Mobile advertising is projected to overtake print advertising in 2016. It will surpass $100 billion in spending and account for over 50 percent of all digital ad expenditures, according to eMarketer. By the end of next year, the average adult will spend more time using digital devices than watching television, listening to the radio, or reading newspapers and magazines.
Over $100 billion will be spent on mobile phone and tablet ads next year, a 430 percent increase from 2013. This increase in mobile ads is unsurprisingly due to the many consumers that use mobile devices. eMarketer estimates that more than two billion people around the world will use smartphones next year. Tablet use is projected to pass the one billion mark this year alone.
Desktop Advertising
Desktop advertising will also continue to grow, however it’s dropping from 19.8 percent to 19.4 percent with regard to global ad spending. This means it will lose its market share for the first time this year. According to ZenithOptimedia, this number will continue to drop as mobile Internet advertising continues to rise.
“By 2017 ZenithOptimedia forecasts desktop Internet to account for 19.1 percent of global ad spend,” the company predicted. ZenithOptimedia also projects mobile Internet advertising’s chunk of the global ad market will increase from 5.7 percent last year to 15 percent in 2017, and that Internet advertising will make up 34 percent of global ad spend in ‘17. This is just behind television advertising at 35.9 percent. By 2018, Internet advertising will trump TV ads.
Print Ads
Print ad spending has been on the decline since 2008, and is projected to shrink every year until 2017 by an average of 4.9 percent. Magazine advertising is believed to shrink by 3.2 percent a year.
The U.S., China, and Beyond
The United States and China are the two main forces behind mobile ad spending growth, as they’re the leading global markets. U.S. advertisers will spend some $40.24 billion on tablet and mobile phone advertising in 2016, and China will invest $22.14 billion. The UK, Germany, and Japan will also spend serious money on mobile ads in the next year.
“UK consumers already have a pretty packed media day, but mobile use is clearly filling in any gaps,” said eMarketer analyst Bill Fisher. He remarked that this quick rise in time using mobile devices isn’t exactly a surprise, as each new smartphone or tablet launch is improved with more features than their predecessors. Consumers are obviously making the most out of these devices, according to Fisher.
Advertisers are clearly taking note.