Rubicon Project Says Mobile Now More Than 20% Of Programmatic Ad Spend

Ad tech giant Rubicon Project says mobile ad spend on its platform increased more than 1,300 percent in the two years between Q1 2013 and Q1 2015. Mobile now makes up more than 20 percent of the spend on the programmatic ad buying and selling platform, up from just 3 percent two years ago.

The public company says it expects mobile managed revenues will surpass $200 million this fiscal year. While the escalation is a sign that advertisers are embracing mobile, it’s more significantly a sign that Rubicon’s investment in mobile programmatic technology is paying off.

“Two years ago we recognized a significant opportunity existed on the mobile distribution channel for Rubicon Project,” said Joe Prusz, Head of Mobile, Rubicon Project. “The infrastructure necessary to enable mobile ads to be bought and sold automatically – the same way they are on desktop – simply did not exist. Over the last two years, we have been tackling that complicated endeavor with a clear mission to scale the mobile market for automation for the entire industry.”

Earlier this week, Rubicon Project announced it was expanding it’s deal to be the exclusive seller of Virool’s InLine mobile video format. The format is designed to bring scale to programmatic premium video inventory as an alternative to video ads that take over the whole screen. Like many in-stream native formats, appears “in line” with the content on the screen. The videos play on mute when in-view and dissolve out of view when the videos end.

Programmatic advertising is expected to top $20 billion by the end of 2016, according to eMarketer, doubling from 2014. Mobile’s share of the programmatic pie is expected to surpass that of desktop as early as this year.