The mobile advertising market in Vietnam is expected to reach US$211 million by the end of this year, according to the “Vietnam Mobile & Smartphone Application Report in the first half of 2020” released by Appota Group - a digital entertainment company.

Vietnam ranks 6th in Southeast Asia in terms of mobile ad spending and accounts
for the largest share of the digital industry (Photo: enternews.vn)

The report said Vietnam ranks 6th in Southeast Asia in terms of mobile ad spending and accounts for the largest share of the digital industry.

Due to COVID-19, the increasing trend of users using the internet means businesses are choosing digital advertising and promotions in response to the pandemic. Of which, mobile advertising accounts for more than 60% of total digital ad spending.

Also according to the report, 47% of surveyed businesses said they increased their budgets for digital media channels, 31% of businesses increased their promotion budgets, 28% focused more on selling on online channels, and only 25% changed their logistics system.

Dang Thai Son, Marketing Director of Appota Group, said the above figures showed that online advertising is increasingly dominating the market, especially advertising content on mobile devices. It is forecast that the spending level in this sector will increase further in the coming years. Therefore, this is fertile ground for digital content advertisers and marketers.

Under the pandemic, the general advertising trend has become digital-focused as digital consumption skyrocketed. Average downloads per app in Vietnam reached 256,290, which was significantly higher than the global average of 154,794 downloads per app.

In Vietnam, the cost-per-install (CPI) rate is relatively inexpensive and has shown a declining trend. Even with the effects of COVID-19, app usage and downloads have still been rising sharply. For developers, this is the golden period to launch their mobile applications and reach Vietnamese app users.

Reward videos is also a popular advertising format in the COVID-19 era, especially for game apps on Android. Advertising for businesses is also driven by conversion rates as businesses focus more on generating revenue as fast as possible to make up for financial damage caused by the pandemic.

Developers today are discovering and defining new ways to make integrated video ad formats even more appealing. At the forefront of this advertising shift is the reward video ad. Reward videos have been adapted and designed to be related to the economy in the app. Specifically users will be rewarded with premium content such as coins or credits after they watch a short video clip.

According to the Appota report, the effective cost per mile (eCPM) worldwide fell sharply in March due to the impact of the pandemic. Although Vietnam shared this trend, the eCPM of the Android reward video format has been quickly recovered since April while eCPM on iOS fell from US$2.7 to 2.27 in May, its lowest level in the first half of 2020.

The factors driving the rapid recovery of eCPM on Android was because users play games on the Android platform more than iOS. Reward video is also especially suitable for gamers due to the ability to redeem in-game rewards. This type of ad can bring a lot of benefits to developers in terms of user engagement, ensuring an increase in click-through rate (CTR) and more eCPM.

The report also revealed that the number of visits to news sites increased dramatically in the first quarter of 2020 because Vietnamese people are regularly updated with news related to COVID-19 at the time of the pandemic. Specifically, in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, general news sites increase from 28 to 44% of visits, and financial enterprise news sites increase 39% of visits.

Thanks to the sudden increase in visits, news sites have become frequently visited addresses and an effective advertising channel. Businesses are quick to recognise customer trends. According to the Influencer Marketing Hub report, businesses around the world have increased their advertising budgets 52% in news and newspapers.