Christian Louca
New Gartner research estimates that the total spend on mobile advertising will reach the $3.3 Billion in 2011, growing to over $20.6 Billion by 2015.
The North American market will account for roughly 1/5 of the $3.3B total this year, or roughly $707M, and 28% in 2015 — or $5.8 billion. That’s equal to about 20% of the estimated $26 billion in U.S. Online ad spending projected for 2015. Breaking it down a bit further for 2011, search- and map-related advertising will account for the largest share of ad dollars by far, at nearly $1.5 billion globally.
Mobile Web display and in-app display ads will each account for just over $800 million, audio/video will generate $96 million, and SMS/MMS and Instant Messaging advertising will make up $112.5 million.
By 2015, however, the split in ad-spending will level out a bit as display closes the gap with search. Search in four years will account for about $7 billion; mobile Web display, almost $6 billion; in-app display, $5.3 billion; audio/video, $2 billion and SMS/MMS/IM, $247.3 million, according to the research. The most interesting tidbit from the data was Gartners predictions for the mobile app vs. mobile Web debate.
The research firm expects mobile apps to have the upper hand when it comes to drawing ad dollars until 2013, “when the mobile Web will eventually return as HTML5 standards become established.” ”While the growth rate for mobile advertising will peak in 2011 and in 2012, more than doubling each year, it won’t reach its optimum point for some time,” stated the report. ”We expect that targeting and contextualization, especially in social sites and applications, will carry on improving throughout the forecast period and beyond.”
