Report: One Quarter Of Tablet Video Views Happen In Primetime, CTR On Pre-Roll Ads Higher On Mobile Devices

Tubemogul, the programmatic video ad buying platform, issued its latest quarterly report on mobile video viewing habits and found tablet users adopting the traditional primetime viewing habits of TV viewers. The report shows smartphone and tablet video viewing habits are fairly consistent until evening. Beginning at 7 p.m., tablet usage escalates, peaking at 11 p.m. […]

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TubemogulTubemogul, the programmatic video ad buying platform, issued its latest quarterly report on mobile video viewing habits and found tablet users adopting the traditional primetime viewing habits of TV viewers.

The report shows smartphone and tablet video viewing habits are fairly consistent until evening. Beginning at 7 p.m., tablet usage escalates, peaking at 11 p.m. In fact, just over a quarter — 25.7 percent — of all tablet video views occur between 8 p.m. and midnight.

Mobile Video Views By Device Tubemogul Data

Tablet usage is similar across iPad and Android devices throughout the evening until 10 p.m.. Android tablet video views drop significantly after 10 p.m., while iPad usage actually rises sharply between 10 p.m. and midnight.

Interestingly, smartphone use follows the opposite trend. iPhone video views actually decline after 5 p.m., while Android video views increase in the evening and peak in primetime — following more closely with tablet usage. Over one-third of all views on Android phones occur between 8 p.m. and midnight.

Another peak viewing period on tablets is in the pre-work hours. Tablet video views spike around 8 a.m. before users settle into work.

Video views across devices are highest later in the week, when completion rates are also higher. Completion rates average 52% on weekends compared to 44% on weekdays. Monday through Wednesday are the slowest mobile video viewing days. Apple iOS users are most active on Saturday, while Android users view videos most heavily on Thursdays and Fridays.

Mobile Video Views By Day of Week by Operating System- Tubemocul

Completion rate trends actually look quite different from the overall viewing habits. Completion rates rise around 4 a.m. and remain stable until the afternoon, when they drop precipitously between 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Completion rates do increase again in the evenings, peaking at 10 p.m. Still evening completion rates never rival those of daytime.

Mobile video ad completion rates by day and time of day

Mobile completion rates remain lower than desktop, ranging between 45-65 percent globally. In the U.S. mobile completion rates have risen 7.1 percent month-over-month.

Higher Pre-Roll CTR On Mobile Devices

Still, while completion rates may be lower than on desktop, click-through rates (CTR) for pre-roll ads are higher on mobile devices. Pre-roll mobile video ad CTRs in the U.S. hit 4.9 percent compared to just 0.6 percent on non-mobile devices.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Ginny Marvin
Contributor
Ginny Marvin was formerly Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

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