Consumers who view video ads on a mobile device are three times more likely to click through than when they are watching on desktop, according to an Unruly report released today.

The report also shows that the average CTR for mobile video has tripled in the last year, rising from 3.73 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 13.64 percent in the third quarter of 2013. Additionally, interaction rates for mobile have risen to 22.64 percent, up 95.49 percent from last year.

?Mobile video is immersive and viewers are highly engaged when they are consuming content on their mobile devices, unlike on other more traditional formats such as TV,? said David Waterhouse, head of content at Unruly Media, New York.

?Mobile and tablet users are also 3x as likely to view a video as laptop users (according to Pew Internet data),? he said. ?Just think about the number of people you see walking down the street, almost walking into lampposts when looking at their phones!

?Whether a consumer is playing a game, reading a blog post or browsing Twitter, they are engulfed in their device and the content that?s delivered on it.?

Social video platform Unruly looked at its more than 3,000 branded campaigns and measured their performance on mobile and desktop to analyze the media. The report looked at plays, CTRs, interaction rates and replay rates.

Mobile video
While desktop video engagement also increased in the past year, mobile video engagement particularly soared.

In the last two quarters, click-through-rates on mobile were 11.18 percent, and CTRs on desktop increased to 4.25 percent.

While month-on-month mobile replay rates fluctuated throughout 2013, year-to-date figures were one-and-a-half times higher than desktop rates. 

Marketers seem to be responding to this trend accordingly. A recent IAB report found that advertising revenue in the United States from digital video reached $1.3 billion in the first half of this year, a 24 percent increase from last year.

With mobile video clearly outperforming desktop video, marketers ought to consider how much they devote to the different media.

Marketing to mobile
Unruly?s report shows that marketers should embrace mobile video as a way to engage consumers.

Mr. Waterhouse believes that there is no better time to invest in the medium than now. There is so much video content on mobile, so there is a lot of free space for advertising.

He also advises marketers to take advantage of platforms such as Vine and Instagram to easily create content on the fly.

A number of brands have been experimenting with these platforms.

For example, Jack in the Box created a ?Go Big? campaign on Vine to highlight its newest menu additions (see story).

?There are two key points for marketers to consider; first, remember your audience ? it?s people-first then the platform,? Mr. Waterhouse said. ?Second, when they understand how their audience is consuming the content, then create campaigns appropriate for the environment. From there, they can devise appropriate targeting to make campaigns memorable.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York