Advertisers increased their spend in mobile by 56.1% in the first half of 2016, helping digital achieve its highest first-half growth rate for two years.
During the first six months of 2016, digital advertising spend was up by 16.4% to £4.78 billion – with 36 pence in every pound spent going to mobile, up from 4 pence just five years ago.
The report, conducted by PwC and IAB UK, also shows that the amount spent on mobile (£802 million) overtook PC and tablet display (£762 million) for the first time.
“Mobile use today is more akin to a computer than merely a phone, as people increasingly rely on them as their information, entertainment and communications hub,” said the IAB UK’s chief strategy officer, Tim Elkington.
“People now spend more time online on their mobile than they do on a computer. Consequently, marketers devote more ad spend to mobile as they increasingly cotton on to the fact that people essentially carry an ad platform with them wherever they are.”
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Video, social and native are now the fastest-growing formats, with spend on video ads increasing by 67% to £474 million.
Outstream and in-read video ads – the ads which appear anywhere on a page but not before video content – saw a massive 440% rise and now account for 40% of video spend, while traditional video ads – those which play before, during or after an online video – grew 17%.
Mobile video spend alone grew by 129%, with video now accounting for 37% of mobile display and 30% of display advertising overall.
Meanwhile, adspend on social media sites grew 43% to £745 million, meaning 48% of display spend now goes on social. Social spend on mobile also grew 64%, with mobile now accounting for 80% of spend allocated to social.
Content on native adspend increased 29% to £451 million.
