• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 6, 2017

The move from desktop to mobile search also continues to have an impact on content marketing. Data released Monday suggests that reading content on mobile devices now surpasses those reading on desktop. Those who are reading on mobile devices now spend an average of 79 seconds reading branded content.

The findings are part of a study released from Pressboard. The company gathered data from 1336 pieces of content created by North American brands and publishers through the Pressboard platform. These include VentureBeat, New York Magazine, Mashable, Entrepreneur and Ford, to name a few. The study aims to help brands and publishers better understand the impact of content.

Previously, desktop users spent 71 seconds on average, while those on phones spent 66 seconds with Average Active Reading Time (sec) branded content.

Facebook continues to dominate the primary source traffic for branded content at 67.3%, followed by direct traffic to sites at 13.9%, and referral traffic at 11.6%. Search now sales 11.6%; Twitter, 0.5%; and LinkedIn, 0.2%.

The average person reads 74% of a branded article and 55% of the audience finishes a piece. The average active reading time for a piece of branded content rose from 66 seconds in 2016 to 73 seconds in 2017.

Some 85.9% of readers spend on average 20 seconds with a piece of content. More than half of all visitors will spend 50 seconds or more on a branded article.

The average branded content conversion rate of 1.15% is more than double the average click-through rate for display advertising in the U.S., as measured by Google.

Interestingly, those on tablets at 81% and on desktops at 75% seem to scroll further down a story on average than those who access branded content on a smartphone at 72%, despite smartphone users having the longest Average Active Reading time per device.

Most search and social media traffic is similar when it comes to how far someone will scroll down the site, whereas Instagram, direct and referral traffic lag behind.

The study shows 80% for Twitter, 78% for Facebook, 77% for Pinterest, 76% for LinkedIn, 75% for search, 65% for Instagram, 64% for direct to the site, and 62% for referrals.

Despite the argument that Amazon, Bing, Facebook, Google and others clearly mark sponsored content on a website page or in search engine results, not everyone sees it. The data suggests that only 57.6% see footer and presented by labels on a website page. Only 45% said they see "presented by," and 6.5% said they see neither.