60 per cent of marketers in the Asia Pacific region currently attribute less than a tenth of their budget to mobile, according to research by Warc and MMA.

Thats despite 60 per cent of the 324 marketing and advertising professionals surveyed, in 17 markets across the region, reporting that they find mobile very effective as a marketing channel, with only two per cent finding it ineffective.

However, 92 per cent believe that their mobile budgets will rise this year – with 47 per cent expecting to see growth in excess of 25 per cent.

“Budgets are climbing, and over the next few years we expect to see that applied to mobile video and mobile payment systems,” said Amy Rodgers, research editor at Warc.

The measurement of mobile remains a stumbling block. Metrics (39 per cent) has overtaken skills (33 per cent) as the biggest barrier to growth of mobile marketing and advertising.

Despite this, around 75 per cent of respondents saw mobile marketing as very important to their business in 2016 – with 87 per cent having, or working on, a formal strategy to support their mobile efforts.  Of those with a strategy in place, over 50 per cent said it was closely connected to other marketing activities.

61 per of respondents are using mobile display advertising and 49 per cent mobile video in their 2016 campaigns. Many are expecting location-based targeting and augmented reality to gain more importance over the next five years.

Rodgers added: “These findings reveal a market that is developing its mobile capabilities rapidly. Now having four years of data, we can clearly see trends in mobile marketing in the region, revealing progress in investment, integration and use of mobile technologies.”

Familiarity with programmatic is good in the Asia Pacific region. Over 33 per cent of marketers are very familiar with programmatic as a medium for ad buying – only 18 per cent have no knowledge at all – and 83 per cent of these believe that buying programmatically plays an important role in their marketing strategies.