The digital advertising industry is in a period of transition. The ongoing debate about digital ad viewability and what constitutes an impression is one that will only intensify in 2015. And interesting shifts in spending on digital advertising as a whole are beginning to occur.
Overall, Internet display spending fell 1.7 percent in the third quarter of 2014, according to a report from Kantar Media. For the period from January through September, internet display spending fell 5.7 percent.
However, it appears some of that money may be shifting to mobile advertising. According to the Association of Online Publishers and Deloitte, mobile advertising revenue rose 56 percent during Q3 in the U.K. And the story is similar here in the States, where a new report finds that U.S .mobile ad spend will top nearly $42 billion in 2018, rising by a five-year growth rate of 43 percent from 2013, per Business Insider.
Only five years ago, mobile was an infinitesimally small part of the marketing mix. But as mobile devices become more ubiquitous in everyday life, with smartphones and tablets rarely straying more than a few feet from our person, it is a prime destination for advertising spend. The Business Insider report states that display and video advertising will be the fastest-growing mobile ad formats. Interestingly, this comes in the wake of stagnating growth in internet video ads, and it appears publishers and marketers are looking towards mobile as the form factor of choice for delivering video content.
According to the Business Insider report, search and social media will still account for the largest share of U.S. mobile ad revenue during the forecast period. The report notes that search is a strong format on mobile because of its convergence with geo-location targeting capabilities.
It’s a good bet that mobile will continue to become an advertising heavyweight as we move on into 2015. This will be just one of many trends we’ll be keeping an eye on during the upcoming year.