Mobile ad optimizer and advertising company Smaato has released its April 2010 data, looking at clickthrough rates and ad network fill rates for the global mobile advertising market. The data is drawn from 40 mobile ad networks and over 6bn ad requests served in Smaato’s network of more than 4,000 registered mobile publishers in April 2010.
The April metrics show that Symbian handsets and feature phones have bucked the global drop in clickthrough rates, with both registering growth. In the US, Smaato’s metrics reveal that Symbian dominates the region in terms of clickthrough rates, 2.7 times higher than its closest rival, Apple’s iPhone. Smaato says the data acts as further proof that there’s more to mobile advertising than the iPhone, even in its largest market, the US.
The performance of different operating systems in April shows feature phone handsets continue their consistent rise in clickthrough rates, indexing 134, up nine points from March, and closing the gap on Symbian (157 rising just a point from the previous month). The remaining operating systems saw drops in the index, as clickthrough rates decreased across the globe. The index consists of the average clickthrough rates of all devices, which is set to 100.
Smaato’s metrics also include data on ad networks’ fill rate, which is defined as the percentage of ads delivered per ad request, and varies by factors such as country, device and content type.
The fill rates of the global top 10 ad networks, dropped from March to April, with the global average dipping to 26 per cent, compared to 28 per cent in March. There are still six ad networks performing above the average, but the gap between the best performing three has closed significantly, to just 11 percentage points.
The April data also throws the spotlight on the US and the big five European countries (UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) in order to compare how the western markets line up against each other in terms of operating system clickthrough rates and ad network fill rates. 
While Symbian dominates the US, with a clickthrough rate index of 339, almost three times ahead of its closest rival, the iPhone on 125, it’s a different story in Europe. Here, Windows Mobile takes a surprise lead in terms of clickthrough rates (126), closely followed by the iPhone (122), pushing Symbian in to third on 111.
The average fill rate of mobile ad networks in the US rose to 46 per cent in April from 41 per cent in March. This is almost double the worldwide average. Despite the average increase, however, only three ad networks out of the top 10 performed above this, with most of the ad networks suffering from a drop in fill rates, reflecting the worldwide decline.
In Europe, the average fill rate of 25 per cent is much closer to the worldwide average of 26 per cent, with six of the top 10 ad networks performing above the average. Europe has three ad networks performing significantly stronger than the rest, with 22 percentage points separating the top ad network (93 per cent) from the third best (71 per cent).
You can access the full report here.
