Multi-platform digital audiences for the Top 1000 media properties in the US grew a staggering 22 percent over the past year, which is quite an achievement considering that the overall digital media population only grew 2 percent. The driver behind this growth is, not surprisingly, mobile media. But there comes a surprise: mobile web audiences are three times bigger than mobile app audiences and they are increasing twice as fast, this according to Comscore. For digital publishers, this means they must be present on both fronts.
”In fact, both forms of content delivery are vitally important and they tend to pull on different levers that can help monetization: audience scale (i.e. reach) and audience engagement (i.e. frequency). Rather than looking at them as competing for resources, it’s important to figure out how they can be complementary to one another,” Comscore stated.
Source: Comscore
Both forms of mobile traffic come from different sources. Mobile web visits tend to come predominantly from social media platforms. Publishers must in that case figure know how to convert these visitors into loyal app users. App users tend instead to already be loyal brand followers, more likely to share and engage with the media content on offer.
Comscore also found that mobile ads work very effectively, outperforming desktop ads by a factor of two to three.
”This is likely because mobile ads can take over the majority of the screen when they appear and they often reach consumers on-the-go and closer to the point of purchase. As a result, they seem to work particularly well at the bottom of the funnel, driving metrics like purchase intent,” said Comscore.
Source: Comscore
Yet, for most publishers, mobile ads still tend to lag desktop ads in terms of cost per mille, that is cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
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