Tablets outperform smartphones by any mobile advertising measure, according to an Adfonic report – for all campaign types, and most verticals.

The AdSnap report, based on billions of ad impressions on Adfonics platform, found that CTR (Click-Through Rates) were 250 per cent better on tablets than smartphones for branding campaigns, and 150 per cent better for direct response campaigns.

According to the report, the typical daily profiles of tablet and smartphone use are complementary, with tablet usage higher in the evening, with 63 per cent of tablet ad requests coming after 2pm, and a more consistent CTR throughout the day. Smartphone usage and CTR, meanwhile, are higher in the early hours of the morning – as shown on the above graph.

“Our latest AdMetrics report showed that tablets had slowly but surely penetrated across Adfonic’s smarter buying platform, particularly driven by the festive season,” said Adfonic CEO and co-founder Victor Malachard. “This new AdSnap analysis demonstrates that tablets are outperforming smartphones in many scenarios – but that there remains a distinct role for smartphone campaigns planned and executed to complement their larger cousins.”

Tablets increased their share of ad requests by 40 per cent over the course of just two weeks, during the Christmas period last year – a jump driven primarily by adoption of Android tablets, and the Kindle Fire HD in particular.