Money Rail: Banner Ads Give Way to Rich Media as Mobile Monetization Continues to Climb

A year ago, it was social media marketing that was growing and changing right before our hours. Now that the dust has settled somewhat, it’s mobile’s turn.

The State of Mobile Advertising report from Opera shows big changes in a short period of time as advertisers learn to take advantage of the mobile landscape.

Opera cataloged the ad types on their network comparing January of this year to June. Take a look:

In six short months, expandable banner ads decreased by half and video more than doubled. The big news is in HTML5 Rich Media ads, which are slowly taking over mobile advertising. These are the ads that feature video, slideshows, music, and interactive elements. This is good because interactivity equals engagement and that equals more time spent with your brand.

How much more time? They have a colorful graphic for that, too:

Dwell time & interaction rates

Look at the amazing interaction rate on video. More than half of the people who clicked through a mobile video ad completed the interaction. What’s even crazier is the dwell time on an interactive photo element, just short of a minute and a half. My interpretation of this are those ads that allow you to put yourself into a branded setting. The new movie TED recently used an app like that where you could put Ted the raunchy bear in your personal photos.

Given all of this, it’s not surprising that Apple’s iPhone is leading the field with the best engagement numbers and in turn, the best monetization. Combined with the iPad, iOS accounts for only 46.53% of the traffic to Opera’s mobile ad platform, but they claim 61.41% of the revenue.

The reported eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) for the iPhone, $2.85. Like that? Try this, the eCPM for the iPad is $3.96. The next highest is Android with $2.10. What this proves is that bigger is better when you’re trying to monetize ads. Bigger screen and more fingertip functionality converts.

Here’s one more tidbit regarding conversion. Opera says that the Business and Finance category generates the most revenue per impression. I would not have guessed that.

Mobile is on the move, folks but we’ve barely tapped in to its full potential. Me? I’m excited to see what comes next. How about you?