New analysis shows tablets outperform smartphones for every type of mobile advertising campaign

Tablets show far stronger CTRs for direct response and branding campaigns

Smartphone and tablet engagement patterns differ across the course of the day

Press Release

March 12th 2013. Adfonic, the smarter buying platform for mobile, has released its ‘AdSnap: Tablets’ report, which compares the results gained from mobile ads displayed on tablets, with those displayed on smartphones. The report is available here. Based on billions of ad impressions from across Adfonic’s platform, the comparison reveals that tablets outperform smartphones for both direct response and branding campaigns. According to the comparison, clickthrough rates (CTRs) on tablets outperform smartphones for branding campaigns by a staggering 250 per cent, but perhaps more surprising is the finding that tablets also beat smartphones for direct response campaigns, which are traditionally launched with less resource invested in the ad creative.

Adfonic’s AdSnap also demonstrates that the typical daily profiles of tablet and smartphone use are complementary.

Tablet users tend to be more active in the evening and click more throughout the day, while smartphone users are both more active and more likely to click mobile ads in the early hours of the morning.

Advertisers can maximise the value of their campaigns by planning around these profiles.

Tablets outperform smartphones

By any mobile advertising measure, tablets outperform smartphones. The above chart shows the uplift in clickthrough rates (CTRs) for tablets when compared to smartphones.

Tablets are stronger for direct response campaigns (such as cost per acquisition CPA, per click CPC, or per impression CPI), but significantly stronger for branding campaigns based around cost per thousand impressions (CPM).

These are two distinct campaign types which would typically involve different creatives or user journeys, yet tablets outperform smartphones in both instances.

For branding campaigns especially, for every two clickthroughs on a smartphone, there are an additional five clickthroughs on a tablet, making seven clickthroughs on a tablet in total.

Smartphones for the small hours, tablets in the evenings

Tablet users tend to be more active during the evening, with 63 per cent of tablet ad requests coming after 2pm.

Smartphone users are proportionally more active from midnight through to the morning, perhaps showing that the smartphone’s place throughout the night is typically on the bedside cabinet.

The CTR index for tablets is much higher from 6am through to midnight, showing that tablet users are more likely to tap ads shown on their devices during the waking hours.

However, not only do people tend to use their smartphones more often at night, they are also more likely to tap ads displayed on them throughout the night.

Victor Malachard, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, Adfonic, commented, “Our latest AdMetrics Report showed that tablets had slowly but surely penetrated across Adfonic’s smarter buying platform, particularly driven by the festive season.”

“This new AdSnap analysis demonstrates that tablets are outperforming smartphones in many scenarios – but that there remains a distinct role for smartphone campaigns planned and executed to complement their larger cousins.”

About Adfonic

Adfonic is a mobile advertising buying platform that gives advertisers and agencies access to global mobile web and app inventory through a single buying point. Adfonic’s customers can run performance, rich media and video ad campaigns across a wide range of inventory sources to drive direct response, increase consumer engagement and build brand awareness. Through Adfonic, advertisers and agencies benefit from access to over 100 billion monthly impressions. Their campaigns are also powered by pioneering technology, big data and smart algorithms which optimise performance and drive the best results. Adfonic is headquartered in London with further operations in New York, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Singapore.