Dive Brief:
- AOL in a bid to become a player in the growing mobile advertising space recently bought Millennial Media for $238 million.
- Even though the acquisition gave AOL instant access to Millennial’s inventory of 65,000 apps and one billion active monthly users, it still trails mobile ad leaders Google and Facebook.
- Google dominates mobile ads at almost 33% compared to Facebook’s over 19%.
Dive Insight:
Last week's multi-million dollar purchase gave AOL immediate access to Millennial Media’s about one billion active monthly users in global markets in the UK, Germany, France and Japan, along with all the user data Millennial has been collecting.
EMarketer analyst Cathy Boyle said mobile ad companies have to offer three things to advertisers: scale, robust audience targeting and sophisticated measurement tools, adding, “AOL will gain ground in two of those areas through its purchase of Millennial Media. The acquisition will expand the breadth and depth of the in-app display ad inventory AOL can offer advertisers, which will help those advertisers achieve greater scale."
Even though the deal puts AOL in the marketplace, the climb for market share will be steep with Google and Facebook entrenched at the top. Currently Google commands 32.9% of U.S. mobile ad revenue, Facebook grabs 19.4%, and Millennial Media comes in at 0.3%.
Boyle added that "In addition, the publisher will gain the mobile user profile data that Millennial Media has been amassing for years, which will help improve AOL's ability to find and target specific audiences on mobile devices."