Six vertical industries have experienced triple-digit year-on-year growth in terms of mobile ad spend, according to a new study.
Millennial Media, publishing its 50th SMART Report, says that finance, retail and restaurants, pharmaceuticals, automotive, entertainment, and travel have all seen mobile ad spend rocket since Q2 2010. The first SMART Report came in March 2009.
The explosive growth of mobile ad spend shows that more advertisers are moving out of the test phase of mobile and starting to make a consistent investment in the platform, according to Millennial Media.
The growth rates in the triple-digit industries are as follows:
- Finance – 1,095 per cent
- Retail and restaurant – 956 per cent
- Pharmaceuticals – 426 per cent.
- Automotive – 236 per cent
- Entertainment – 234 per cent
- Travel – 145 per cent
In terms of the huge growth in finance spend, Millennial says: “Insurance brands heavily utilised mobile for generating leads, while banking and credit advertisers ran campaigns to raise the awareness of their products and services.” Millennial says that the retail and restaurant space used mobile to “create awareness of seasonal retail promotions”, while travel-related mobile ads are starting to drive to apps that offer “transactional functionality”. 
The report has also charted the rise of touchscreen devices, local market advertising, and ads that direct users to an app store or app download page. Apple has also increased its market share in terms of ad spend from 11 per cent to 30 per cent year-on-year.
Touchscreen devices account for 60 per cent of the devices on the Millennial Network, says the company. In the first Millennial report in March 2009, this figure was 33 per cent.
Ads that drive to app stores or app download pages have grown 20 per cent since 2009, from 3 per cent to 23 per cent of all ads on Millennials Network.
The full SMART Report can be downloaded free from the Millennial Media website (registration required). The company has also issued a video report on the findings, viewable on YouTube.
