only provided a small proportion of this valuable data, but that’s changing fast. Now more ad networks are on the case, competition is leading to much more useful reports (particularly among the more recent entrants).

This is mobiThinking’s thoughts on six reports; we’ll add more as they’re made known to us. The content and quality varies greatly, showing the value in shopping around and reading more than one report. These reports can only get better and better – in a world where advertisers know so little about ad networks, metrics reports are an excellent way to showcase your know-how.

Note: mobile metrics reports are useful – and best of all, they are free (these reports are promotional material) – but they are subjective. The statistics give good insight into mobile Web usage and advertising trends, but each report will be pretty heavily influenced by each network’s business (which varies considerably). So if you want to know what the most popular handset is, or which nation has the most mobile Internet users, you need to consult research analysts, not mobile ad networks… all that sort of hard data is here.

January 2014: this page is currently being updated. Please check back in February.

U.S. Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (S.M.A.R.T.) (monthly)
Millennial Media’s November 2009 SMART covers requests by handset and breakdown by operator. There is no geographical breakdown as most of Millennial’s business is in the US. Share of impressions is also broken down by WiFi (26 percent) and different carriers (led by Verizon at 19 percent); type of device (led by touch screen at 47 percent); feature phone (60 percent) and smartphone (40 percent).
Then there are lots of fascinating insights and useful charts for marketers. Topical data includes the positive impact on verticals – food, movies, restaurants and dating – over the US Thanksgiving holiday.
Millennial tracks where people are clicking through to: mobile site (38 percent), custom mobile landing page (29 percent), application download (27 percent); and what they are there for: subscribe/purchase (35 percent), application download (27 percent), retail promotion (19 percent). Millennial breaks down types of advertising between run of network (blind) advertising (39 percent) and different types of targeting (e.g. by demographic) and cost per engaged user for each method.
There is some confusing jargon, but otherwise this report available for download here is useful and engaging and a great advertisement for Millennial’s services.

Quarterly Mobile R.O.I. Report: Results and Objectives Index for Marketers
The Q2 2009 report from US-based Quattro Wireless lists handsets by ad request, but notably puts them in context by contrasting M:Metrics’ top 10 most-popular handsets (quite different results).
Interestingly, Quattro charts click-through rates (CTR) for different types of device (considerably more useful than impressions), with Apple top, then gaming devices, then Palm, Android and BlackBerry. Note that Smaato, below, does similar comparison with very different results.
The report shows which categories of advertiser pay the most for advertising and get the best CTR for both brand advertising (priced in cost per thousand impressions (CPM)), and direct response (priced in cost per Click (CPC)) advertising. Paying the most for CPM are: consumer packaged goods (CPG), autos and finance. Best CTR for brand campaigns are: CPG, communities, finance, dating, food and autos. Best CTR for direct response are: entertainment, gaming, mobile, electronics. The report ends with an in-depth look at why mobile is a great medium for entertainment advertisers.
mobiThinking would prefer some more precise figures/percentages than bar charts, but otherwise this report is very informative for both advertisers and publishers.
The report is available from the mobile I.Q. section, which also offers a report on State of the Industry: APPs and the opportunity to sign up for a Monthly Mobile Industry Update (but which wasn’t available for download).

BuzzCity Global Mobile Advertising Index (quarterly)
In its Q3 2009 report, Singapore based BuzzCity lists its top 24 countries (Indonesia, India, US, South Africa, Kenya), giving data for inventory sold (does this equate to ads served?) and percentage increase/decrease. There is some analysis and a very clear statement at the top about what this data represents to prevent any misinterpretation.
That desire for more data is allayed to some extent by the availability of other reports: The Top Brands: What Mobile Users Expect is an interesting report though is drawn from survey data, as opposed to data from the BuzzCity network itself. Download the reports here.

InMobi Network Summary (quarterly)
Indian-based InMobi gives a succinct snapshot of its network growth (though no actual impression data), top five countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and UK and ad requests by handset (Nokia is 48 percent).
With its focus on Asia, mobiThinking would be interested to know what else InMobi can share about Asian advertisers, consumers and publishers. The report is here.

Smaato Metrics (monthly)
Strictly speaking Smaato isn’t a mobile ad network, but it works closely with a lot of them, so this new (January 2010) report is relevant and welcome.
Rather than analyzing handsets by mobile ad requests, Smaato provides the market shares of smartphones (note not all mobile handsets), using actual sales data from real research analysts Canalys: Symbian (i.e. Nokia) leads (46 percent), then BlackBerry (20.6 percent), then Apple (17.8 percent). It then analyses CTR by operating system: Symbian has a substantial lead, then Apple, Windows Mobile, then feature phones, Android and, surprisingly low, Palm and BlackBerry. Note: compare Quattro’s result above.
Uniquely, the report also covers fill rates – this is defined by Smaato the percentage of delivered ads per ad request. Having been told previously that fill rate is an important consideration when choosing an ad network, mobiThinking was pleased to see this, at first. Unfortunately the data is incomplete: with the chart for worldwide fill rates the only identified company on the bar chart is Smaato. While in the US chart only three are listed: Smaato, which gives itself the gold, Quattro, silver and Millennial with bronze.
So mixed feelings – it starts so well, but in the end you can’t help feeling a little bit cheated. Hopefully the white paper, Global Choices in Mobile Advertising, that accompanies the report makes up for it. Both reports are here.

Please let us know about any other metrics reports from mobile ad networks. Comment below or email editor (at) mobiThinking.com.