Forecast: U.S. mobile local ad spending to reach $2.8B in 2015

Marketers are poised to increase their U.S. mobile advertising spending from $790 million in 2010 to $4 billion in 2015 according to a new forecast published by media advisory firm BIA/Kelsey. Spending on local mobile campaigns targeting users in particular geographic regions or containing location-specific calls to action will increase from $404 million to $2.8 billion during the forecast period, jumping from 51 percent of mobile ad spending in 2010 to 70 percent in 2015.

BIA/Kelsey credits the expected mobile ad revenue growth to accelerating smartphone penetration, rising mobile web usage and related ad inventory increases. In addition to marketers evolving their campaign objectives to location awareness and other device-specific capabilities, BIA/Kelsey expects mobile advertising will trickle down to small and medium-sized businesses, bolstered by local sales increases and new self-serve tools.

The BIA/Kelsey forecast follows a recent comScore report stating that close to 700 advertisers employed mobile display advertising campaigns to reach U.S. consumers in April 2011, a 128 percent increase over two years earlier. Among the 689 marketers that leveraged mobile display campaigns in April, mobile content and publishing accounted for 50 percent of mobile ads--consumer discretionary goods represented 26 percent of display ads, followed by information technology (7 percent), financial services (6 percent) and telecommunication services (5 percent).

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