Mobile Internet Ad Spending Reaches $100 Billion Worldwide in 2016

Nowadays, almost every one owns a mobile phone. In the United States in 2013 adults spent 20% of their daily media time on their mobile devices (eMarketer, 2013). This year (2016) the global mobile ad spending market will hit the 100 billion dollar milestone of spending and will account for 51% of total digital advertising. (eMarketer, 2016).


This worldwide growth of mobile internet ad spending is driven by the increasing usage of mobile devices.

Many companies doesn’t really understand the possibilities of mobile advertising. They just place an advertisement and wait what will happen. Whereas the usage of mobile devices will keep on increasing in the following years, so marketers has to keep searching for ways to use mobile advertising effectively they are some specific differences between mobile Internet and Internet on your PC. Namely, due to the smaller screens of mobile devices the search costs are higher, because your require more resources to acquire information. Furthermore, the ranking effects on mobile devices are higher, when using a mobile phone (compared to PCs) people are more likely to click on links that are visible on the top of their screen (Ghose, Goldfarb & Han, 2012). Bart et al. (2014) investigates the following research question: ‘Under what product-related conditions are mobile display advertisements (MDAs) effective in changing consumers’ product related attitudes and purchase intentions (p: 271)?’  MDAs are very small banners that are displayed on a (small) screen on websites or applications. During their study of 54 MDA campaigns (MDA), they focused on two aspects of effectiveness: how favorable consumers’ attitudes are- and how are their purchase intentions for the advertised product.

They found that MDA campaigns are more likely to be considered as a failure than a success. The performance of such campaigns is quite variable. Even when a MDA campaign is a success, the influence on consumer behavior is quite small. Thus, overall companies shouldn’t expect MDA campaigns to effectively influence consumers’ behavior.

Nevertheless, the study did provided evidence for the influence of MDA campaigns for certain kinds of products. Namely, when the product has higher involvement and is considered utilitarian (e.g. it has more functional attributes). This could also be useful for products that don’t have this characteristics. Marketers could position their product as they have a high level of involvement and are more utilitarian. They also found that MDA’s are likely to process information that is already stored in our memory instead of storing new information, so they work as memory cues.

Thus, in practical MDA’s should be used together with another advertising channel such as TV or Radio for example to serve as memory cues. This will make consumers remember the relevant product information when they are confronted with a MDA campaign. Furthermore, products have to positioned as high involvement and utilitarian.


Sources: (2013). “Worldwide, More Money Goes Mobile,” (January 4), (accessed February 20, 2016), [available at http://www. 1009582]. (2015). “Mobile ad spend to top $100 Billion Worldwide in 2016, 51% of Digital Market,” (April 2), (accessed February 20, 2016) [available at

Ghose, A., Goldfarb, A., & Han, S. P. (2012). How is the mobile Internet different? Search costs and local activities. Information Systems Research, 24(3), 613-631.

Bart, Y., Stephen, A. T., & Sarvary, M. (2014). Which products are best suited to mobile advertising? A field study of mobile display advertising effects on consumer attitudes and intentions. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(3), 270-285.

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