Video Boosts Mobile Ad Engagement Rates [Study]

Mobile ad engagement rates can be improved by 35 percent with the addition of video, according to a new Medialets study. The mobile rich media ad firm reports that in the first quarter of 2012 mobile rich media ads containing video had an average of 35 percent higher engagement rates. The users who decided to expand these mobile ads spent a total of 20 seconds within the advertisement.

Integrating video or product catalog information within ads can increase the average expand time from 20 seconds to over 1 minute.

Despite these numbers, only 30 percent of mobile ads on tablets contain video, followed by 12 percent from smartphones. As companies look to efficiently use mobile rich media, they have begun to expand their advertising to multiple device environments. The portion of mobile rich media advertising campaigns using multiple device environments has doubled from 20 percent in Q1 of 2011 to 40 percent in Q1 of 2012.

Among rich mobile ad formats, expandable banners are more than twice as common as non-expanding banner and interstitial formats, Medialets reported.

Handset device advertising consists of 64 percent expandable ads, 22 percent interstitial ads, and 14 percent banner ads. When it comes to larger devices such as tablets that can support larger banners, 60 percent of ads are expandable, 26 percent are banners, and 14 percent are interstitials.

Expand rates across mobile environments range from 1.2 percent for Androids to 1.6 percent for mobile web ads, with iPads and iPhones falling in between at 1.5 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. As the data from Medialets first quarter are released, companies will be keeping watch over the improved success of mobile video advertising and the division of ads across diverse device environments.

The data reflects Medialets-enabled mobile ads delivered during Q1 2012 through the company’s ad platform.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.