• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, March 23, 2016

Access to large quantities of data isn’t as much of a problem as access to the right kinds of data for those in the advertising business. Having quality data was extremely valuable to publishers and advertisers last year.

Ads with a GPS coordinate increased eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) by 162%, and those that leveraged user data like age and gender saw their eCPMs triple on average in Q4, according to the Global Trends in Mobile Advertising report from Smaato.

2015 was a good year for mobile. Mobile spending surpassed desktop spending in the U.S. in 2015, increasing 174% year-over-year (YoY) from Q4 2014. U.S. consumers also added about an hour of time on their phones as well.

Mobile ad spending is expected to surpass desktop globally in 2016, not just in the US. Those dollars are shifting to in-app more than Web browser sites as well, likely due to the combined influence of ad blockers and consumer eyeballs spending more time in-app.

The holiday season saw a continuation of the trend of spending shifting to earlier in the year. Christmas Eve used to be the high point of ad spending, but advertisers have started spending earlier and earlier, with Black Friday and Thanksgiving being the days with the highest spend recorded in 2015.

Android and iOS continue to duke it out—Apple consumers have typically been fewer and more valuable than those that use Android, but that gap appears to be closing quickly. According to the report, Android’s eCPM’s are projected come up even with iOS as early as Q4 this year.

Elsewhere, China saw a 1,246% lift in spending on mobile advertising in Q4 2015. The country is expected to catch up to the U.S. as the biggest ad market in 2018.