Mobile advertising on the rise

So-called In-App advertising will move almost 17,000 million dollars in 2018, according to the consultancy Juniper Research, which estimates growth of almost 500 percent over the next five years. Last year's business figure stood at around 3,500 million. The factors that will drive this strong growth will be the recovery of marketing investments and the progressive evolution of traditional static media toward richer and more effective interactive ads. The report entitled "Mobile Advertising: In-App, Mobile Internet and Messaging Strategies 2013-2018" maintains that, while smartphones currently capture around 70 percent of in-application advertising investment, the growth of tablet users and their increasing use will drive a new leap in spending in the medium term. It is also observed that tablets represent a considerable boost for these applications, due to their more frequent impressions, and that in 2018 advertising investment in this device will maintain a 50/50 relationship with respect to smartphones. In addition, this analysis notes that although application downloads will increase greatly between now and 2018, most In-App advertising investment will fall on mobile social giants, such as Facebook and Twitter. However, the report's author, Sian Rowlands, is optimistic about opportunities for small developers, as "as the mobile advertising industry matures, advertising solutions are more sophisticated, massively use location to boost their relevance, and these new technologies and formats will benefit all members of the mobile advertising value chain". Other key data from the report are that global mobile advertising spending will exceed 39,000 million dollars in 2018, compared to the current 13,000, that investment in new Rich Media formats will surpass traditional advertising in 2018, and that formats capable of adding enhanced mobile functions, more interactive ones, and that link directly to the most relevant app store will appear.