Mobile Ad Spending in UK Skyrockets

There is hardly any doubt about the importance of mobile marketing today. Its prominence is highlighted by data published this week by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) which shows that the UK’s mobile advertising spend climbed 157% in 2011, reaching over £203m.

The significant growth was fuelled mostly by the rising popularity of smartphones and tablets in the UK, the IAB has concluded.

Among the various segments, the largest growth was seen in video advertising spending, which surged 400% to £800,000, while the biggest chunk of the marketing budget was allocated to mobile search, with a total of £134.3m being spent, up 145% on the previous year’s figures. Growth has been registered in other sectors as well – display advertising increased 186% to nearly £69m, with text links and banners growing 196% to over £59m, while SMS and MMS reached £2.5m, showing a rise of 241% from 2010.

The report notes that currently 98% of the polled agencies include mobile marketing in their portfolio and 90% think that mobile will be the fastest-developing channel over the next five years. In fact, mobile ad spend is expected to triple by 2018.

In terms of display advertising, mobile applications were predominant, accounting for 54% of the total, while browsing accounted for 46%. Applications have been more widely used thanks to the growing numbers of smartphones and tablets owned.