Tablet users have 20% higher engagement rates than PC users and spend 30% more time on sites according to the latest quarterly online advertising report from IgnitionOne.

The study examined global search spend during the third quarter finding that UK search spend increased 10.6% year on year during the period and that mobile or tablet users accounted for 18% of impressions.

IgnitionOne also used its engagement rankings to break out how online audiences were behaving by device type finding that while smartphone users represented a bigger audience than tablet users, they were 4% less engaged than PC users, see below.

“Across the sample sites, the percentage of mobile or tablet users was 18% - but the large majority of that group were smartphone users. One of the challenges of reaching these users is the larger proportion of smartphone users who do not allow themselves to be tracked – 60% compared to 7% of tablet users and 18% of PC users,” read the report.

The survey also found that tablet users spent, on average, 30% more time on-site and had a 20% higher engagement score than PC users. “This level of differentiation was even higher within the retail vertical (especially fashion), showing the importance of reaching the tablet audience for these marketers,” read the report.

Last week Midlands News Association (MNA) relaunched the Express & Star website with an adaptive framework in a bid to accommodate the growing number of people accessing the site via mobile devices (nma.co.uk 27 Sep 2012).

Speaking with new media age, Will Beavis, head of digital at MNA, explained the reason for taking this decision as opposed to launching a series of native mobile apps, for iOS, Android and Windows, etc, instead.

“We got on board with the idea of having a mobile-first strategy and looking at how we could build our website to respond to users’ screen size, no matter what device they were on,” he said.