It’s been a very strong first quarter for the global mobile advertising space according to PubMatic’s Q1 2016 Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI), which found that ad inventory value on both mobile app and mobile web increased substantially, with CPMs (cost per thousand ad impressions) on mobile app up 67% and on mobile web up 57% year-over-year. For publishers and advertisers, this demonstrates increasing ad quality and value across both mobile platforms.

By analyzing the billions of daily impressions that flow through their platform, PubMatic observes real-time developments in the mobile space that allude to broader digital industry trends.

In its latest QMI report, PubMatic has updated and added several key benchmarks for mobile advertising performance around pricing, volume and growth. Note that each report provides a quarterly snapshot, and directional data might not be comparable with prior quarter reports.

Here are five key trends called out in the report:

1. Android app inventory value up nearly 150% YOY, as advertisers seek to target the majority of global mobile consumers
2. For premium publishers, mobile web represents the majority of mobile traffic and inventory, and a significant monetization opportunity
3. Average mobile CPMs in the Americas and the EMEA region grew 30% and 64%, respectively, demonstrating increasing quality of mobile inventory on a global level
4. Major sporting events attracted significant spending in mobile private marketplaces, driving PMP volume in the sports category over 1000% YOY
5. Programmatic is improving mobile CPMs, driving broader mobile advertising growth

Looking ahead, PubMatic suggests that premium publishers can continue to monetize on their mobile web inventory through two key strategies:

• Add geolocation (i.e. latitude & longitude) or device ID to mobile web inventory to increase targeting capabilities. Better targetability can increase value of mobile web inventory significantly.
• Bundle their mobile inventory into private marketplace (PMP) packages to make them cross-platform, which is more attractive to media buyers and typically attract higher prices than single-platform PMP packages.