iPad users who pay for content more likely to respond to ads

Source: OPA

New research suggests people who pay for content on tablets such as the iPad are also more likely to buy products advertised on the staggeringly popular handheld devices.

According to the Online Publishers Association study of US tablet user habits, 54 per cent of people who pay to access content on the devices made a purchase after seeing an advertisement on a tablet in the last six months.

This compares to 38 per cent of all tablet users.

Further, 38 per cent of people who pay for content on iPads and Android tablets researched a product after seeing an ad on the handhelds, compared to 29 per cent of all users. Thirty per cent of paid content customers clicked on an advertisement on a tablet in the last six months, compared to 23 per cent of all users.

The research, which was conducted in March for the OPA by Frank N. Magid Associates also identified strong cross-platform selling opportunities aimed at tablet users. According to the research, 85 per cent of tablet users use two screens per day while 66 per cent use three screens per day.

Frank N. Magid Associates classifies screens as including tablets, mobile phones, televisions and personal computers.

“We ... found that tablet users purchased an average of $US359 in products from the device in the past year,” OPA president Pam Horan said in a press release.

“The two and three screen audiences are also more likely to purchase a product after seeing tablet advertising, then the general tablet population, providing an incredible opportunity for cross-platform advertising campaigns.”

In other findings:

• “Tablets have become embedded in users’ lives with 74 per cent using the device daily and 60 per cent using it several times a day;
• “Tablet users spend an average of 13.9 hours per week with their tablets;
• “92 per cent of video watched on the tablet is short form news and entertainment – which includes sports, weather, news and TV show clips – followed by 64 per cent viewing user generated content (eg. YouTube);
• “Paid apps account for 23 per cent of all tablet apps downloaded in the past year; and
• “The tablet app market has doubled with an estimated $US2.6 billion spent in 2012, up from $US1.4 billion in 2011.”

The survey also found that the proportion of men and women who use tablets is balancing out, with 52 per cent of new buyers now women. New US tablet buyers are also skewing towards an older demographic.

OPA members include BBC.com, Bloomberg.com, CBS Interactive, CNBC, Forbes.com, The Guardian, Gawker Media, Disney, msnbc.com and The New York Times, among others.

The release of the OPA report comes as early research from a Facebook Ads API partner, SocialCode, suggests that ads that appear in Facebook mobile News Feeds earn two-and-a-half times more than the social network’s desktop ads.

According to a report on popular social media site Mashable, SocialCode found the “mobile click-through rate averaged 0.79 per cent in the study, compared to 0.327 per cent for desktop feed ads”.

The click-through rate means that Facebook mobile ad feeds generate roughly $US7.51 per thousand page impressions, versus $US2.98 for desktop ads.

Source: OPA

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