Mobile Video Ad Inventory Skyrockets, More Than Tripled In Q1 [Report]

Mobile Video Ad Inventory Growth & CPM Change By Week

Mobile video ad inventory grew exponentially last quarter. In the US, the number of mobile video ad auctions increased 350 percent from the previous quarter according to TubeMogul’s Q1 2014 update on the programmatic video advertising market.

The average number of mobile video ad auctions on the TubeMogul platform topped 860 million in Q1, up from 192 million average auctions in Q4 2013, as consumers consumed more media on mobile phones and tablets.

CPMs for mobile video ads fell by more than 18 percent, declining from $12.50 in Q4 to $10.15 in Q1. The report’s authors say they expect prices to stabilize on mobile as buyers turn their focus on buying inventory on “premium mobile environments”.

On desktops pre-roll video advertising inventory increased by 63 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to Q4 2013. Yet, even with the substantial increase in inventory, CPMs fell by just 2 percent.

Skippable was the only ad type to see an increase in cost-per-minute rates in the quarter, rising above mobile to become the highest priced ad format. Pre-roll remained the lowest cost-per-minute format, below Connected TV.

Inventory that was bought directly from publishers, through programmatic channels, increased 191 percent from Q4. In each month of Q1, at least 1.6 billion impressions were bought directly.

“The consistent growth reflects rapidly growing adoption of automation for publishers, who are not only able to better monetize their inventory,
but also leverage programmatic to collect an abundance of first-party user data.”

For more details and stats on viewability rates, download the report here.