Mobile vs Non-Mobile Ad CTR

Online advertising network Chitika released a rather telling study of mobile vs. non-mobile Internet usage this week. If you've bought into the potential of the mobile market, you might want to reconsider that position. The study suggests that mobile users are approximately half as likely to click on an advertisement as non-mobile users.

According to the announcement, "Of the 92 million impressions cited in the study, approximately 1.3 million (1.5%) came from mobile browsing. While non-mobile held steady with a 0.83% clickthrough rate, mobile as a whole pulled a mere 0.48% - just over half of the average."

While growth in smartphones might indicate a strong market potential for mobile advertising, users are apparently not receptive to it (or too savvy to click on the ads) perhaps because of the immediacy (find answers quickly) that mobile provides. What I also find interesting is that iPhone users (those with the best UI) have the lowest click-through rates - just 0.30%. This might suggest, especially in light of the fact that Palm (and those from the "other" category) has an atrocious UI and is difficult to navigate around indicating some invalid clicks on some level as well.