Viant: Digital Ads Shifting to Mobile, OTT

The amount of digital ads being served to Internet-connected TVs grew six-fold in 2015, and the share of ads being delivered to computer devices continues to drop at a notable rate, according to a new report.

More and more, advertisers are finding the volume of impressions moving to smart phones, tablets and streaming media devices, with a fifth of all impressions (18%) hitting smartphones and tablets (up 59%) from 2014, and connected TV ad impressions growing to 3% overall, according to the study from Time-owned ad technology company Viant.

Viant estimates that this year, OTT devices will overtake tablets in terms of digital ad share, while the share of impressions on desktops and laptops will continue to drop (down 9% to 79% of impressions in 2015).

Overall, $7.5 billion was spent on video advertising in 2015, a 42% growth over 2014, Viant estimated.

“The balance of digital ad delivery is shifting away from desktops [and] laptop computers to mobile and over-the- top devices,” wrote Rick Bruner, VP of research and analytics for Viant. “Completion rates on smartphones, tables and even desktops made significant improvements compared to 2015, owing perhaps to publishers giving more focus to mobile user experience over the past two years.

“Note that it is not easy to discern if these shifts are being driven more by the targeting decisions advertisers are making or by the media habits consumers are adopting; the reality is probably a combination of both. Either way, the reign of desktop’s domination of web consumption seems destined to end soon.”

The report found that major media brands and their digital ad campaigns continue to dominate the field in terms of viewability and completion rates (71% and 92%, respectively, of all advertisers), and video completion rates rose slightly across all ads, from 78% to 81%, with streaming media and game console devices seeing nearly 100% completion rates.