June 2015

MOBILENOMICS ROUNDUP
Whether or not the year of mobile has come and gone, the world of marketing
is getting more mobile all the time. By 2019, nearly three-quarters of US digital
ad spending will be mobile, with programmatic ads, native ads, video and
more migrating to smaller screens. eMarketer is watching the trends, and
has curated this Roundup of articles, data and key insights about mobile
advertising to help digital marketers understand and plan for effective efforts
on this channel.

prepared exclusively for

June 7-9, 2015

MOBILENOMICS ROUNDUP
Overview
Advertisers around the world will spend nearly
$69 billion on mobile internet ads this year,
eMarketer estimates. They have good reason:
Globally, 2.3 billion people will use the internet
on their mobile phones this year. Thats helping
to spur a 61.1% increase in worldwide mobile
internet ad spending this year, and double-digit
gains are nowhere near over. By 2019, the mobile
ad market will reach $195.55 billion, or 26.8% of
all paid media spending.
In the US specifically, more than 60% of the population will
be mobile phone internet users this year, and penetration
will continue rising. That audience will support a mobile
advertising market reaching $28.72 billion in 2015,
eMarketer estimates. Thats just shy of half the US digital
ad market, and includes mobile internet ads as well as
messaging-based advertisements.
Advertisers across verticals are migrating dollars to mobile
channels. The entertainment industry has taken this
furthest: 53.5% of industry ad spending is mobile this year.
The retail and media industries are not far behind. Even the
slowest vertical to move to mobile, healthcare and pharma,
is now spending 40.0% of digital ad dollars on mobile buys.
As more money flows into mobile advertising, the balance
between search and display spending is shifting. On
desktop, the amounts spent between search and display
are nearly equal, but on mobile devices, spending skews
more heavily toward display.
With all eyes on mobile, marketers arent forgetting that
people are more important than devices. Devices take
center stage at the budgetary and tactical level, but
strategically, marketers are focusing less on devices and
more on people, specifically connecting with consumers
wherever and whenever they access the web.
The biggest change were seeing is the move towards
people-centric marketing, said Chad Gallagher, global
director of mobile for AOL. Both brand and performance

advertisers are saying, We dont necessarily care about the

device, we care about driving results against people. Thats
a fundamental change.
Marketers are thinking more holistically about the
customer experience they deliver across multiple screens
instead of focusing on each device and channel as a silo.
The vast majority (86%) of marketers worldwide polled by
Salesforce in November 2014 said delivering a cohesive
customer journey across devices was very important or
critical to the success of their business.
Mobile Internet Ad Spending Worldwide, 2013-2019
2013

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Mobile
internet ad
spending
(billions)

$19.20 $42.63 $68.69 $101.37 $133.74 $166.63 $195.55

% change

117.9% 122.1% 61.1%

47.6%

31.9%

24.6%

17.4%

16.0% 29.4% 40.2%

51.1%

59.4%

65.9%

70.1%

16.5%

20.5%

24.1%

26.8%

% of digital ad
spending

% of total media 3.7%

ad spending

7.8% 11.9%

Note: includes display (banners, video and rich media) and search; excludes
SMS, MMS and P2P messaging-based advertising; ad spending on tablets is
included
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186887

www.eMarketer.com

US Digital Ad Spending, by Industry and Device, 2015

billions and % of total
Desktop/
laptop

% of
total

Mobile*

% of
total

Total

Retail

$6.26

48.5%

$6.65

51.5%

$12.91

Automotive

$3.87

53.0%

$3.43

47.0%

$7.30

Financial services

$3.70

51.5%

$3.49

48.5%

$7.19

Telecom

$3.21

49.5%

$3.27

50.5%

$6.49

CPG & consumer products

$2.63

53.0%

$2.33

47.0%

$4.97

Travel

$2.47

51.0%

$2.38

49.0%

$4.85

Computing products &

consumer electronics

$2.35

53.0%

$2.09

47.0%

$4.44

Media

$1.66

49.0%

$1.73

51.0%

$3.39

Entertainment

$1.30

46.5%

$1.50

53.5%

$2.80

Healthcare & pharma

$0.98

60.0%

$0.66

40.0%

$1.64

Other

$1.44

54.6%

$1.20

45.4%

$2.64

Total

$29.89

51.0% $28.72

49.0% $58.61

Note: digital ad spending includes advertising that appears on desktop and

laptop computers as well as mobile phones and tablets, and includes all
the various formats of advertising on those platforms; numbers may not
add up to total due to rounding; *includes classified, display (banners and
other, rich media and video), email, lead generation, messaging-based and
search advertising; ad spending on tablets is included
Source: eMarketer, May 2015
188660

Mobilenomics Roundup

2014

www.eMarketer.com

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 2

Mobile Ad Spend to Top $100 Billion Worldwide in 2016, 51% of

Digital Market
US and China will account for nearly 62% of global mobile ad spending
next year
The global mobile advertising market will hit two
significant milestones in 2016, according to new
figures from eMarketer, surpassing $100 billion in
spending and accounting for more than 50% of
all digital ad expenditure for the first time.
The $101.37 billion to be spent on ads served to mobile
phones and tablets worldwide next year represents a
nearly 430% increase from 2013. Between 2016 and 2019,
the last year in our forecast period, mobile ad spending will
nearly double, hitting $195.55 billion to account for 70.1% of
digital ad spend as well as over one-quarter of total media
ad spending globally.
Not surprisingly, growth in mobile ad spending is being
driven by consumer adoption of mobile devices. Next
year, eMarketer estimates, there will be more than 2
billion smartphone users worldwide, over one-quarter of
whom will live in China alone. Especially there and in other
emerging and developing markets, many consumers are
accessing the internet mobile-first and mobile-only, so
leading advertisers allocate their digital expenditure to
mobile accordingly.
The number of tablet users worldwide, while growing more
slowly than the smartphone audience, is still expected to
eclipse 1 billion in 2015. The proliferation of these mobile
devices across the world is driving the shift in advertising
from the desktop to reach these untethered, alwayson consumers.
In the short term, the leading global markets, particularly
the US and China, will drive mobile ad spending growth.
In 2016, US advertisers will spend $40.24 billion to reach
consumers on tablets and mobile phones, more than
doubling the total from 2014, while those in China will
invest $22.14 billionnearly triple the amount they spent
in 2014. Both of these countries will see mobile become a
majority of digital ad spending next year.

Mobilenomics Roundup

Mobile Internet Ad Spending Worldwide, 2013-2019

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Mobile
internet ad
spending
(billions)

$19.20 $42.63 $68.69 $101.37 $133.74 $166.63 $195.55

% change

117.9% 122.1% 61.1%

47.6%

31.9%

24.6%

17.4%

16.0% 29.4% 40.2%

51.1%

59.4%

65.9%

70.1%

16.5%

20.5%

24.1%

26.8%

% of digital ad
spending

% of total media 3.7%

ad spending

7.8% 11.9%

Note: includes display (banners, video and rich media) and search; excludes
SMS, MMS and P2P messaging-based advertising; ad spending on tablets is
included
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186887

www.eMarketer.com

Mobile Internet Ad Spending Worldwide, by Country,

2013-2018
millions
2013
US
China*

2014

2015

$10,422 $18,911 $28,477

2016

2017

$40,241

$49,560

$57,543

2018

$22,140

$31,306

$40,604

UK**

$1,949

$3,703

$5,369

$7,248

$9,133

$11,142

Japan

$1,835

$2,752

$3,853

$5,009

$6,311

$7,573

Germany

$451

$1,309

$2,095

$3,065

$4,198

$5,248

South Korea

$455

$1,000

$1,600

$2,080

$2,496

$2,946

Canada

$392

$854

$1,416

$2,200

$2,862

$3,666

Australia

$341

$852

$1,364

$2,114

$2,959

$3,847

France

$248

$446

$714

$1,035

$1,450

$1,971

Netherlands

$162

$454

$680

$953

$1,238

$1,548

Italy

$205

$369

$553

$775

$1,046

$1,360

$66

$249

$549

$1,015

$1,726

$2,675

Norway

$106

$317

$475

$641

$821

$1,002

Sweden

$140

$293

$440

$594

$772

$927

$65

$196

$431

$776

$1,087

$1,413

Denmark

$108

$269

$391

$508

$635

$762

Mexico

$104

$214

$388

$605

$910

$1,306

Spain

$53

$101

$176

$300

$494

$781

India

$26

$79

$173

$347

$589

$943

Finland

$41

$102

$153

$199

$249

$298

Indonesia

$12

$43

$129

$323

$743

$1,487

Argentina

$8

$24

$71

$170

$340

$612

Brazil

Russia

$920

$7,537 $13,977

Worldwide*** $19,197 $42,631 $68,695 $101,366 $133,743 $166,628

Note: includes display (banners, video and rich media) and search; excludes
SMS, MMS and P2P messaging-based advertising; includes ad spending on
tablets; *excludes Hong Kong; **includes SMS, MMS and P2P
messaging-based advertising; ***includes countries not listed
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186756

www.eMarketer.com

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 3

Rounding out the top five countries, the UK, Japan and
Germany also will see significant increases in mobile ad
spending next year, but in all three markets, a majority of
digital ad spending will be on mobile devices in 2017 for
the first time.
While the top five countries will maintain their positions
throughout our forecast, there are other markets on the
move. Next year, Canada and Australia will surpass South
Korea to become the sixth- and seventh-largest mobile ad
markets globally, respectively.

By 2018, several of the top growth markets will have made

significant gains. That year, Brazil will jump three spots
from 2015 to become the ninth-largest mobile ad market
globally, and Indonesia will make the largest gain, rising
from No. 21 this year to No. 12. Notably, however, despite
Indias massive mobile audience, the market will continue
to lag in mobile ad spending, failing to eclipse $1 billion
by 2018.

Mobile Will Account for 72% of US Digital Ad Spend by 2019

Consumer usage and better ad formats drive dollars to mobile apps
Mobile ad spending continues to increase at
the expense of desktop, taking more and more
share of marketers digital ad dollars, according
to new figures from eMarketer. In 2015, mobile ad
spending in the US will increase 50.0%, reaching
$28.72 billion and accounting for 49.0% of all
digital ad spending. By 2019, mobile ad spending
will rise to $65.87 billion, or 72.2% of total digital
ad spend.
Next year will be the tipping point where mobile ad
spending surpasses desktop. And while desktop advertising
will remain a significant portion of marketers budgets
approximately $25 billion in each year throughout
eMarketers forecast periodmobile will continue growing
in the double digits to gain more and more market share
while desktop spending remains flat.
The shift to mobile ad spending is being driven mainly by
consumer demand. In 2014, US adults spent an average of
2 hours, 51 minutes with mobile devices each day, up from
2 hours, 19 minutes in 2013. Meanwhile, desktop time fell
to 2 hours, 12 minutes daily last year, after being equal with
mobile time in 2013.
At the format level, mobile display dollars will continue
to increase, outpacing mobile search. In 2015, US mobile
display ad spending will reach $14.67 billion, compared

Mobilenomics Roundup

US Mobile Ad Spending, 2013-2019

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Mobile ad
spending
(billions)

$10.67 $19.15 $28.72 $40.50 $49.81 $57.78 $65.87

% change

120.0%

79.5%

50.0%

41.0%

23.0%

16.0%

14.0%

% of digital
ad spending

24.7%

37.7%

49.0%

60.4%

66.6%

69.7%

72.2%

6.3%

10.8%

15.3%

20.4%

23.9%

26.3%

28.6%

% of total
media ad
spending

Note: includes classified, display (banners and other, rich media and video),
email, lead generation, messaging-based and search advertising; ad
spending on tablets is included
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186582

www.eMarketer.com

with $12.85 billion for mobile search. Through 2019, both

display and search will increase at a similar rate, with
display widening the gap slightly by virtue of growing from
a higher base. By the end of our forecast, mobile display ad
spend will total $33.90 billion, while mobile search will be
$28.41 billion.
Its important to call out the other category as well,
which includes classifieds, email and lead generation,
among additional formats. US mobile ad spending on those
formats will increase from $962 million this year to $3.32
billion in 2019. Meanwhile, mobile messaging ad dollars
will rise in 2015 and 2016 before going on a slow decline
through the remainder of eMarketers forecast period.

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 4

US Digital Ad Spending, by Device, 2013-2019

billions

US Mobile Ad Spending, by Format, 2013-2019

billions

17 78
35 87
58 15
89 72
96 81
44 67
59 50
5. 7.
5. 5.
1. 9.
9. 8.
4. 9.
2. 0.
6. 0.
$2 $5
$2 $6
$3 $1
$2 $2
$2 $4
$3 $1
$2 $4

2013

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Mobile**

Note: *includes spending primarily on desktop-based ads; **includes

classifieds, display (banners and other, rich media and video), email, lead
generation, messaging-based advertising and search; ad spending on
tablets is included
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186555

Mobile web ad spending will also grow at a healthy

clip, rising 36.8% in 2016 to $10.84 billion, eMarketer
estimates. Spending on the mobile web is being driven
by programmatic, cookie-based targeting and bundling
across devices.
eMarketers latest mobile ad spending forecast also
includes mobile app install ads for the first time. We
estimate that US app install ad spending totaled $1.67
billion in 2014, or 8.7% of all mobile ad spend, and expect
this to reach $3.00 billion this year. That figure is an 80.0%
year-over-year increase, yet still only accounts for 10.4% of
all mobile ad dollars.

Mobilenomics Roundup

2017

2018

2019

$5.31 $9.65 $14.67 $20.80 $25.69 $29.74 $33.90

$4.59

$8.11 $12.05 $16.87 $20.60 $23.78 $27.04

Video

$0.72

$1.54

Search

$4.92 $8.72 $12.85 $17.87 $21.73 $25.04 $28.41

$2.62

$3.94

$5.09

$5.96

$6.86

SMS/MMS/
$0.25 $0.24
P2P messaging

$0.24

$0.26

$0.25

$0.24

$0.24

Other
$0.20 $0.55
(classifieds,
email, lead gen)

$0.96

$1.57

$2.14

$2.76

$3.32

$10.67 $19.15 $28.72 $40.50 $49.81 $57.78 $65.87

Note: ad spending on tablets is included; numbers may not add up to total

due to rounding; *includes ads such as Facebook's News Feed Ads and
Twitter's Promoted Tweets
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186584

www.eMarketer.com

US Mobile Ad Spending, In-App vs. Mobile Web,

2014-2016
In-app (billions)

Advertisers are finding compelling opportunities through

video, rich media and native in mobile apps, as well as a
better ability to target captive audiences. Next year, when
mobile spending will surpass advertising on the desktop
for the first time, app ad dollars will continue to gain steam,
increasing 42.6% to nearly $30 billion, or 73.2% of all US
mobile ad spending.

2016

Banners,
rich media,
sponsorships
and other*

www.eMarketer.com

Our new forecast breaks out mobile app and mobile web
spending for the first time. This year, app spending will
outpace mobile web browser ad dollars nearly 3-to-1.
Advertisers will spend $20.79 billion to reach consumers
via mobile apps in 2015, compared with $7.93 billion on
mobile browsers.

2015

Display

Total

Desktop*

2014

2014

2015

2016

$13.67

$20.79

$29.66

% change

88.2%

52.1%

42.6%

% of total

71.4%

72.4%

73.2%

Mobile web (billions)

$5.47

$7.93

$10.84

% change

61.0%

44.8%

36.8%

% of total

28.6%

27.6%

26.8%

$19.15

$28.72

$40.50

Total (billions)

Note: includes advertising that appears on mobile phones and tablets, and
includes all the various formats of advertising on those platforms; numbers
may not add to total due to rounding
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186912

www.eMarketer.com

US Mobile App Install Ad Spending, 2013-2015

Mobile app install ad spending (billions)
% change
% of total mobile ad spending

2013

2014

2015

$0.77

$1.67

$3.00

115.5%

80.0%

8.7%

10.4%

7.3%

Note: includes advertising that appears on mobile phones and tablets, and
includes all the various formats of advertising on those platforms; excludes
app re-engagement ads
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
186911

www.eMarketer.com

Spending on app install ads via mobile search was

negligible last year, so the low share of total mobile ad
spending doesnt paint the entire picture. App install ads
accounted for 17.3% of US mobile display ad spending in
2014, and this is expected to grow to nearly 20% this year.
The leading search providers are making strides to attract
app developers ad dollars, but we expect app install ads
to represent an insignificant portion of mobile search
spending in 2015.

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 5

Expect More Programmatic Ads to Pop Up on Mobile

Mobile ranks as the No. 1 area of opportunity for programmatic
Following triple-digit gains in 2013 and 2014,
programmatic ad spending will continue on a
solid growth trajectory in 2015, rising nearly 50%
to $14.88 billion, or 55.0% of total digital display
ad spending, eMarketer estimates.
According to February 2015 research by RBC Capital
Markets and Advertising Age, though, programmatic still
makes up a small share of marketers total budgets. Fully
45% of US marketers put 20% or less of their marketing
spend toward such placements, while just 8% invested
over 20%. This will change in 2015, however, as nearly twothirds of respondents intended to significantly or modestly
increase their programmatic ad budgets in the coming year.
Mobile will see its fair share of those spending increases; it
ranked as the No. 1 area of opportunity for programmatic,
cited by 33% of marketers. Video landed in second, called
out by one-fifth of respondents, while no other segment
saw even half the response rate of mobile.
Of course, its not as if people arent already using mobile
for programmatic. February 2015 research by Digiday
found that plenty of US ad buyers and sellers were
involved in mobile programmatic advertising. Among those
polled, 69.1% said they conducted mobile advertising
programmatically. This was the second-highest response,
trailing only display (85.6%) and slightly ahead of video
(67.1%).

Change* in Programmatic Advertising Budget

According to US Marketers, Feb 2015
% of respondents
Modestly
decrease
2%

Significantly increase
22%

Stay the same

36%
Modestly increase
40%

Note: n=905; *over the next year

Source: RBC Capital Markets and Advertising Age, "Social Media Survey,"
March 15, 2015
187018

www.eMarketer.com

Channel/Format Where US Marketers See the Most

Opportunity for Programmatic Advertising, Feb 2015
% of respondents

Native
10%
Social media
14%
Display
16%

TV
8%
Mobile
33%

Video
20%

Note: numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Source: RBC Capital Markets and Advertising Age, "Social Media Survey,"
March 15, 2015
187020

www.eMarketer.com

eMarketer estimates that, following massive growth

of 234.3% in 2014, US mobile programmatic display ad
spending will nearly double this year, rising 88.4% to $8.36
billion, or 57.0% of total mobile display ad spending and
56.2% of total programmatic digital display ad spending.
Next year, 68.0% of mobile display ad dollars will go toward
programmatic as mobile accounts for nearly 70% of
programmatic digital display ad spend.

Mobilenomics Roundup

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 6

Programmatic Sellers vs. Buyers: Whos More Hooked On Mobile?

Mobile grabs nearly 40% of sellers programmatic inventory, 30% of
buyers spending
Marketers are excited about mobile
programmatic, but based on recent research,
sellers are further ahead when it comes to
adoption. No matter which sides more
advanced, one things for sure: Inventory and
spending are exploding.
According to January 2015 research by Advertiser
Perceptions, US media sellers allocated nearly 40% of their
programmatic ad inventory to mobile. This was higher than
the other two channels studied by 6 percentage points
or more.
However, buyers exhibited different behavior. Among this
group, display still ruled, grabbing 41% of programmatic
budgets, vs. 28% of inventory. Mobile took three in 10
programmatic dollarsjust 1 point above video.
Research released in March 2015 by PulsePoint showed
explosive growth in mobile inventory and spending
worldwide on one part of programmatic: real-time bidding
(RTB) ads.

Allocation of Programmatic Ad Budget/Inventory

According to US Media Buyers vs. Sellers, by Channel,
Jan 2015
% of respondents

Video
29%

Display
28%

Display
41%

Mobile
30%

Mobile
39%

Video
33%

Buyers

Sellers

Source: Advertiser Perceptions, "Programmatic Advertising Report, Wave

3," March 2015
187914

www.eMarketer.com

Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Desktop and Mobile

Inventory Growth Worldwide, by Region, Q2-Q4 2014
% change vs. prior quarter among impressions served by
PulsePoint
Asia

Europe

North America

Mobile
Q2

63.8%

38.1%

15.3%

Q3

117.7%

76.2%

76.4%

Q4

191.6%

177.4%

150.4%

Q2

36.5%

41.2%

-17.0%

Q3

98.9%

77.6%

25.2%

Q4

82.6%

85.0%

56.6%

Desktop

Gains were strongest in Asia, where quarter-over-quarter

growth was close to 192% in Q4 2014 alone, compared with
82.6% on desktop. Meanwhile, mobile RTB inventory rose
177.4% in Europe and 150.4% in North America in the final
quarter of last year, vs. respective desktop gains of 85.0%
and 56.6%. A look back at previous quarters suggested that
growth isnt slowing any time soon, as quarterly RTB mobile
inventory gains had accelerated throughout the year.

Note: based on activity on the PulsePoint platform, broader industry

metrics may vary; includes display inventory; excludes video and mobile
in-app formats
Source: PulsePoint, "Programmatic Intelligence Report 2014," March 30,
2015
188200

www.eMarketer.com

RTB mobile ad spending showed even more impressive

growth across the board. In both Asia and Europe,
expenditures on mobile RTB placements soared about
330% in Q4 2014, and in North America this figure came
in right under 300%. Just like with inventory, all mobile
spending growth rates were above those on desktop by
the end of last year, and increases had made huge jumps
quarter over quarter.

Mobilenomics Roundup

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 7

eMarketer expects this year to be a tipping point for

the US programmatic market, as spending on mobile
programmatic display ads will surpass that on desktop to
grab a 56.2% share of total programmatic digital display
ad spending. That share will leap again next year to
nearly 70%.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Desktop and Mobile Ad

Spending Growth Worldwide, by Region, Q2-Q4 2014
% change vs. prior quarter on the PulsePoint platform
Asia

Europe

North America

Mobile
Q2

129%

99%

94%

Q3

238%

179%

180%

Q4

329%

331%

296%

Q2

114%

113%

76%

Q3

315%

129%

150%

Q4

285%

214%

243%

Desktop

Note: based on activity on the PulsePoint platform, broader industry

metrics may vary; includes display inventory; excludes video and mobile
in-app
Source: PulsePoint, "Programmatic Intelligence Report 2014," March 30,
2015
188201

www.eMarketer.com

How Much Longer Until Mobile Native Sees More Action?

Mobile native ads boost engagement, see higher CTRs
Mobile native ads now rank as one of the top
developments in mobile advertising, and budgets
are expected to increase significantly in the
coming years. Those who have embraced mobile
native ads have seen a multitude of benefits,
particularly when it comes to engagement.
When January 2015 polling by Ovum for the Interactive
Advertising Bureau (IAB) Mobile Marketing Center of
Excellence asked US mobile marketers about their attitudes
toward key developments in mobile advertising, eight in 10
said native ads were important to some extent, with 30%
saying they were very important. This put mobile native
as the second most important developmentpassing
HTML5, No. 2 in 2013and behind responsive design by
just 1 point.
Mobile native advertising usage was relatively low among
marketers polled worldwide in 2015 by InMobi. Less than
two in five respondents had run mobile native campaigns,
and three-quarters said they spent 20% or less of their
2014 digital ad budgets on such efforts. More activity
should take place soon; 57% planned to leverage native
ads on mobile, and over half said theyd increase their
mobile native ad budget by 25% or more in the next
two years.

Mobilenomics Roundup

Importance of Select Developments in Mobile

Advertising According to US Mobile Marketers,
Jan 2015
% of respondents
Very
Somewhat
Not
Don't
important important important know
Responsive design

31%

50%

11%

8%

Mobile native advertising

30%

50%

13%

9%

HTML5

29%

46%

17%

9%

Programmatic buying

26%

50%

17%

8%

Mobile Rising Stars

26%

50%

15%

10%

MRAID

22%

52%

15%

12%

Real-time bidding

21%

41%

27%

12%

Note: numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Mobile Marketing Center of
Excellence, "Marketer Perceptions of Mobile Advertising - Third Edition"
conducted by Ovum, March 30, 2015
188235

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Among users and potential users, mobile native ads were

especially popular for interacting with consumers, with six
in 10 saying such placements engaged the audience better
than other formats. Those who had used mobile native
advertising or knew how to but had yet to do so also said
the ads had a better look and feel (41%), increased brand
awareness (34%), gave brands a more authentic voice
(34%) and generated quality leads (33%).

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 8

Research released in October 2014 by Polar showed higher

clickthrough rates (CTRs) for native ads run on mobile
compared with desktop in the US and UK. Average CTR for
native placements on tablets was 0.28%, and smartphones
were right behind at 0.27%. Meanwhile, CTR for desktop
native ads was just 0.15%. Consumers who accessed the
sponsored content via smartphone spent the most time
with it, at an average 3 minutes and 54 seconds. Time spent
with tablet and desktop native ads was relatively even, at
about 2 minutes each.

Percent of Digital Ad Budget Allocated to Mobile

Native Advertising and Expected Change in Spending
Among Brand vs. Agency Marketers Worldwide, 2015
% of respondents
Percent of 2014 digital ad
budget spent on mobile
native

Expected change
in mobile native
budget over next 2 years
Brand Agency Total

Brand Agency Total

0%

33%

27%

29%

Increase
50%+

19%

22%

21%

1%-20%

33%

53%

46%

Increase
25%-50%

36%

32%

33%

21%-40%

13%

9%

10%

Increase
<25%

20%

35%

30%

41%-60%

3%

4%

4%

No change

7%

2%

4%

61%-80%

6%

1%

3%

Decrease
<50%

3%

0%

1%

81%-100%

3%

0%

1%

Decrease
50%+

1%

0%

0%

Don't know

9%

6%

7%

Don't know

13%

9%

10%

Note: n=209 who understand mobile native and use in campaigns or know
how to but have yet to do so; numbers may not add up to 100% due to
rounding
Source: InMobi, "Marketer and Publisher Perceptions: Native Advertising
on Mobile," April 6, 2015
187882

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Mobile Advertising Is Farther Along than You Think

Steve Ahlberg
Vice President, Revenue Solutions and
Product Management

a product of the small standardized units. Marketers are

now going with larger size canvases that have full site
interactions happen within them.

Gannett

Mobile advertising can be an effective channel

when done well, but similar to other channels,
there are a few misconceptions. Steve Ahlberg,
vice president of revenue and product
management at US media conglomerate Gannett,
spoke with eMarketers Rimma Kats about
the top misconceptions of mobile advertising
and where marketers and agencies are at in
overcoming them.

Additionally, agencies are starting to understand the

possibilities within the mobile advertising space, but theyre
not quite there yet.
eMarketer: Specifically looking at mobile search vs.
mobile display, do these misconceptions vary?
Ahlberg: The biggest thing has been accountability. Has
someone clicked on my ad because they wanted to vs.
they just fat-fingered something and ended up clicking on
it accidentally?

eMarketer: What are the top misconceptions that

marketers have with mobile advertising?

Agencies are starting to understand the

possibilities within the mobile advertising
space, but theyre not quite there yet.

Steve Ahlberg: The biggest misconception is that you

cant do anything interesting in the space, and thats been

There have also been a tremendous amount of nefarious

players in the mobile marketing space. Premium publishers

Mobilenomics Roundup

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 9

eMarketer: What advancements from last year will have a

positive effect on mobile advertising in 2015?

Ahlberg: Its coming; its not there yet. Theres a large

unnamed agency that worked with Cond Nast that said,
Were only going to pay for 100% viewable impressions.
Thats not really realistic in the web world yet, but agencies
and advertisers are now saying enough is enough, lets
clean up this oversupply.

Ahlberg: Viewability and accountability metrics are the

biggest ones. Was my ad viewable? Did people engage
with it? Those are the next-generation metrics that werent
there on mobile 12 to 18 months ago.

You want to make sure that what youre buying is not only
going to be seen, but also engaged with. Mobile is probably
12 to 18 months behind where the web is right now from a
viewability perspective.

Mobile has quickly caught up and advertisers can now

say, I only buy viewable impressions. I only want to buy
impressions that are going to be engaged with as opposed
to having impressions that are below the fold or are
never seen.

eMarketer: Where does the industry stand on establishing

standards for mobile ad viewability?

are bringing some of their best branding positions that

they had online to the mobile space and are differentiating
themselves from the masses.

eMarketer: How important is viewability in

mobile advertising?

Ahlberg: The industry has realized that viewability and

accountability are an issue right now and that we need to
self-govern ourselves.

To Properly Attribute Mobile Ads, Kill Last-Click Models

David Shim
Founder and CEO
Placed

David Shim is the founder and CEO of Placed, a

location-measurement firm focused on pairing
consumer behavior in the physical world with
advertising exposures. Shim recently spoke with
eMarketers Lauren Fisher about brands
pressing needs to bring offline sales and in-store
data into attribution models and why doing
so is critical to proving mobiles value in the
cross-platform equation.
eMarketer: How would you describe the current state of
cross-platform attribution?
David Shim: The state of attribution is really not that
great. In 2013 and early 2014 we found that most people

Mobilenomics Roundup

were still optimizing either off of clickthrough rate (CTR) or

app installs.
Everyone knows CTR is a horrible metric to utilize on
desktop, but when you go to mobile, its the easiest
metric to measure and optimize against. But if you look
at conversions that occur after a click on a mobile device,
theres not much meat there. If you see an advertisement
for a sweatshirt on your smartphone and click on a banner
ad, are you really going to buy that sweatshirt on your
mobile web browser? The answer is no.
What weve been finding is that campaigns like this
arent even generating one-for-one in terms of return
on investment (ROI). So for every dollar spent, you cant
generate a dollar in revenue if youre a retailer measuring
mobile off of CTR.

Everyone knows CTR is a horrible metric

to utilize on desktop, but when you go to
mobile, its the easiest metric to measure
and optimize against.

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 10

But what weve seen in the second half of 2014 and into
2015 is an upswing in terms of clients wanting to know
more about mapping mobile to in-store, and doing so at
scale. That includes scale in terms of reporting as well as
the ability to work across partners.
Its that scale piece that really points to something that
that industry is missing at this point, which is a common
currency. Weve got companies like Datalogix and
dunnhumby, but their purchase data is only tied to loyalty
cards. So with purchase data being so fragmented, its hard
to decide how to attribute. Clients really want a common
currency that works across all properties and sites.
eMarketer: How influential has mobile been to driving
attribution forward in the last couple of years?
Shim: Very. Mobile is what is driving store-visit attribution
beyond loyalty card data. There are a lot of places that
dont offer loyalty cards, so it can be difficult to understand
who visited those stores. Mobile can prove the missing
link because it can tell you where people are going in
the physical world and what theyre actually doing. With
it, we can now connect the dots all the way from digital
ad exposure to the store someone visited to the items
they purchased.

For retailersanyone that has core

business in the physical worldmobile can
be a direct-response channel.
To give you an example, we worked with a fashion retailer
that was optimizing off of CTR with a secondary goal of
clicking on find-a-store listing mobile pages.
They knew they needed to increase their mobile budgets
because that was where their audience was, but they
couldnt justify the spend because they werent converting
on that digital device. They wanted to know if instead, they
could map their mobile ad exposures back to whether or
not someone entered a physical store.
The retailer actually went as far as to build a revenue
model off of those store visits, assuming a certain portion
of visits resulted in a sale and what they knew about the
average order size. So internally they were able to justify
what ended up becoming an 800% return on ad spend.
They were then able to go back to their marketing team
and show they were actually making money, not losing
money on mobile as they previously thought. Over the next
year, we saw their budgets increase by two to three times.

eMarketer: What are marketers learning from this? What

are some of the big insights theyre getting from this more
complete attribution picture that they werent before?
Shim: For retailersanyone that has core business in
the physical worldmobile can be a direct-response
channel. By linking mobile to in-store performance,
retailers are finding positive ROI vs. before, when they were
attributing on CTR. Its really changing the way people think
about mobile.

Mobilenomics Roundup

Copyright 2015 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 11

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