Results for the First Ever Mobile Video Benchmark Study Announced

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global not-for-profit trade association that was established with the idea of leading the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA is an action-oriented organization designed to clear obstacles to market development, establish mobile media guidelines and best practices for sustainable growth. Close to 50 countries around the world are represented by more than 700 member companies.

Recently, the MMA commission a study along with its Mobile Video Committee designated to provide mobile video performance insights to advertisers, agencies, publishers and third party video servers. The results of this study were announced on Thursday.

With this study, we see for the first time a set of Click-Through Rates (CTR), which is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website as well as the effectiveness of an email campaign by the number of users that clicked on a specific link, for different types of mobile video ads. These can then be used as benchmarks by the industry to gauge relative performance of different campaigns, platforms and ad types.

Greg Stuart, who is MMA’s CEO, had the following to say, "This collaboration of MMA members to produce a 'first of its kind' Mobile Video Benchmarking Study validates that mobile video is beyond the tipping point. We are seeing new behaviors and attitudes develop as mobile becomes validated as the real first screen. It's becoming clearer to us daily that Mobile Video is proving to be a very powerful tool for marketers to tap into the biggest transformation marketing has ever experienced."

We have another first that was seen from this report. It seems that the study also discloses a very high completion rate for mobile video. We are looking at numbers that represent a high of over 90 percent. The study revealed five key benchmarks on Mobile Engagement, Ad Length, Operating Systems, and Time of Day.

The study also revealed the following four key insights about mobile video that until now have been unprecedented. They are:

• MOBILE VIDEO ENGAGEMENT: Using CTR as an initial proxy for engagement for mobile video is very strong, with CTR ranging from 1.41 percent to 2.66 percent depending on the ad format. Results are robust even for skippable video advertising despite the option for viewers to bypass ads.
• MOBILE VIDEO AD LENGTH: Click rates for ads longer than 30 seconds tend to be lower than shorter-length units. This is true for both skippable and non-skippable ads.
• MOBILE VIDEO AT MIDNIGHT: There is a high-engagement, late night window among a certain group of consumers. Completion rates peak during those hours, and the same holds for phone CTRs, suggesting a much deeper engagement.
• AD FREQUENCY AND ENGAGEMENT: The study reveals that mobile video ad engagement, like other forms of advertising, declines with excessive ad frequency.

According to the MMA, they will continue to conduct this type of study while at the same time seeking to learn how these initial metrics perform over time. The MMA is also looking to evaluate new metrics that inform the vitality of mobile video. If you are interested, the MMA is currently recruiting new and additional study participants for the next edition.