Mobile ads will make up 62% of digital ad spends in India by 2021: Report

Mobile advertising is becoming popular among advertisers and is expected to grow 85% in 2017. Photo: HT

Bengaluru: Although television still remains the biggest advertising platform in India, growing demand for smartphones, cheap 4G handsets and falling data prices are expected to increase mobile ad spending significantly, according to marketing research firm eMarketer.

Mobile advertising is becoming popular among advertisers and is expected to grow 85% in 2017, the firm said in its latest media ad spending forecast. Rise in mobile advertising will also help boost overall digital marketing spending to around $1.21 billion this year.

By the end of 2017, smartphones will make up 36.6% of all mobile phones, and by 2021 this share is expected to touch 47.4%, eMarketer estimated.

Additionally, the research firm predicted double-digit growth for mobile ad spending in the next few years in India. By 2021, mobile will account for more than half (~62.0%) of overall digital ad spending, which is expected to hit a total of $2.8 billion.

Globally, mobile ad spending touched $36.6 billion in 2016, accounting for 51% of overall digital advertising spending, according to IAB’s Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Video ad spending grew 53% to $9.1 billion, social media spending grew by more than 50% to $16.3 billion and search engines by 19% to about $35 billion in 2016, the report added.

“While television continues to be the most popular advertising medium (in India), digital is the fastest growing, with ad spending recording double-digit growth rates up to 2021,” Shelleen Shum, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer, said in a statement.

“Driven by increasing mobile internet penetration, falling data prices and the availability of low-cost handsets, mobile will be a major contributor to the growth of digital advertising in the years to come as marketers embrace this channel to reach a new generation of young and digitally savvy consumers,” Shum added.

This does not mean that advertisers and ad marketers would completely disregard Television advertising. eMarketer pointed out that apart from cheaper smartphones, strong social media usage has led advertisers to increase their ad budgets on mobile along with traditional media spending.

In 2017 alone, social media platforms are expected to reach more than a quarter of all mobile phone users and three-quarters of social network users, eMarketer added.