A new survey from AOL, in conjunction with the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, says mobile advertising is very effective, with iPads leading in-home conversions.
According to the survey, fully 65 percent of mobile conversions were on tablets, and much to the chagrin of Apple CEO Tim Cook, 85 percent of tablet conversions came from iPads.
The report seeks to understand how consumers engage with content across multiple devices. The findings are based on analytics derived from more than 500 billion online ad impressions and 100 million “conversion events” across all devices.
The data reveals the persuasiveness of mobile ads and that consumers are purchasing more goods and services from their mobile devices than previously thought.
According to the survey, nearly a third 31 percent of conversions across four verticals–travel, retail, auto, and telecom–occurred while on a mobile device. Moreover, mobile conversions have grown quickly: over the past year, the cross-industry conversion rate for mobile grew 28 percent.
The industries with the highest mobile conversion rates were telecom at 37 percent (purchasing of new plans and devices) and retail at 35 percent (making a purchase). Auto was next at 22 percent (finding a local dealer, requesting more information, configuring a car and travel) and travel at 20 percent (booking a hotel, flight or car reservation.)
The study attributes that growth to increased time spent using mobile devcies in the home. According to the data, consumers now spend 25 percent of their total digital time at home on tablets or cell phones. Moreover, 75 percent of all mobile ad impressions were viewed within the home.
The new survey follows on a recent report from Havas Worldwide, in partnership with Market Probe International, that showed American have are behind the curve in shopping on their mobile devices. The Havas studay found that just 16 percent of US online consumers have used a mobile device to shop online, far short of consumers in emerging markets such as China (50 percent) and India (42 percent).
