Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape

2 - Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape

IntroductionIt’s no secret that mobile is on its way to devouring consumers’ attention. In fact, 23% of time spent on media in the US each day is on mobile, surpassing computers and edging ever nearer to television1. So why then does it seem mobile commerce hasn’t taken off at quite the same rate and who is ultimately responsible – merchants or publishers?

Working with over 1.5 million websites and apps worldwide with insight into the devices used to view, click and make purchases online, Skimlinks decided to investigate. While our research showed consumers are very engaged with mobile content, they haven’t yet made the leap to purchasing directly through mobile phones. This could be down to user concerns about security risks associated with buying on mobile, but in many cases we discovered that merchants still aren’t making it easy.

As Andreia Campos from Gleam, a fashion mobile app, states: “Currently many merchants’ mobile sites are not optimised for a mobile purchase to take place. Not only is reading these sites on a phone sometimes difficult, the information regarding sizes and quantities is not clear and easy to select therefore making the purchases quite hard.”

Key Findings:

• Mobile phones account for over 20% of impressions and 18% of clicks among publishers…Yet, this device is only worth 10% of the sales volume driven by publishers

• Tablets have the highest conversion rate (3.87% on average), as well as the highest sales value proportionally with 11% of impressions vs 18% of sales value

• Computers remain the preferred device with over 60% of clicks, sales and sales value

• In terms of publisher types, Blogs and Forums drive the most sales on mobile phones and tablets

• Publishers in the categories of Lifestyle/Interest Groups and Technology are at the forefront of the mobile trend and the ones who drive the most commissions from mobile phones and tablets

1 Mobile Continues to Steal Share of US Adults’ Daily Time Spent with Media, eMarketer, April, 2014

Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape - 3

1. Publisher landscape: Device usage............................ 4

2. Impressions........................................................ .......... 5 2.1. Impressions by publisher type and device 2.2. Impressions by publisher category and device

3. Clicks..............................................................................7 3.1. Clicks by publisher type and device 3.2. Clicks by publisher category and device 3.3. Distribution of clicks per hour

4. Commissions and Conversion Rates..........................10 4.1. Commission by publisher type and device 4.2. Commissions by publisher category and device 4.3. Conversion rate by device

5. Conclusion.................................................................... 13

Contents

4 - Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape

1. Publisher landscape: Device usageDespite the growth of mobile and tablet usage over the past couple of years, clicks, sales and total commissions from computer users still dominates. Interestingly and perhaps surprisingly, tablets take the cake with the highest conversion rate. We can only speculate, but Internet Retailer2 and Adobe3 have some compelling arguments about purchasing power and why tablet users might purchase more than users on other devices.

What seems clear however is that smartphones have a significant percentage of impressions (20%), but drive a much lower number of sales (16%) and an even lower sales value (10%). Proportionally, smartphones appear to deliver the least commissions to publishers. On the other hand, computer usage prevails with the highest value for impressions, clicks, number of sales and sales value, showing just how important it remains among the different devices studied.

The divergence between these numbers could be due to users having issues making purchases with their mobile phones or, in some cases, not being confident enough to make large purchases via their mobile phones and instead opt to use other mediums such as tablets and computers.

2 Who is the tablet shopper?, Kevin Woodward, Internet Retailer, January 2012 3 Adobe Digital Marketing Study Finds Tablets Rule For Shopping, David Gardner, CMO.com, January 2012

Device type

Data Point Mobile (Smartphone) Tablet Computer Others

Impressions 20.45% 10.59% 68.18% 0.78%

Clicks (Proportion) 18.29% 11.51% 65.94% 4.26%

CTR 0.48% 0.39% 0.48% N/A

# Sales 15.85% 16.73% 67.07% 0.35%

Conv Rate 0.97% 3.87% 2.99% N/A

Sales Value 10.06% 17.57% 64.70% 7.67%Table 1 - Device landscape, June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

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2. Impressions2.1. Impressions by publisher type and device

Key findings:

• Content publishers receive the highest proportion of impressions from computers (78%)

• On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, UGC (user generated content) publishers seem to be at the forefront of mobile with 36% of impressions coming from mobile phones

• The publishers solely focused in Content are the only ones that have more tablet impressions than mobile, with 12% and 9%, respectively

As the table shows, computers dominate impressions amongst all publisher types. However, mobile seems to be gaining traction in terms of impressions, especially among UGC (user generated content) publishers with 36% of impressions. This number follows the same trend as other UGC and social network giants including Facebook, which has seen more than half of its traffic4 coming from mobile.

It is also interesting to note that publishers who are heavily “Sale”-focused have the largest percentage of tablet impressions, at 17%. This could be due to the fact that this type of publisher is closely related to products and consumers may be inclined to use their tablets to browse product-related content.

4 More than half of Facebook’s referral traffic now comes from mobile, Emil Protalinski, The Next Web, February 2014

Site type Computer Mobile Other TabletContent 78,68% 9,38% 0,34% 11,60%Blog 65,22% 19,20% 3,18% 12,40%Editorial 64,35% 24,03% 0,71% 10,90%UGC 50,33% 36,12% 3,72% 9,83%Forum 70,73% 18,06% 0,60% 10,61%Other 63,22% 26,81% 0,84% 9,12%Price Comparison 64,00% 23,29% 0,47% 12,24%Sale 61,18% 21,18% 0,44% 17,21%Search Engine 75,92% 14,80% 0,39% 8,90%Voucher / Coupon / Deal 62,46% 25,29% 0,82% 11,44%

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Figure 1 - Impressions by publisher type and device, June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

6 - Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape

2.2. Impressions by publisher category and device

Key findings:

• Travel and Business & Finance categories receive the least amount of impressions from mobile phones, with 8% and 5%, respectively

• Despite a low percentage of impressions coming from mobile, the Travel category receives a high proportion of impressions from tablets, more than anyone else, at nearly 20%

• Sports and Media/Entertainment receive the most impressions in mobile (27% and 24%, respectively)

Travel publishers seem well positioned to receive the most impressions from tablets, but not as many from mobile. The relative high price of travel related purchases, such as flights, hotels and travel packages, might be an explanation for consumer preference of using tablet to browse through travel publishers instead of their phones.

Perhaps what’s not so surprising is the significant percentage of impressions that Media/Entertainment and Sports publishers receive. Digiday had similar conclusions5: many of the UK’s top publishers, including the likes of Financial Times and The Guardian, have seen an increasing number of readers using mobile to access their websites. CNN and ESPN have described a similar phenomenon. While CNN has said that in 2013 about 40% of its traffic6 came from mobile, ESPN7 reported that an increasing share of its traffic is coming from both mobile and tablet.

5 Mobile traffic surpasses desktop for top UK publishers, Chris Smith, Digiday, August 20146 2013: CNN Digital Posts Best Year Ever; Dominates Mobile, CNN Press Room, January 2014 7 ESPN Digital Media sets sports category traffic record in September, Kevin Ota, ESPN Front Row, October, 2014

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Figure 2 - Impressions by publisher category and device. June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

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3. Clicks3.1. Clicks by publisher type and device

Key findings:

• Mobile Apps are almost exclusively clicked by mobiles and tablets• Content, Editorial and Forum publishers have the greatest proportion of

tablet clicks, at around 16%, but still nowhere near mobile• Price Comparison have the most clicks from computers, receiving over 80%

of clicks

Content, Editorial and Forum publishers receive a large percentage of clicks from tablets and desktop computers which could be because these types of publishers are better optimized to receive traffic on these devices than mobile.

Value Computer Mobile Other TabletContent 69,04% 16,13% 2,35% 12,48%Blog 58,89% 15,85% 14,24% 11,02%Editorial 66,18% 18,89% 0,61% 14,31%Forum 65,86% 17,08% 2,41% 14,65%Mobile App 0,12% 86,17% 1,58% 12,14%Other 69,35% 10,70% 11,30% 8,65%Price Comparison 83,08% 6,15% 1,54% 9,23%Search Engine 74,86% 17,41% 0,52% 7,21%Voucher / Coupon / Deal 70,44% 14,52% 3,74% 11,30%

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Figure 3 - Clicks by publisher type and device, June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

8 - Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape

3.2. Clicks by publisher category and device

Key findings:

• News publishers receive the most amount of clicks from computer (77%)• Business & Finance publishers see a high percentage of clicks from tablets,

capturing approximately 24% of clicks. Lifestyle/Interest Groups and Travel also see a large proportion of tablet clicks with 26% and 22%, respectively

• Fashion/Beauty and Lifestyle/Interest Groups are the categories with the highest click percentage coming from mobile at 21% and 26%, respectively

Compared to other categories, it’s surprising to see that News publishers do not receive as many clicks from mobile phones or tablet. With mobile and tablet driving a higher proportion of impressions for News publishers and computers accounting for 77% of clicks, this could indicate that although users consume news on mobile phones, they are more likely to explore additional properties on computers.

Following a different trend are Fashion/Beauty and Lifestyle/Interest Groups publishers which see a large portion of their clicks coming from mobile and tablet, totalling nearly 40% in both cases. In our experience, these types of publishers are more geared toward presenting image-based content which may be more suited to receiving clicks from mobile and tablets.

Sector Computer Mobile Other TabletAutomotive 69,75% 16,22% 0,42% 13,62%Business & Finance 57,83% 17,47% 0,60% 24,10%Fashion/Beauty 56,40% 24,42% 5,15% 14,03%General 69,48% 19,44% 2,67% 8,41%Lifestyle/Interest Groups 57,49% 26,40% 0,54% 15,57%Media/Entertainment 72,08% 16,06% 0,55% 11,31%News 77,91% 11,24% 0,38% 10,47%Other 68,75% 17,65% 0,23% 13,37%Sports 64,77% 11,79% 9,67% 13,77%Technology 64,63% 17,49% 4,89% 12,99%Travel 72,19% 10,16% 0,00% 17,65%

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Figure 4 - Clicks by publisher category and device. Created in June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

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3.3. Distribution of clicks per hour

Key findings:

• Mobile and tablet clicks outperform computer after the hours of 8pm and 9pm through to 7am, when computer has a slight lead for the rest of the day. Note that this graph shows the percentage of traffic per platform (i.e. 5% for computer is 5% of computer traffic for the day). If these were absolute percentages for traffic, computer would be in the lead

• A larger proportion of computer clicks are carried out during the day than on other devices

The distribution of clicks per hour shows that people tend to use their computers during the day to click, which makes sense as most people tend to be at work during those times. However as the day reaches its later stages and people are at home, they tend to divide their media consumption between TV, tablets and phones8.

8 The New Multi-Screen World Study, Think with Google, August 2012

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Figure 5 - Graph of click distribution per device, June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

10 - Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape

4. Commissions and Conversion Rates4.1. Commission by publisher type and device

Key findings:

• Computers drive the most commissions across every site type. This is not really surprising as Computer also dominates in clicks. No clicks, no money

• Only Voucher publishers receive more commission via mobile (17%) than tablets (10%)

• Users continue to prefer to buy via computer or tablet rather than mobile

Mobile phones are a force that cannot be ignored, but computers still drive most of the purchases across the different publisher types. From a consumer perspective, we know that a big barrier to mobile commerce is still down to security concerns9. However, we also found that of the 200 top merchants that work with us, 11% do not yet have a mobile site and 40% do not have a mobile app for at least one of the main platforms (iOS or Android). This not only adds to the mobile commerce barrier for consumers, it limits how publishers can work with merchants when it comes to mobile.

9 Screen size and security concerns among main barriers to mobile commerce: report, David Moth, Econsultancy blog, June 2013

Figure 6 - Commission distribution by publisher type and device, June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

Site typeContentBlogEditorialUGCForumOtherSearch EngineVoucher / Coupon / Deal

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4.2. Commissions by publisher category and device

Key findings:

• Despite Business & Finance seeing a large number of clicks from tablet, with only 2% of commissions being achieved by tablet, very few readers of this category are actually purchasing from the device

• Travel sees a small number of mobile clicks, but an even smaller number of mobile commissions (2%)

• Technology and Lifestyle/Interest Groups publishers see the most commissions from tablet and mobile app clicks with over 40% of commissions being driven from these two devices

Looking at the bigger picture, mobile phones drive 20% of the total impressions but the commissions achieved by publishers have, on average, only 10% of the value of all of the transactions these publishers drive. Certain types of publishers, like Technology and Lifestyle/Interest seem to be better positioned to drive online purchases through mobile and tablet. Admittedly, the readers of Technology content might be more tech savvy than most readers and Lifestyle/Interest Groups are following the trend that was previously seen with clicks. The main conclusion however is that mobile phones are driving far fewer conversions than tablet, despite receiving more impressions (20% vs 11%).

Figure 7 - Commission distribution by publisher category and device, June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

Computer Mobile Others TabletAutomotive 78,38% 8,65% 0,00% 12,97%Business & Finance 85,37% 12,20% 0,00% 2,44%Fashion/Beauty 76,03% 11,81% 0,25% 11,90%General 75,06% 14,79% 0,66% 9,49%Lifestyle/Interest Groups 62,83% 19,13% 0,36% 17,68%Media/Entertainment 73,68% 9,47% 0,00% 16,84%News 69,23% 10,86% 0,45% 19,46%Other 76,00% 20,00% 0,00% 4,00%Sports 77,78% 11,11% 0,00% 11,11%Technology 0,567056706 0,180918092 0,00180018 0,250225023Travel 0,840909091 0,017045455 0 0,142045455

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12 - Mobile trends in the content publisher landscape

4.3. Conversion rate by device

Key findings:

• Tablet usage receives the highest conversion rate of all devices, with 3.87%• Mobile phones only convert at a 0.97% rate, nearly four times less than tablet

Tablets have a far better conversion than mobiles or computers, with a 3.87% conversion rate. Computers comes second, followed by mobile. Based on the relative percentage of commissions versus percentage of impressions from tablets, it appears that users are more and more comfortable making purchases via tablets. A trend Dutch online payments company Adyen is also reporting10. The larger size of the tablet’s screen may also mean that the mobile experience is not as affected by the lack of apps or mobile prepared sites. The same cannot be said for mobile phones that depend much more on mobile apps or mobile websites for a compatible user experience.

10 Tablets becoming go-to devices for high-value purchases, Adyen figures show, David Mayer, Gigaom, 2014

Figure 8 - Conversion rate per device, June 2014. Source: Skimbit Ltd.

Tablet Mobile Computer3,87% 0,97% 2,99%

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5. ConclusionMobile phones continue to gain ground in the device war. Among Skimlinks publishers, they account for over 20% of impressions and 18% of clicks. Yet mobile is only responsible for 10% of the sales value driven by publishers. These numbers put a spotlight on mobile commerce, which doesn’t seem to be quite up to speed with the rapid adoption of mobile consumption.

While it’s hard to assess just how big of a challenge mobile commerce is to merchants, Jumio, an online and mobile payments and identity verification company says that its issues with mobile purchases have cost merchants nearly 16 billion dollars in the past holiday season alone. Some of the reasons pointed out include user security concerns, long forms required before making a purchase, inconsistent experiences11 across devices and checkouts simply not working.

Accounting for over 60% of clicks, sales and conversions across the publisher landscape, computers remain the preferred device for ecommerce overall. While computers are very much still relevant, when it comes to mcommerce tablets are driving the highest conversion rate, as well as the highest sales value proportionally. This trend shows that not only are consumers more likely to buy higher value items on tablets; users want to make purchases on mobile phones, but are still more comfortable purchasing through larger traditional screens, like tablets and computers.

When it comes to the verticals that perform best on mobile, Lifestyle/Interest Groups and Technology publishers are at the forefront of the trend, driving the most commissions from mobile phones and tablets. Blogs and Forums receive the most sales from mobile phones and tablets and tend to receive more commission from mobile phones.

To make sure mobile publishers are rewarded for driving a sale, Skimlinks has developed tools to help mobile developers monetize their content. While this does not solve all of the industry’s issues, it is a first step to make sure credit is given where it is due across every device. What is clear though is that making mcommerce work is a joint effort and a lot more needs to be done by online merchants as mobile establishes itself as the go-to device for content consumption and subsequent purchases.

11 Why consumers hate mobile sites (and what you can do about it), Bill Siwicki, Internet Retailer, March 2014

More information:Merchants on Mobile: Find out which of the top 200 merchants working with Skimlinks are mobile ready and whether or not they are rewarding publishers for the sales they drive on mobile sites and apps.

About Skimlinks

Skimlinks creates native monetization solutions for publishers, rewarding them for any e-commerce they drive by turning product links and product references into trackable affiliate links. Integrated with more than 18,000 merchants, Skimlinks processes 300 million clicks a month on over 1.5 million sites around the web. Our technology helps publishers like Time Inc, Gawker Media, Condé Nast, Hearst UK, and The Huffington Post earn revenue and gain insight from their commerce-related content

Learn more at www.skimlinks.com.

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