Supply Side Platform PubMatic has released the first results from its Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI), relating to Q3 2015. The study analyzed billions of daily impressions from Q3, and identified a number of trends that the company says point to growth in mobile monetization.

The first is that mobile CPMs are higher, and growing faster than desktop CPMs. Mobile CPMs increased 12 per cent, year-on-year, compared to desktop CPMs, which increased by 10 per cent.

Apple app ads are increasing the fastest in price and volume. In Q3, on a year-on-year basis, monetised mobile impressions increased by 133 per cent on iOS apps; by 42 per cent on Android apps; by 24 per cent on mobile web; and by 44 percent on tablet web. CPMs increased, year-on-year, on iOS app inventory, Android app inventory and mobile web, by 109 per cent, 11 per cent and 30 pe rcent, respectively, while tablet web CPMs dropped 26 per cent.

Mobile optimisation is progressing rapidly and improving mobile web inventory quality. Average CPMs for mobile-optimised inventory rose 48 per cent in Q3, year-on-year, and fell by 26 per cent for non-mobile-optimised inventory.

Private marketplace (PMP) CPMs are higher than non-PMP CPMs, by a factor of 5-6x for mobile PMP. This is largely due to transparency of the buy, as well as access to high-quality inventory. Generally, says PubMatic, PMP inventory ensures a high level of engagement on premium sites that is well-suited for valuable brand marketing campaigns.

Finally, while there is significant growth opportunity in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions, scale makes mature markets such as N. America and Europe, Middle East & Africa, highly attractive. N. America and EMEA CPMs showed year-on-year increases of 17 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively. While APAC and LATAM CPMs decline by 17 per cent and 6 per cent year-on-year, respectively, those declines were offset by triple-digit year-on-year growth in monetised impressions in both regions.

The combination of an increased number of mobile optimized sites, new mobile opportunities in emerging markets, expanding mobile opportunities in mature markets and premium PMP performance, indicates that the rise in global mobile consumption in 2015 will drive increased revenue for publishers and advertisers across all major global regions, the company believes.

Separately, Pubmatic has been selected by Sony Mobile Communications to power programmatic advertising and ad serving for the in-app advertising inventory on a number of its premium mobile apps.

You can see the full Quarterly Mobile Index report here.