Global mobile adspend doubles

Warc, 14 August 2014

GLOBAL: Global mobile advertising revenues almost doubled in 2013 to reach $19.3bn according to new data.

Latest figures in the Global Mobile Advertising Revenue study, from the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB Europe and IHS Technology, show that mobile advertising revenue leapt 92%, with the greatest growth coming in Latin America, up 215%. North America increased 122% and Europe 90%.

Growth was more modest in Asia-Pacific, at 69%, and in the Middle-East and Africa, at 45%.

In terms of regional shares, North America's was the largest at 41.9%, worth $8,100m. Asia-Pacific was in second place on 38.9%, worth $7,525m. Then followed Europe on 17.3% ($3,346m), Middle East & Africa on 1.2% ($225m) and then Latin America on 0.7% ($144m)

"These powerhouse numbers directly reflect mobile's rapidly increasing role as a vital part of the marketing media mix," said Anna Bager, Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB. And she pointed to the operational efficiencies being enabled by programmatic buying as a particular spur to growth in the mobile display ad market.

Of the three categories of mobile advertising, display showed the highest growth at 123.4 %, followed by mobile search, up 92.1 %, and then messaging, up 19.4%.

The advance of search was attributed to increasing smartphone penetration and affordable data plans fuelling location-based search-on-the-go. Search remains the dominant segment representing 48.9% of the total global mobile advertising revenue, or $9.5bn. Display is close behind with a 41.5% share worth $8bn. Messaging is the minnow, with a 9.6% share worth $1.9bn.

"Businesses of all sizes are now able to engage their customers via mobile, demonstrating a clear opportunity for publishers to take advantage of," noted Townsend Feehan, CEO, IAB Europe.

But he added that many publishers still needed to hone their mobile advertising strategies. "Growth has been largely driven through in-app and native advertising whilst the delivery of a qualified audience at scale with demonstrable campaign impact is still a work-in-progress in some markets," he said.

Data sourced from IAB; additional content by Warc staff