Mobile Advertising Surges 76 Percent In 2014, Per IAB Study

According to a study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), mobile advertising has growned 76 percent last year, reaching a total of $12.5 billion. This growth has made mobile advertising leap over banner advertising in terms of total spending. Banner ads comprise 16 percent of the total pie among advertising formats in 2014, while mobile ads now take 25 percent. Now compare that with the previous year's numbers, which had banner ads having a two percentage point advantage over mobile ads at 19 percent. Overall, internet advertising revenue rose to 16 percent to a total of $49.5 billion for last year, no doubt spurred by the surge in sales for mobile ads.

As explained by Randall Rothenberg, chief at IAB, the rapid growth of mobile advertising is clearly indicative that today's marketers are now recognizing that most consumers now lead more mobile-centric lives. 

Also, the interplay of how much ad spending is growing or shrinking by ad formats not only reflects consumer trends, but also gives an idea of how companies are depending on revenues from advertising in order to survive.

The biggest ad sales category is still search revenue. But despite being ahead of other ad formats, its market share continues to decrease. Perhaps it is no surprise to many that Google, the king of search, is eyeing expansion in other areas outside search, like wireless services, for instance. 

Meanwhile, digital video advertising is showing signs of growth, which makes sense now as TV content providers like HBO are in the process of introducing more channels delivered via the web. This ad format category rose by a double digit percentage, while at the same time retaining its share at 7 percent of the total spending pie. Other ad formats like search, banner, and classified advertising revenue have all lost some share of the pie. 

Social media advertising is also on the rise, spiking by almost 60 percent in 2014 to the tune of $7 billion. No surprise there, considering that virtually everybody is into social networking sites nowadays.

Internet advertising spending still can not surpass traditional TV advertising spending, but it now represents more advertising dollars than radio, newspapers, and magazines combined. It did surpass cable TV revenue in 2011 and broadcast TV revenue in 2013, but when you combine both, the total TV advertising dollars in 2014 was about $65.7 billion, which is miles ahead of Internet advertising's $49.5 billion.