Tablets are starting to grab advertising from the web, making up as much as a fifth of Google’s ad revenue in the US this year, according to Marin Software.

The online marketing firm also found click-through rates (CTR) higher on mobile devices than on desktop operating systems. British smartphones produced a CTR of nearly 6%, while tablets contributed another 4%. By comparison, desktops were a relatively poor performer for Google with a CTR of 2.3%.
Conversion rates – the number who buy something after clicking an advertisement – remain better on desktops, however.
In the UK, 4.1% of users who clicked on an ad went on to spend money, compared to 2.6% on tablets and just 1.6% on smartphones.
However, Marin’s report noted that “smartphone conversions may be happening via a phone call or in a physical store, leading to artificially depressed measurements”.
There was particularly good news for Google’s British arm, which saw UK smartphones and tablets generating 24.4% of all paid clicks from Google’s adverts in 2012 – an increase of 65% versus 2011.
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