Mobile Advertising Standard Average CPM Rates 2013

Average CPM Rates for Mobile Advertising,

CPM - or cost per mille, is the price of 1,000 advertising impressions. It’s the cost a company pays to reach 1,000 consumers through a single media outlet. Marketing professionals use CPM to compare the costs of campaigns across different mediums. It measures efficiency, and the channel with the lowest CPM is generally the most efficient, as it costs less to reach more consumers.

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Rates

In a presentation at the 2012 All Things Digital conference, Mary Meeker, a venture capitalist and former Wall Street analyst, estimated the average cost per thousand impressions was about 75 cents for mobile ads. This is much lower than the average $3.50 CPM for desktop Web campaigns, and much lower than the CPM for print ads, which can reach as much as $100.

Device

CPM rate can vary even within the same channel, though this is largely due to traffic. Certain mobile devices provide more traffic than others, driving up their ad prices. In the second quarter of 2012, iOS -- Apple’s mobile operating system -- accounted for just over 46 percent of mobile traffic, and the CPM was $2.49, according to a report in Opera Software. Android, on the other hand, accounted for 24 percent of mobile traffic, with a $2.10 CPM. RIM OS, BlackBerry’s mobile operating system, had 6.3 percent of traffic and a 64-cent CPM, while the lowest cost per thousand impressions was found on Windows Phone, at an average of 20 cents -- but on just .08 percent of traffic.

Considerations

Looking at these numbers, you’d think the most cost-effective choice would be ad space on mobile apps for Windows Phone. You can reach 1,000 users for just 20 cents, saving more than $2 per thousand impressions when compared to iOS. But CPM doesn’t measure effectiveness. Just because something has a low CPM doesn’t mean it’s a good investment of your advertising dollars -- iOS had a much higher CPM but generated far more traffic. A cheap ad that reaches the wrong audience -- or very little audience -- isn’t money well spent.

CTR

To estimate effectiveness, marketers sometimes turn to CTR, or click-through rates, which is the percentage of users who click the mobile ad. In a report for the fourth quarter of 2012, MoPub, a mobile ad server, compared the click-through rates of iOS and Android. From December 1-14, iOS had a CTR of 1.3 percent, while Android provided a 1 percent CTR. From December 15-31, CTR improved for iOS, with 1.4 percent of users clicking through. Android’s CTR remained the same. During the next two weeks, iOS’s CTR jumped to 1.7 percent, and Android’s CTR moved just slightly, to 1.1 percent. But like CPM, CTR doesn't provide a complete picture of a campaign's effectiveness. Just because a user doesn't click through doesn't mean an "impression" wasn't made.