• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, May 13, 2013

After back-to-back months of increases in spend and impressions, both the global and U.S. RTB markets dipped in April, according to data from Rubicon Project's real-time marketplace app. On the global scale, spend and impressions were down 7% and 2%, respectively. In the U.S., spend was also down 7%, while impressions dropped 6% compared to March 2013.

Once again, Technology & Computing, Personal Finance, Automotive, Shopping, and Travel advertisers were the top 5 spenders. Arts & Entertainment jumped from 8th to 6th in spend.

Total eCPM in the U.S. had a small drop of 1%. The top 5 eCPM categories saw two newcomers - Education and Real Estate - that knocked Automotive and Shopping out.

Despite being just the 12th highest spender, Education was 4th in eCPM. Over the past 4 months, Education has checked in at 15th, 13th, 7th, and now 4th in eCPM. In other words: it's graduation season, and we can expect to see Education near the top again in May.

After 9 straight months in the top 5 for eCPM, shopping fell to 7th. However, the biggest change (92% increase) came in Real Estate, which rose to 5th in eCPM after ranking 18th in March. Pets, on the other hand, had the largest decrease in eCPM (26%).

Ushering in baseball season and spring fashion, Style & Fashion (24%) and Sports (22%) had the largest increases in spend. Sports was also 13th in impressions, its highest ranking in the past year.