Spending on mobile display ads to skyrocket by 2015

New York City Spending on mobile display ads in the United States, estimated at just under $313 million today, will almost quadruple to exceed $1.2 billion in 2015, according to ABI Research.

“Marketers have increasingly been shifting budgets into mobile campaigns,” said ABI Research practice director Neil Strother. “This became evident during our research interviews with advertising agency executives, technology vendors and mobile ad network operators, who said they have been seeing year-over-year increases of 25% to 30% in campaign spending.”

Mobile display ads -- essentially similar to online banner ads -- are only one method available to aspiring mobile marketers. The others are: text messaging, search advertising, ads within applications and video (streaming and on-demand).

Smartphone usage is a primary driver of this new and still fragmented industry (smartphone penetration in the U.S. currently stands at about 20%), mobile marketing’s potential extends to mobile devices of all kinds.

Strother said: “A survey conducted by ABI Research in February found that 28% of the mobile subscribers queried accessed the mobile Internet daily. This is a huge increase over the number doing so just 14 months ago, and is a powerful driver for the mobile marketing and advertising market.”