Back in February, PubMatic’s Q4 2016 Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI) report pointed out that increasingly mobile is driving programmatic advertising growth worldwide. As noted in the study, a massive and rapidly expanding mobile internet user base in APAC has made this region the fastest-growing opportunity in mobile advertising. Meanwhile, the more mature EMEA market leads in mobile eCPMs around the globe.
APAC registered the fastest expansion in monetized mobile impressions among global regions, adding 124% YOY to its total in Q4 2016. The EMEA region improved 44% during that period [1].
There is good reason for the heated expansion in APAC. Mobile programmatic is relatively small there compared to the more developed ecosystems already available in North America and EMEA, leaving room for significant growth. On top of that, the APAC region boasted the largest mobile internet user base worldwide with 1.3 billion mobile users in 2016—more than the rest of the world combined. This share is expected to reach 54.6% worldwide, or nearly 1.5 billion users, in 2017 [2].
A consumer market of such caliber is impossible for publishers and advertisers to ignore. Hence, mobile ad spending budgets swelled 59% in APAC last year and will add a further 39% in 2017 [3]. Crucially, the relatively young mobile programmatic market reached a valuation of $810 million in 2016 and is expected to pass $1 billion mark this year. When broken down by device, nearly half of APAC programmatic spend was earmarked for mobile in 2016, a share that is expected to rise to 56% by 2020 [4].
Few would be surprised with the number of monetized impressions—including mobile web and apps—in APAC increasing at a triple-digit clip in annual terms in Q4 2016, as mobile programmatic outlays expand to catch up with the massive and still growing mobile audience in the region. These robust regional growth rates brought APAC to par with EMEA in terms of volume. They also offset the former’s eCPM dip of 5% year-over-year during Q4 2016.
Mobile programmatic ad monetization was also on the upswing in EMEA in Q4 2016. The region concentrated 17% of paid impressions worldwide after a 44% YOY increase in volume. Alongside robust volume improvement, eCPMs were up 122% during the same period, likely boosted by increasing interest in ad inventory transacted programmatically. In 2016, mobile programmatic display ad spending rose more than 60% annually in each of the three largest advertising markets in the region: France, Germany and the UK [5].
All the while, private marketplaces (PMP) continued to drive significant growth in mobile monetization throughout 2016. Mobile PMP eCPMs rose by 28% YOY in EMEA and multiplied by more than 4X in APAC last year compared to 2015. More importantly, the gains came on the heels of significantly larger mobile PMP volumes. EMEA posted the greatest annual expansion of any global region in this category as the number of mobile units transacted via private marketplaces multiplied by a factor of nine in 2016. Mobile PMP volume was also 7X larger in APAC during the same period.
Both regions benefited from the emergence of mobile app inventory as a key digital display growth driver, with Android apps leading the charge. Global Android app eCPMs improved by 79% in Q4 2016 over the same period in 2015, building upon growth rates of at least double-digit year over year during each previous quarter of 2016.
In APAC, both Android- and Apple-powered devices saw rising eCPMs. Android led the charge with 87% growth year-over-year in Q4 2016, while iOS eCPMs in the region were up 23% over the period. But it was EMEA that registered the greatest rise across both operating systems, with Android and iOS eCPMs growing at annual rates of 110% and 70%, respectively.
Beyond pricing changes, the volume gap between Android and iOS inventory across our platform virtually disappeared by the end of 2016. The share of paid app impressions across the PubMatic platform served to Apple devices globally dropped from two-thirds in 2015 to about half the total in 2016. Mobile impressions accessed via Android devices built up in the last quarter of the year, gaining an edge over iOS during that period.
Looking forward, a quick peak into the first two months of 2017 suggests a sustained volume of monetized mobile units and robust eCPM improvements in both APAC and EMEA, as well as a growing share of mobile app impressions for Android and robust eCPMs for iOS. But we’ll talk more about that in the upcoming edition of the Quarterly Mobile Index.
One thing is for sure, whether you are thinking about advertising options in APAC and EMEA, looking to expand your private marketplace footprint or figuring out the right operating system split for a campaign, the mobile programmatic opportunity is there for the taking. And it’s getting bigger and better.
Download the full Q4 2016 QMI report by clicking here—and be sure to check back in a few weeks for the latest mobile trends in our Q1 2017 Quarterly Mobile Index.
[1] PubMatic, “Q4 2016 Quarterly Mobile Index,” Feb 2017
[2] eMarketer, “Worldwide Internet and Mobile Users: eMarketer’s Updated Estimates and Forecast for 2015-2020,” Oct 2016
[3] eMarketer, Mar 2017″
[4] Magna Global, “Programmatic 2016 – Global Growth Continues,” Oct 2016
[5] eMarketer, Sep 2016
