Dive Brief:
- Drawbridge, a cross-device identity company, analyzed almost two trillion mobile in-app ad requests over Q1 this year and found that most happened between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. worldwide.
- In-app ad requests are seen as a reasonable approximation of app usage, so the results shouldn’t be overly surprising to most marketers.
- Breaking the results down by device, iOS had most weekday requests between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., while Android’s window was 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. IOS also had a fluctuation at its peak of 34% above the index on weekday evenings and bottomed out close to half the average in the early morning, while Android had much less variation.
Dive Insight:
According eMarketer, Nielsen conducted similar research that looked at the average time spent with different devices among U.S. adults that found mobile use was highest between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., and average daily time spent on smartphones was higher than desktops, set-top boxes such as gaming consoles, and even smartphone’s mobile kin, tablets. Smartphone use was less than both TV and radio.
Even though marketers should be conducting testing on their specific audience to figure out what devices they are using and when they are most likely to respond to marketing messages, the Drawbridge research does offer some basic insight into mobile campaigns. From targeting iOS users on weekday evenings rather than mornings, and Android users throughout the day, the findings can help marketers take advantage of the mobile moments when consumers are most likely to engage.