50 per cent of marketers use programmatic for buying smartphone inventory today, but it remains one of the least understood topics in mobile, with 44 per cent admitting they had little or no knowledge on the topic.

Thats according to an IAB UK study of over 300 mobile marketers working across a range of sectors, including travel, retail, finance and entertainment, carried out by research agency Circle Research.

79 per cent of the respondents said mobile is an important part of their organisation’s overall advertising strategy, but lack of budget remains the biggest issue. A third of marketers identified this as a barrier to increased usage of mobile advertising, along with difficulties in tracking and restraints on creativity.

On the positive side, though, location-based advertising was named the most exciting opportunity in mobile by 66 per cent of marketers. Wearables also fared well, with 52 per cent identifying them as an excellent opportunity for the industry and 56 per cent saying they plan to start advertising on wearables in the next 12 months.

“It’s great to see just how far mobile has come in a relatively short amount of time and it’s even more exciting to see mobile on the agenda for so many advertisers in the UK,” said IAB mobile manager Mike Reynolds. “ Interestingly, the results show that programmatic has established itself as an effective way of buying mobile media, however there is a clear disconnect between this buying technique and knowledge levels. Therefore strengthening this knowledge base across the industry remains a top priority of ours for 2016.”