The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has recently released their full report on mobile advertising revenue for the year 2014. While everyone knew that mobile ads have been growing at a rapid rate, this report confirms that it is even bigger than many expected. The report found that mobile ad revenue reached a record $34 Billion over the year. That is a year over year growth of 65%.
Not surprisingly, North America boasted the fastest growing area with a growth rate of 76.8%. North America alone made up about 44.9% of the total ad revenue. The next largest area was Asia-Pacific, bringing in 36.5% of the total revenue ($11.6 Billion). Europe came in at 16.6%, the Middle east and Africa made up just 1.6% and Latin America .8%.
Display ads showed the highest rate of growth at an impressive 88.1%. This allowed mobile display ads to overtake the long standing leader in mobile ads, search. Display ads now account for 47.4% of the total mobile ad revenue. Search brings in 46.1% of the total revenue, which is still a growth of 55.2%.
This report has many incredible statistics that show just how rapidly mobile has grown over the year. Most people expect the growth rate to continue this year and well into the future.
Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, said “It’s important that advertisers, agencies and publishers fully understand consumer behavior as the differences between the devices diminish and the potential for engagement with digital content grows.”
Any marketers who are not using mobile specific advertising today are at serious risk of falling behind the times and becoming irrelevant.
