Mobile Advertisers Take Up Location-Based Targeting

Location-based targeting nearly doubled month-over-month as the preferred ad targeting method used to reach consumers on the Jumptap mobile ad network, employed by 61% of advertisers compared to 33% in September, according to[download page] a Jumptap report released in November 2011. Results from the “Simple Target & Audience Trends (STAT)” report indicate that 22% of campaigns used device capability, up from 19% in September, while only 5% used handset, down significantly from 25%.

Overall, the proportion of marketers using multiple targeting methods drastically rose in October: 80% of advertisers used more than one targeting method, up from just 10% in September.

Samsung Battles Apple

The report highlights some interesting differences between Samsung and Apple device users: for example, Samsung smartphone users accessed applications 27% more than iPhone users, although iPhone users were almost twice as active on the mobile web as Samsung smartphone users. And while gaming was the top content channel on Samsung smartphones, which Jumptap insight suggests is likely tied to Samsung users’ higher app usage, and which may suggest a younger audience, news and entertainment was the top channel for iPhones, which could explain the prevalence of web browsing and suggest an older audience.

On the Millennial Media mobile network, music and entertainment was the top applications category for Apple in October, growing 19% month-over-month, while gaming applications moved to the #2 app category.

CTRs Best in the Evening

According to the Jumptap report, there is a gradual increase in CTRs from morning through lunch and beyond, peaking in the evening hours at roughly 0.7%, before dropping off to about 0.5% as the night progresses. In October, mobile users aged 55-64 and 65-74 both had CTRs of over 0.7%, although this month those aged 55-64 took the lead, whereas 65-74-year-olds had the highest CTRs in September. CTRs are still highest for families with household income above $50,000 (1.38%), far above those below that income threshold (.26%). Men (.57%) also continue to demonstrate higher CTRs than women (0.33%).

Other Findings

• iOS (.63%) and Symbian (0.63%) maintain their CTR dominance among operating systems, while Android (0.49%) and Blackberry (0.55%) lag in direct response performance.
• For direct response performance, entertainment, government, and automotive again experienced the best CTRs in of the various verticals on the network.
• Android’s market share dipped to 44.7% in October 2011, down from 47% in September. However, Android still commanded a share almost equal to that of iOS (24.6%) and Blackberry (22.9%) combined.
• In October, 53% of requests were from the mobile web (compared to 52% in September) and 47% were from mobile apps. Feature phones saw a major decline in mobile web traffic in October, with only a 34% share, compared to 50% in September.
• Click-to-web (76%) and click-to-download (23%) continued to predominate as preferred actions for advertisers.

About the Data: October 2011 data is gleaned from the Jumptap network of over 95 million US users.