It’s no secret that Facebook has accelerated its mobile ad business in recent quarters. This mobile ad monetization push is resulting in “dramatic gains” in worldwide mobile ad market share, according to estimates put out today by researchers at eMarketer. The figures suggest Facebook’s share of global mobile Internet ad revenues will reach 15.8 percent this year, up from just 5.35 percent in 2012. eMarketer expects the overall mobile ad market to grow 89 percent in 2013 to $16.65 billion.
Facebook’s mobile ad growth tear is the result of the social networking giant pouring a torrent of ads into the news feed in its mobile apps — effectively dressing ads in the same clothes as genuine news feed items to encourage people to click, rather than tune them out.
Facebook only started injecting ads in its mobile apps last year so their mobile ad growth rates are all the more impressive. Last month, in its Q2 earnings, Facebook reported that mobile ads now make up a staggering 41 percent of its total ad revenue, up from around a third in May, and just over a fifth (23 percent) in the quarter before that. After its Q2 earnings Facebook noted that mobile revenue will soon outstrip its desktop ad incomes.
One type of mobile ad that has been performing well for Facebook are app installs. Back in May, Facebook’s product director of advertising Gokul Rajaram told TechCrunch that mobile install ads were “performing well” and resulting in “really high quality users that take actions.” Translation: news feed app ads are resulting in a lot of apps being installed.
Despite Facebook’s impressive growth in mobile, Google of course remains the leader for capturing worldwide mobile ad revenues. eMarketer estimates Mountain View will take 53.17 percent of the market this year, up slightly on its 2012 performance — which eMarketer says is “primarily a result of continued growth in mobile search usage and further mobile monetization of YouTube”.
Android’s domination of the smartphone OS market is keeping Google strong here, with its close to 80 percent share of the global pie — allowing it to preload YouTube on millions of mobile devices worldwide. Android users are of course the eyeballs powering Google’s mobile ad business.
Across all devices, Google remains the undisputed kingpin digital ad publisher in the world. eMarketer estimates it will take in nearly 33 percent of all digital ad dollars globally this year, up from 31.46 percent in 2012. Facebook, buoyed by its growth on mobile, will also increase its share of the total, to 5.41 percent. Meanwhile Yahoo! is expected to lose some ground, while Microsoft’s share is predicted to hold steady.
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