IAB: Mobile Ad Revenue Nearly Doubles While Interactive Spend Overall Reaches Record $17B

Mobile advertising grew 95% from the first half of 2011 to the same period in 2012, though the sector still only represented $1.2 billion in revenues, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which jointly release revenue figures for the industry every quarter.

The industry as a whole grew to an all-time high of $17 billion in revenues in the first half, a 14% increase year-over-year.

Another sector making big strides in the first half of 2012 is digital video, which is a component of display advertising. Digital video grew 18% year-over-year to a little over $1 billion in the first six months of 2012.

Still, Search Marketing continued to dominate both in its contribution to the market (48%) and in its growth rate (19%) as compared to the 2011 period. Search brought in $8.1 billion in the first six months of 2012.

Meanwhile, Display, which represented 36% of revenues in the first half of 2011, slipped to accounting for just 33% of the market in the same period of 2012. The sector still grew 4% to $5.6 billion, however.

Growth overall slowed from the first half of 2011 to the same period in 2012 (14%), as compared to the 2010 to 2011 change of 23%.

When the IAB looked at pricing models, performance-based (CPC) pricing grew from 64% to 67% of the market in the first half of 2012, as compared to the 2011 period. CPC stole share from Hybrid models, which dipped from 5% to just 2%. CPM pricing stayed steady, representing 31% of spending.

The bulk of online advertising revenues (73%) continued to be concentrated within the 10 top ad-selling companies in the second quarter of 2012. That’s up slightly from 72% in the year-ago period.

The biggest spenders continued to be retail advertisers, accounting for 20% of the market in the first half of 2012, though their share of spend dipped from 23% in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, Telecom slipped from 14% of the market to 12%, and automotive surged from 11% to 13%. Pharma also increased its share of spend, from 4% to 6%.

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About The Author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.