Mobile advertising is still in early stages but is growing at a rapid pace despite the challenges and differences with advertising on small vs. large screens.
According to a recent study by Interactive Advertising Bureau and PWC, global mobile ad revenues rose 145% to USD3bn for 1H13, accounting for ~15% of the total online ad spend. Gartner estimates the Asia Pacific mobile ad market to be ~USD5bn or ~40% of the global market size. Also, global mobile ad revenue is estimated to grow to USD25bn by 2016 from USD11bn in 2013 by Gartner. A large bulk of this is expected to come from web displays, search or ads placed inside apps. Significant growth is also expected in mobile audio/video related advertisements.
Real Time Bidding and Targeting
Platforms like Facebook Exchange allows ad providers to place more targeted ads based on users’ browsing patterns. For example, a person who browsed through an online travel portal could see travel related ads on his Facebook page. This implies that advertisement spaces are bid for and ads delivered in real time based on the user preferences picked up by algorithms as he/she browses through different websites.
Contextual advertising (i.e. using information specific to the user such as location and presenting advertising relevant to this) is thus key to driving mobile advertising.