Mobile search engine optimization and advertising is clearly on the rise, and this is no surprise if you have been following our writings or keeping an eye on the trending relevance of mobile marketing. New numbers are out now and they are telling as to how big the industry is. As indicated in the title of this post, total spend around the world is well over 5 billion, and of that, mobile search ad spend was $3.3 billion, this according to IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, HIS Screen Digest, and IAB Europe. Looking at the numbers can tell those in the industry where users are consuming ad at higher rate and giving reason to marketers for the spend increases, giving an indication of which markets are currently the hottest in terms of advertising on the mobile platform.

The region with the greatest spend was the Asia-Pacific with $1.9 billion, followed by North America at $1.67 billion, and $1.38 for Europe. Search ad spend was the greatest in the Asia-pacific region with $1.38 billion followed by Europe and North America with $900 and $811 million, respectively. North America was the highest spending region though in display ads with $572 million.

Taking a step back, global search ad spending was $3.2 billion versus $1.5 billion in display ads indicating pretty sharply where marketers feel the most comfortable spending the majority of their money, and that is consistent across the globe.

Takeaway
So what can marketers use this information for? These numbers are a simple status report of the amount of money spent on the mobile platform for various types of advertising in different regions. It is telling regarding the importance of search engine marketing and display ads currently and in the years to come. The figures indicate the amount spent and not necessarily the results it achieved. Thus, ROI is a separate matter that these figures cannot directly address. Comparing them to the increases in conversion and revenue after this spend amount would tell the more complete story.

With that said the trending budgets give a clear indication of where the priorities are for marketers, and given international data, how marketers are responding to specific user behavior in various countries. So the data is useful and can indicate where those who are in various markets looking to spend ad dollars in other areas can do so that is if they wanted to follow the trends.