Tablet Usage Jumps 87% in the Evening, Mobile Engagement to Spike During the Holidays

Timing, timing, timing. That’s what Jumptap’s latest MobileSTAT (“Simple Targeting & Audience Trends”) report is about.

Among the findings meant to help mobile brands better engage consumers is that tablet usage spikes during the nighttime. Also, mobile click-through rate (CTR) spikes in December and January.

“It’s About Time,” Jumptap’s October MobileSTAT report, mined its network data from October to find that smartphones (i.e., iPhones) are used fairly steadily throughout the day. Usage dips 9 percent below average hourly usage from 8 a.m.-noon, rises 9 percent from noon-4 p.m., rises 16 percent from 4-8 p.m. and rises 52 percent from 8 p.m.-midnight.

Tablet usage changes more dramatically throughout the day, according to Jumptap. The report found that tablets (i.e., iPads) see usage drop 23 percent form 8 a.m.-noon, drop 7 percent from noon-4 p.m., rise 57 percent from 4-8 p.m. and rise 87 percent from 8 p.m.-midnight.

The takeaway, according to Jumptap: “To reach consumers as they jump devices from day-to-night, advertisers should include day-parting and tablet devices in their mobile campaign.”

The report also highlighted findings that contract the notion that hyperlocal ads reach specific, static audiences regardless of the time of day. To illustrate this, Jumptap uses a hotel in Hollywood as an example. Ads sent to the hotel on any given Saturday would reach different sets of people depending on the time. For example, at 7 a.m. ads would reach hotel shift workers, at 10 a.m. they would reach tourists, at noon they would reach the lunch crowd, at 4 p.m. they would reach creative professionals and at 10 p.m. they would reach the nightlife crowd.

Jumptap also found that mobile CTR is steady throughout the week for most major industries. An exception is the restaurant industry, which sees CTR surge during the weekends. This is a call for advertisers in the restaurant and related businesses to focus their mobile media on weekends.

CTR peaked above the average monthly CTR in December and January last year, which has historically been the case, according to Jumptap. The company says this happens because “consumers unwrap and explore their new mobile devices.” Conversion rates, on the other hand, rose during the summer and peaked in July last year.

Jumptap also shared their 2011 data to predict how ad traffic and CTR will rise during the major winter holidays this year:

According to IHG iSuppli, 17 million 7-inch tablets shipped last year, with 34 million expected to ship this year. In 2013, 67 million 7-inch tablets are expected to ship, which would account for a third of total tablet shipments worldwide.

This year, there are 69.6 million tablet users, according to eMarketer’s estimates. In 2013, this number will surge to 99.0 million, a 42.3 percent year-over-year increase.

Google recently offered some advice on how websites should be optimized to serve smartphone and tablet users. Among the company’s tips are to offer tablet users your desktop site unless you have a tablet-optimized site ready for them, and to use responsive Web design. The line between the site tablet users see and the one smartphone users see should be clearly drawn.

By Jason Hahn