Opera Software has released its Q3 State of Mobile Advertising report, which tracks mobile advertising worldwide. Opera finds that iOS continues to deliver the highest effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM), and led Q3 with a $1.64 eCPM, and with iPad and iPhone garnering $4.42 and $1.48 eCPMs respectively.
Android slipped down in the rankings with $0.88, well below RIM at $1.06.

Opera observed that mobile ads that emphasize fun and simplicity garnered the most user interaction and stickiness, and that new mobile ad units garnered click-through rates of 5% and higher, as well as the most revenue and publisher satisfaction. The company pointed to a Fiat 500 mobile campaign in Europe, which enables the user to change the car's color with the swipe of a finger (see graphic).

Interestingly, social was the leading category in percent of impressions, at about 22%, and took about 7% of ad revenue. But sports was the leading category for mobile ad revenue, (about 16%), and when combined with the Music, Video & Media category, the two garnered 30% of overall revenue, making them the highest earners. Still, Business, Finance & Investing properties consistently generate more revenue per impression than do any other category: with just 1% of impressions, it took just under 10% of revenues.

Apps conquered the web in mobile ad revenue, generating 73% of revenue on the Opera ad platform, the remaining 27% going to the mobile web. 8 in 10 visits on the Opera ad platform came from mobile apps.

Across the Opera platform, North America (United States & Canada) continues to generate the vast majority of ad requests at 70%.

The Opera advertising platform, based on Opera's subsidiaries AdMarvel, Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising, serves more than 10,000 mobile sites and apps, with 40+ billion ad impressions per month and Opera reports that it is on track to deliver more than $400 million in revenue to mobile publishers in 2012.