Rich media mobile ads are delivering an engagement rate of 12.8 percent, on average, across all devices, platforms and ad placements, according to a new report from Celtra.

The results from the Celtra Mobile Rich Media Ads Performance Report Q2 2012 show that a well-designed rich media experience that uses a store locator, games or social media can have a positive impact on consumer engagement and return on investment. The report found that 67 percent of rich media ads delivered on mobile platforms are expandable banner ads, 21 percent are interstitial and 12 percent are banner ads.

?The big news here is that mobile rich media ads work,? said Matev? Klanj?ek, chief product officer of Celtra, Cambridge, MA.

?The mobile advertising ecosystem is entering a mature phase and ads have become much more sophisticated and elaborate,? he said. ?Users are engaging with more complex ads that include more content and multiple features.

?Rich media is changing the ways brands communicate with consumers by engaging them with meaningful and often useful experiences instead of bombarding them with promotional messages

Android growth is strong
Celtra reviewed 58 ads across four industry verticals that delivered over 200 million impressions for the report.

Results include that 71 percent of rich media ads are delivered on smartphones and 29 percent on tablets.

By platform, 55 percent of rich media ads appear on iOS and 45 percent Android. However, Celtra reports that Android has higher growth than iOS.

The report also takes a look at which features ads used by vertical, with direct response the most popular feature across the verticals automotive, retail, entertainment and finance. Celtra found that a click to an external service, such as an app store or Web site is almost always included in an ad.

?Direct response features perform best when users are asked to do something specific ? click to buy, call a store nearby, download an app or book a test drive,? Mr. Klanj?ek said.

In automotive, the second most popular feature was video ? at 82 percent ? followed by branding and presentation - 63 percent.

In retail, the second most used feature was social media ? at 40 percent ? followed by branding and presentation ? 35 percent.

In entertainment, the second most used feature was video with 58 percent followed by branding and presentation at 33 percent.

In finance, the second most popular feature was video ? 43 percent ? followed by location-based features ? 21 percent.

Strong performance for finance
For expandable banner ads, entertainment had the highest expansion rate ? 2.7 percent ? followed by retail with an expansion rate of 1.45 percent.

For automotive, the rate was 0.87 percent and for finance, 0.81 percent.

In terms of engagement rates, finance has the highest overall engagement rate ? 21.5 percent ? largely due to high video engagement.

For retail, the engagement rate was 14.3 percent, for entertainment 12.1 percent and for automotive, 9.9 percent.

Finance also boasts the highest engagement rate with video, mostly because video is the main or only feature on finance ads.

Finance all produces the highest click-through rate - 7.9 percent - while retail came in second with 7.4 percent.

The click-through-rate for entertainment was 3.1 percent, and for automotive 2.6 percent.

Other key findings include that gaming experiences are highly effective for entertainment with 16.6 percent of users responding to a gaming element.

Additionally, users are engaging with social media through mobile ads and sharing branded content, with 8.7 percent sharing on Facebook and 12.6 percent tweet.

?Our study surprisingly found that ads that include social media sharing engage users even more than ads that include a simple link to a social media site,? Mr. Klanj?ek said. ?Users are more willing to share branded content such as a video or photo than click on a link to the brand?s page.

?Across a sampling of ads 8.7 percent shared branded content on Facebook, 12.6 percent on Twitter and 20.3 percent on Instagram,? he said. ?This shows that users are very willing to put their name behind a brand and serve as a brand ambassador through social media sharing.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York