Mobile Ad Spend Breaks £1bn Mark in H1 2015

IAB graphDigital ad spend in the UK rose to a record £3.98bn during H1 2015, according to the latest report from the IAB and PwC – representing a year-on-year increase of 13.4 per cent, four-fifths of which came from mobile.

Spend on mobile rose by 51 per cent to £1.08bn, 27.1 per cent of total digital spend. The channel accounts for 39 per cent of display, 43 per cent of video, 63 per cent of social media ads and 74 per cent of native and content ads.

“Mobile is unquestionably the engine of digital growth, with mobile display spend up 63 per cent on the back of mobile video spend more than doubling,” says Dan Bunyan, senior manager at PwC. “However, there’s plenty of room to grow, as mobile accounts for 40 per cent of internet time but only 27 per cent of ad spend. Marketers are realising this is out of kilter, hence mobile is likely to continue gaining share at pace.”

The single fastest growing category was tablet-dedicated advertising, which grew 115 per cent year-on-year to £68m.