Global Mobile Ad Revenue Up 64%; Mobile Display Ads Top Search First Time Ever [Report]

Global revenue for mobile display, search and messaging ads climbed to $31.9 billion in 2014.

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The IAB reports total global mobile ad revenue in 2014 reached $31.9 billion, an impressive 64.8 percent jump over 2013.

For the first time ever, mobile display ad earnings topped search. Climbing to $15.1 billion, mobile display ads represented nearly half (47.4%) of the total mobile ad revenue in 2014 and saw the highest growth rate of all mobile ads, at 88.1 percent.

Search ad revenue totaled $14.7 billion and accounted for 46.1 percent of total revenue, up 55.2 percent over 2013.

At $2.1 billion, messaging ad revenue increased 13 percent and accounted for 6.6 percent of global mobile ad revenue.

IAB Mobile Global Ad Revenue Report

IAB 2014 global mobile ad revenue report

Looking at individual regions, North America generated $14.3 billion in mobile ad revenue. With a growth rate of 76%, North America accounted for the highest year-over-year growth of all five regions and owned the largest share of revenue, at 44.9%.

The Asia-Pacific region outperformed Europe, earning $11.6 billion to Europe’s $5.3 billion. Asia-Pacific accounted for 36.5 percent of the global mobile ad share, and Europe accounted for 16.6 percent. The Middle East and Africa generated $379 million in mobile ad revenue, and Latin America generated $239 million.

Display and search ad revenue was mostly even among the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America regions, with total display and search mobile ad revenue shares ranging from 42 percent to 53 percent. Conversely, messaging accounted for the largest share of mobile ad revenue in the Middle East and Africa and Latin America regions.

Global Mobile Ad Formats by Region

IAB Global mobile ad report - revenue by format by region

“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,” said IAB Europe’s CEO Townsend Feehan in a release announcing the report.

Anna Barger, IAB senior vice president and general manager, took the opportunity to emphasize the need for more standardization.

“Now is the time for the industry to coalesce on standards and guidelines to build even more momentum for mobile marketing around the world,” said Barger.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Amy Gesenhues
Contributor
Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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