Despite what appeared to be a tightening race, iOS showed renewed dominance over Android in terms of how much revenue it delivers to content publishers in the first quarter of 2013, according to an Opera Mediaworks report [pdf] released today that also pointed to the rise of mobile ad targeting and the continued influence of multimedia content.
While iOS ran on some 20 percent of all devices globally, it delivered nearly half of all publisher revenue. (In the United States, iOS runs on 40 percent of devices.) The iPad remained the most lucrative platform of all, accounting for more than 12 percent of revenue with just 6 percent of ad impressions.
Mobile ad targeting grew more mainstream and delivered better results for marketers, according the report.
“As the mobile advertising space matures, advertisers and ad networks are implementing methods to optimize ad delivery performance — while still being careful to safeguard user privacy,” the report said.
Ads can be targeting based on operating system, type of connection and time of day without infringing on user privacy. Such methods can double click-through rates.
Content in the business ad finance vertical produced the highest revenue per impression, but music and video led in terms of both impression volume and total revenue generation, the report noted.
The United States commands a shrinking share of the global ad market, while European countries are rising quickly, according to the report. The U.S. accounted for 60 percent of ad requests at the end of 2012, but just 51 percent in the first quarter of 2013. European countries rose from 15 percent to 21 percent in the same period.
The Opera report is based on data from the Opera Mediaworks ad platform, which runs in some 12,000 apps and websites, accounting for 50 billion ad impressions per month that reach 300 million global consumers.
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