Global mobile advertising spending is forecast to reach $18 billion in 2014, up from the estimated $13.1 billion in 2013, according to new research.
The study, from analyst firm Gartner, forecast that the global mobile ad market is expected to grow to $41.9 billion by 2017.
Display formats will make up most of the revenue, but video will show the highest growth, the report predicted.
North America is where most of growth will come from, due to the sheer scale of its advertising budgets and their shift to mobile.
“Over the next few years, growth in mobile advertising spending will slow due to ad space inventory supply growing faster than demand, as the number of mobile websites and applications increases faster than brands request ad space on mobile device screens,” Gartner Research Director Stephanie Baghdassarian said.
However, from 2015 to 2017, growth will be fueled by improved market conditions, such as provider consolidation, measurement standardisation and new targeting technologies, along with a sustained interest in the mobile medium from advertisers, she added.
Mobile display ad formats will be the single biggest category of ads, although this category is expected to shift to mobile Web display after several years of higher growth in in-app display.
The tablet form factor is also expected to drive video as adoption of the smart device market continues to grow.
In addition, search/map ad types will benefit from increased use of location data gathered from users, either through them opting into being located automatically through their devices or because they proactively check in the places they visit using apps such as Foursquare and Pinterest, it said.
“As a result, local advertisers will be more interested in the mobile channel as a means of pushing ads,” Gartner said.
All regions of the world will experience strong growth in mobile advertising spend, although North America is where most of growth will come from, due to the sheer scale of its advertising budgets and their shift to mobile.
Western Europe’s market for mobile advertising will remain similar to North America’s, albeit at a slightly lower scale, while Asia/Pacific and Japan will see growth averaging 30 percent a year between 2012 and 2017.
Gartner expects the high-growth economies of China and India to contribute increasingly to mobile advertising growth as their expanding
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