News

April 12, 2013

Dramatic rise in mobile advertising spend

Advertising spend on mobile in the UK has risen dramatically in the past three years – reaching the half a billion pound milestone.

And its share of overall digital advertising spend has increased from just 1.1% in 2009 to 9.7% today.

These are the key findings of new research conducted by PwC on behalf of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). The survey shows that digital advertising is up by £607 million – and mobile is driving over half this growth, fuelled by smartphone ownership hitting almost two-thirds (64%) of the UK population in December 2012. In addition, video is up 46% to £160 million and social media is up 24%.

"Mobile has reached this milestone because marketers are becoming more attuned to the 'always on' nature of consumers who expect to engage with content wherever they are," said Tim Elkington, IAB director of research and strategy. "Consequently, advertisers are increasingly buying integrated campaigns across online and mobile rather than regarding mobile as an afterthought."

He added: "There's simply so much buzz around mobile. In the last six months, 20 more of the UK's top 100 advertisers have produced mobile-optimised websites. 4G mobile ultra-broadband is enabling a new era of richer content consumption with tablets predicted to outsell PCs in 2013. This will help maintain mobile's significant momentum in attracting both consumer attention and advertising pounds."

The survey also illustrates the dramatic rise in online marketing. In 2002, less than £200 million was spent on UK internet advertising – ten years on, digital advertising spend in the UK has passed the £5 billion mark. And in 2012, digital advertising increased by 12.5% on 2011 to a record annual high of £5.42 billion.

Other findings include:

• Mobile video advertising grew 1,601% from £0.8 million in 2011 to £13 million in 2012.
• Mobile search grew like-for-like by 164% to £365 million, accounting for 69% of mobile ad spend.
• Video advertising grew 46% between 2011 and 2012. In the past three years, video ad spend has increased almost six-fold.
• Social media advertising grew 24% between 2011 and 2012. In the past three years social media spend has increased almost four-fold.