2012 US Mobile Ad Spend Up To $2.6 Billion

No question; 2012 is The Year Of Mobile - and finally the Mobile Ad Spend takes off worldwide. The US market is growing far faster than expected, driven by the rapid ascension of Google’s mobile search advertising business, advertisers’ growing attraction to display inventory on tablet and smartphone devices and growing of mobile ad networks and exchanges.

• In 2011 eMarketer Google had about 51.7 percent of all mobile ad revenues, with sales of $750 million. The second-two biggest platforms were far behind it. Apple’s iAd took in $92.4 million for a 6.4 percent share; while Millennial earned $90.9 million for a 6.3 percent stake.
   
• Google dominated the mobile search category with some 95 percent of all revenues and leading in display with 24.8 percent of the market, with Millennial Media and Apple’s iAd very close to each other for second place and other standing for 39.6 percent of all sales.

How different mediums will grow.

• eMarketer predicts that spend in mobile search will double in 2012, with $1.28 billion spent in the medium compared to $652.5 million in 2011. Higher-value display and rich-media ads will see less investment—which could either be a sign that mobile is still working to earn its stripes as a credible medium with big brands, or a tacit belief that these formats simply are not working as effectively as search at the moment.
   
• Display will be worth $861.7 million, a rise of 93.5 percent on 2011; video will be worth $151.5 million, a very respectable rise of 122 percent.
   

Very usefully for those of us who take forecasts with a grain of salt, eMarketer has also published a kind of leader board for how much different research groups believe mobile ads will bring in the year ahead. eMarketer is coming out at the top end with some of the more bullish predictions.
 

Press Release on emarketeer