5 mobile facts that advertisers can’t ignore

Digital advertising continues to rise exponentially and the biggest ad dollar driver is mobile. Here are 5 facts and trends gathered from consumer data that every mobile advertiser should know.  Click on the links to go to the data/surveys.

1. Bigger than they thought

Back in 2011 ComScore predicted that US mobile ad spend in 2014 would be $2.5 billion, they were wrong! eMarketeer showed that mobile ad spend in 2014 was actually $19.15 billion which is predicted to rise to $28 billion by the end of 2015! 

2. Desktop set to stagnate

Desktop advertising is predicted to stagnate for the next few years and prediction figures for the US market show that ad spend will be stuck on $25 billion for the next 4 years. However, mobile advertising is set to rise year on year and by 2019 US mobile ad spend will be $65.87 billion making it 72% of US digital ad spend.

3. Android versus iOS

Data gathered by Opera MediaWorks in Q4 2014 shows Android and iOS making 90% of total global ad impressions and revenue. Android leads the market on impressions, collecting 63% of mobile traffic and 41% of total revenue but iOS is taking 52% of revenue via a much smaller 27% of global impressions.

4. In-app ads are leading the mobile ad space

US consumers are spending much more time using apps than the mobile web. eMarketer predicts that by 2016 in-app ad spend will be $29.66 billion, nearly triple that of mobile web ad spend at $10.84 billion.

This trend is backed up with data from Nielsen who reported back in March 2014 that consumers spend 89% of their mobile time using their apps and only 11% of their time browsing the mobile web.

5. Mobile games dominate user engagement

According to global information company The NPD Group, in a typical day mobile gamers spent on average two hours per day playing games in 2014, a 57% increase on 2012 where average playing time was one hour and 20 minutes.

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Giles Hirst