The mobile advertising market is in full bloom. According to eMarketer, mobile advertising spending will increase to $100 billion in 2016, a 400% increase from 2013. Not only that, but eMarketer predicts that mobile video ads spending will rise to $195.55 billion by 2019. With mobile ad spending on the rise worldwide year over year, the landscape looks pretty optimistic.

And indeed, advertisers and publishers have joined efforts to be able to respond to the various ways in which consumers now use digital media. Technical innovations have made it possible for advertisers to connect with customers even offline, and digital advertising has changed a lot since its earlier days. The proliferation of mobile devices has urged marketers to rethink their marketing strategies: in-store retail marketing via mobile now plays a huge role, with shoppers researching products on mobile in-store and making in-store purchases via mobile; social TV activity is making advertisers think of new ways they could monetize this trending behavior, etc.

As more and more people worldwide gain access to smart devices, the mobile advertising market will continue to experience globalization put forth by economic growth and digital technology. One question though comes to mind when publishers and advertisers turn to the mobile video ecosystem to distribute mobile video ads on mobile devices: iOS or Android? Which platform leads the market? How does that reflect on what a publisher needs and expects from its mobile video ads performance? Does either of the two platforms influence video performance and do they outperform each other in terms of generating traffic and/or revenue?

According to Opera’s State of Mobile Advertising Q1 2015 findings, Android tops traffic and revenue generation in mobile advertising, but iOS and tablets however lead in monetization so far. Android first outperformed iOS in traffic in the first quarter of 2014, the study reveals, and it continues to lead the traffic market with a 65.2% share of impressions, a growth of 2.5% since Q4 2014.

Source: Opera Mediaworks

A key finding in the study shows that video ads performance differs on iOS and Android, with Apple device users having a higher completion rate (87.2%) than Android users (76.7%). The highest monetization potential, according to Opera’s results, is still with iOS, “primarily because those devices have a larger market share in regions where advertising rates are higher, such as Western Europe and the United States.”

The iPad is currently the device that serves the highest revenue per impression, with a monetization share in Q1 of 4 times that of its traffic volume. Android tablets however are also picking up pace, according to findings, its revenue generation having increased this first quarter and expected to continue to rise this year. It looks like video is growing and it is growing fast. It is actually the fastest-growing mobile ad format, the share of impressions from video ad formats having increased from 2.5% of all impressions in Q1 2014 to 12.8% now.