Dive Brief:
- The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its latest digital ad report covering the first half of this year and found 19% year-over-year growth for digital ads and a record high in digital ad revenue of $32.7 billion.
- The report also showed mobile now represents almost half of all internet ad revenue, surpassing search and growing 89% year-over-year. Mobile video and search are seeing what IAB described as unprecedented triple-digit growth.
- Breaking the results down to only Q2, digital ad growth was 18% year-over-year totaling $16.9 billion.
Dive Insight:
The IAB’s report reinforces the ongoing trend toward an increasingly digital future, while also solidifying mobile importance as a driver in the shift. Every category saw revenue growth, including digital video on both desktop and mobile; total search on both desktop and mobile; and social media across desktop platforms and mobile apps.
“These half-year revenues are a testament to the role of digital screens — especially mobile screens — in consumers’ increasingly connected lives,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of IAB, in a statement. “Marketers and brands clearly recognize the innate power of digital to offer immersive experiences and secure real-time engagement.”
Marketers have struggled to manage the proliferation of mobile technology. Between apps, chatbots and digital assistants, there isn't a single silver bullet to mastering the medium, with experts instead emphasizing hybrid strategies like voice-driven experiences.
While consumer behavior is increasingly mobile, marketing budgets are still lagging behind. Advertisers are still allocating the bulk of their spend (65%) on traditional mediums like print, radio and TV, while users are spending nearly half (47%) of their time online, particularly on mobile, according to Mary Meeker's Internet Trends report.
Expect the trend to continue: Zenith’s Mobile Advertising Forecast predicts that 75% of internet use will be mobile next year and mobile advertising will reach 60% by 2018, eclipsing expenditures on newspaper, magazine, cinema and outdoor advertising combined.
