Ads on iPhone Worth More Than Ads on Android, Film at Duh O’Clock

MarketWatch:

The iPhone monthly ad share grew 12 percent in the first quarter of this year and now accounts for more than 50 percent of mobile ad spending, according to the report released Thursday by MoPub, a mobile ad exchange that allows app publishers and advertisers to engage in bidding for advertisements. As a result, the cost-per-thousand views is 40 percent higher on iOS than Google’s Android.

Why are Apple users bombarded with more ads than those who own rival devices are? Experts say the user base is considered a more upwardly mobile demographic. “Apple has more desirable customers,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, senior analyst at Forrester Research. Cheaper Android phones reach more people than the iPhone, she says, but around 15 percent of Samsung smartphone customers get free Android smartphones that come with wireless contracts. “These accidental customers are in the lower third of income earners in the U.S.,” she says. “They’re not necessarily the customers that advertisers care most about reaching.”

But iPhone users are not “bombarded with ads”. I almost never see any ads other than those on web pages, because I can (and do) buy ad-free apps rather than use “free” apps that show ads. Also, the MarketWatch piece conflates ad revenue with the number of ads users see — I highly doubt that iPhone users, even those who only use free apps, see more ads than their Android counterparts. They just see more expensive ads.

★ Monday, 22 April 2013