4 Up-and-Coming Trends in the Mobile Ad Industry

2015 has been the year of mobile. Back in April, Mobilegeddon arrived to give those straggling on responsive design a swift kick in the behind. Now that mobile rocketed off, everyone’s scrambling to get on board and follow the ever-changing trends of the industry.

As you discover the latest and greatest trends, you’ll notice one thing is for certain—mobile comes first.

1: The Money’s in Mobile

2015 is likely to be the desktop’s last year as the ad spend champion. In fact, you can expect mobile to knock it right off its pedestal by the next year.

A recent report by eMarketer predicts that 40.5 billion dollars will be spent on mobile advertising in 2016. Desktop ad spending will lag behind a good deal, bringing in a forecasted 26.59 billion dollars.

Ready for your key takeaway on this one?

If you’re going to put your money in advertising, mobile is your best bet.

2: Native Advertising Reigns as King

Here’s the thing—users want value from each and every piece of content they come in contact with. That includes advertisements.

So, instead of interrupting users with an unrelated, heavy-handed ad, native advertising suggests content related to the information the user’s already looking at on their smartphone. But still, you might be wondering, “That’s nice, but what’s the big deal about native advertising?”

It all comes down to UX. When users see native ads, engagement goes up and in turn, so do your eCPM rates. In the end, users receive ads relevant to information they care about, more click-throughs are generated, and your revenue increases. It’s a win-win-win.

If we had to pick a reigning champion of mobile ad industry trends, we’d crown native advertising in a second.

Pro tip: keep tabs on Been Choice, a new addition to the App Store catalog. This app is designed to block native apps. If it’s not banished from the iTunes kingdom soon, you’ll want to stick with a mobile ad network that provide reporting on this loss of inventory.

3: Everyone Wants More Insight On Post-Install Behavior

It’s post-app installation o’clock. Do you know where your user is?

Seriously, how much do you know about what your users do after downloading an app?

In the past, there hasn’t been much data on this important activity. However, the times are changing, and the ad industry realizes there’s real insight to be gleaned from this activity.

As you keep an eye on trends, watch out for a greater emphasis on post-action data.

4: Location Matters More Than Ever

You know the old real estate adage— location, location, location. This idea rings true for the mobile ad industry too.

Just as users prefer to see ads relevant to the content on their screens, they also like ads relevant to their location. In fact, users are constantly searching for pertinent information while they’re on-the-go. A study by SessionM revealed that 90 percent of smartphone owners use their devices while shopping (to comparison shop, study reviews and get product specs).

With location based advertising on the rise, get ready to see more and more hyper-targeted campaigns to increase user engagement.

Has a trend in the mobile ad industry caught your eye recently? Let us know what’s got you buzzing in the comments.

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About Appodeal

We believe that the mobile ad industry is unfairly built in favor of advertisers. Our mission is to bring the power back to mobile app publishers. 

We have established a marketplace where ad networks compete in real-time against each other for your ad inventory. Publishers increase revenue with our programmatic ad mediation solution, which engages ad networks in auction-based competition for every ad impression.