Mobile ad spending to surpass $1 billion in 2008
Mobile advertising spending will for the first time exceed $1 billion in 2008 and reach nearly $7.6 billion by 2013 according to a new forecast released by market analysis firm Juniper Research, which credits the growth to lucrative channels like mobile streamed and broadcast TV services. According to Juniper, SMS campaigns presently dominate mobile adspend, but mobile TV spending will rise from $335 million in 2008 to more than $2.5 billion in 2013--Juniper also cites idle-screen ads as a significant contributor to spending, with revenues growing from $7 million in 2008 to more than $500 million five years from now.
Other findings from the Juniper report:
- Nearly 1.5 billion mobile users will receive SMS ads in 2008.
- China and the Far East will remain the largest regional market for mobile adspend, with revenues rising from $414 million in 2008 to more than $2.1 billion by 2012.
- Advertisers will not commit to significant mobile budgeting until operators and content providers solve questions like lack of inventory, reach and common metrics.
For more on the Juniper forecast:
- read this release
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Comments
As with any emerging market like mobile advertising, people are going to need to measure their success. Mobile analytics have an important role here, in helping people not only to measure success (and we have some great click-through benchmarks for businesses to compare themselves against) but also to work out where the conversion rates are highest. Focus on the countries, networks and handsets that deliver the best results and surprisingly you'll find a wealthy of demographic data unfold before you eyes.
Analytics, and advertisng choices are key, but I'm not sure whether Juniper have realized how important paid for search placement is in mobile.
Agree with Sarah from Bango that targetting is critical. We get a 6X return on Sprint, but a 2X return on Google on Telefonica. Measurement is key, wise spending is essential.

