BIA/Kelsey forecasts U.S. mobile local advertising revenues to grow from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $9.1 billion in 2017. This corresponds to a 0.9% share of local media ad revenues in 2012, growing to a 6.1% share in 2017, according to the firm’s recently released U.S. Local Media Forecast.
BIA/Kelsey’s projected mobile local ad revenues represent a subset of total U.S. mobile ad spending, which the firm forecasts to grow from $3.2 billion in 2012 to $16.8 billion in 2017. This puts locally targeted mobile ads at 38% of overall U.S. mobile ad spending in 2012, growing to 54% in 2017.
Several factors will drive the “localized” share of U.S. mobile ad revenues, including: Large brand advertisers will increasingly adapt their campaign objectives to the capabilities of mobile devices due to effective, abundant, and currently undervalued mobile local ad inventory, says BIA/Kelsey. Also, premiums that develop for location-targeted ads will compound ad volume growth. And finally, innovation will increase among ad networks and ad tech providers, predicts BIA/Kelsey.
“Though inventory growth currently outpaces advertiser demand, we believe the latter will begin to accelerate,” and increase overall mobile ad spend, said Michael Boland, senior analyst and director of content, BIA/Kelsey.
