Android may be the leading mobile operating system, but it falls behind the industry average when it comes to delivering click-through rates, according to a new report from Jumptap.

While the industry average for click-through rates is .52 percent, Jumptap found that the average click-through rate for Android devices is just .47 percent. The click through rate varies by handset manufacturer, with Samsung putting in the best performance.

?Android continues to have the largest share, but iOS continues to see the most interaction with ads so marketers need to ask themselves questions about reach vs. engagement,? said Paran Johar, CMO of Jumptap, Cambridge, MA.

?The biggest surprise was the level of variation in Android ad performance based on the handset manufacturer,? Mr. Johar said.

Jumptap?s monthly Mobile STAT data report for June is based on data for the first half of 2011 from the over 83 million unique users on the Jumptap mobile ad network.

Variations by manufacturer
Thanks to the uniformity of its browsing and app experiences, iOS generally delivers a higher click-through rate than the industry average, with a .78 percent rate in June, the data shows.

Jumptap did a deeper dive on Android?s click through rates and found that Sony Ericsson Android users had the highest click through rate at .54 percent during the first half of 2011. Sony?s positioning as a premium brand could be the reason for its performance here.

LG came in second with a .40 percent click through rate. Following LG was Samsung with a .39 percent click through rate and HTC with .21 percent.

Jumptap also took a look at Android click through rates by carrier and found that little variation between carriers, except that AT&T Android users were slightly less likely to interact with mobile advertising.

The average click through rate for BlackBerry was .36 percent and for Symbian it was .50 percent. WebOS delivered a .44 average click through rate.

Overall, click to Web campaigns continue to grow and accounted for 78 percent of click destinations in June. Click to download accounted for 19 percent of click destinations, click to call 2 percent and click to iTunes 1 percent.

Jumptap?s figures show that Android was again the leading platform in June with 38 percent of the market. IOS came in second with 33 percent of the market and BlackBerry was third with 22 percent. Symbian had a 5 percent market share and WebOS 1 percent.

These top three mobile operating systems control over 90 percent of the market.

At the state level, Android usage over-indexes in the South and Southwest while iOS dominates in the Midwest and Northeast.

Additionally, targeting continues to grow, with usage growing to 61 percent of premium campaigns in June, up from 49 percent in the previous month. Feature targeting continues to be the most popular method, followed by handset, location, age and country.

?This data highlights the importance of targeting for marketers,? Mr. Johar said.

?Many marketers are doing campaigns that are targeted to just iOS users or just Android users,? he said.

?This can be effective, but with a platform as complicated as Android, marketers need to understand its nuances in detail, in order to achieve optimal ROI. It also underscores the importance of marketing across platforms so as not to limit reach.?

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