Opera has just put out its latest State of Mobile Advertising report for Q1 2013 and its findings put the iPhone back on top for “impression volume” (i.e. generating the most traffic to mobile ads), regaining its lead over Android. iOS also maintains its top position for monetisation compared to the other mobile platforms.
Opera draws its data from its mobile advertising platform business, which consists of AdMarvel, Mobile Theory, 4th Screen Advertising and Opera Mediaworks Performance. The platform serves 50+ billion ad impressions per month via 12,000 mobile sites and apps.
Mobile ad campaigns running on Apple devices “consistently achieve the highest average eCPMs”, according to Opera’s findings, and account for nearly half (49.23%) of all revenue delivered to mobile publishers.
In addition, Opera’s data shows that the iPhone edged out Android phones in ad impression volume in Q1, having temporarily lost the number one position at the end of 2012. Add in ad impressions and clicks on the iPad and iOS has a clear lead over Android, with 44.53% of the ad traffic and 49.23% of the revenue vs 31.26% of the ad traffic and 26.72% of the revenue.
Here’s Opera’s full breakdown of ad traffic and revenue share by mobile OS:
Across all of its ad platforms, Opera said the U.S. continues to drive the majority of ad requests but notes that this lead is shrinking as other regions see faster rates of growth. The U.S. still generates the most revenue (75.4%) across Opera’s platform, even with diminished impression volume (50.7% vs. 60% last quarter).
Opera’s report flags up especially accelerated ad request growth in Europe, with the European market now generating more than 21% of ad requests, up from 14.61% in the previous quarter.
It said the majority (65%) of European ad traffic originates in five key markets: the U.K., Italy, Germany, France and Spain.
