New research into how much consumers believe their time is worth to mobile advertisers has unearthed the going rate – £6.80 per user, per minute.

A poll of 4,018 consumers across France, Germany, the UK and US determined that for every five minutes of time spent messaging to their most personal device, consumers perceive £34 to be reasonable compensation. 

Dividing this by five produces the average for how much consumers believe they should be worth to advertisers looking for a minute of their attention. However, according to study conductor Millennial Media, some markets are more demanding than others. 

In France, for example, five minutes is worth £27 – filtering down to £5.40 per minute. Germany is a little closer to the average on £32 (£6.40 per minute), while UK consumers are demanding a little higher on £36 (£7.20).

The US is by far the most demanding market, with consumers optimistically suggesting a rate of £39 for their mobile time, equating to £7.80 for 60 seconds. 

Pay-per-view

While consumers may have pretty lofty expectations for how much they consider their time to be worth, the survey concluded that they are at least aware of what keeps the internet free.

Four in five (79%) of those responding to Millennial Media’s poll – titled “What’s My Worth” – said they understood and accepted that ads helped keep apps and content free. 

Not only this, three quarters (72%) said they expect to see ads on their mobile devices to support free content, and only 3% had paid for content in order to remove ads from their experience.

Despite what appears to be a growing acceptance for ads to support free offerings, some of the study’s commentators appeared more than willing to listen to the consumers’ earlier demands about price-per-minute.

Scott Moorhead, head of digital trading and operations at global agency Havas Media, said: “Mobile has really only been a viable advertising channel for the past eight years. It’s still young, and there are still lessons to be learnt. 

“‘What’s My Worth?’ underlines that it is not agencies or brands that will shape the evolution of mobile however; it is the users themselves, and their changing usage of mobile devices.”