Internet advertising is going gangbusters this year, especially mobile ad spending. The amount of advertising spending on smart phones and tablets has risen to $3 billion in the first six months of 2013. That’s a whopping increase of 145% over the $1.2 billion in mobile ad revenue for the same period last year, according to a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Much of the growth in mobile ads correlates to the rise in smartphone and tablet sales over the past 12 months, with Android smart phones comprising over 80% of the total. Another factor was the ability to better measure the success of mobile ads.
“This report not only confirms that brands are making a greater commitment to interactive, but also points to the fact that mobile and digital video are being identified as integral elements of the marketing mix,” remarked David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, which produced the IAB study.
New Tools For Mobile Advertisers
ComputerWorld points out additional factors behind the dramatic shift to mobile:
New tools for mobile advertisers, such as programmatic bidding, have also helped. With this tool, advertisers can bid instantly online for the cost of an ad that will reach a certain demographic group sorted by age, gender and interests. Because larger display ads are deemed as looking better (and therefore considered more successful) on larger devices like tablets, it costs more to bid successfully for ads on tablets than on smartphones…
Google is expected to gobble up nearly half of the U.S. mobile ad market this year, with Facebook grabbing 15% of the market.
Although mobile ad revenues have skyrocketed in comparison to last year, the $3 billion mobile ad total is still only 15% of all Internet ad-related revenues, now at a historic high of $20.1 billion.
