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The amount spent on mobile display ads overtook that of PC and tablet for the first time ever, according to new research by PwC and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Mobile display ads raked in £802m of spend, while PC and tablet were behind at £762m, the Digital Adspend report said – signifying rapid growth in time spent on smartphones.
Overall, digital advertising spend increased 16.4% in the first half of this year to £4.78.bn, which the report says is the highest first half growth rate in two years.
The huge rise in mobile means that the the Advertising Association and Warc forecast it will account for 17.5% of all UK ad spend this year
Mobile, however, takes center place as star of the digital advertising show, as total mobile ad spend increased by over 56% in the first half of this year. The report adds that 36p in every £1 spent on digital advertising now goes to mobile.
This goes hand-in-hand with recent YouGov consumer data, which shows 82% of smartphone owners check their phones within an hour of waking.
Mobile, mobile, mobile…
Perhaps driven by the rapid adoption of smartphone use, video ads have seen an increase in spend by 67% to £474m during the first half of 2016, and mobile video spend alone grew 129%.
Video currently accounts for a third of all display advertising and over a third of mobile display.
It’s not the only area of advertising that’s seen an increase, however, with ad spend on mobile sites growing 43% to £745m. Content and native advertising spend increased 29% and paid search grew 18.1% – bolstered by mobile.
“The huge rise in mobile means that the the Advertising Association and Warc forecast it will account for 17.5% of all UK ad spend this year, astonishing for such a relatively new medium but a fair reflection of the importance of mobile in people’s lives,” IAB UK’s Chief Strategy Officer, Tim Elkington told Marketing Tech.
“People now spend more time online on their mobile than they do on a computer. Consequently, marketers devote more ad spend to mobile as they increasingly cotton on to the fact that people essentially carry an ad platform with them wherever they are.”
