Calculating Mobile Video Advertising Growth and Other In-App Video Ad Stats You Need to Know [Infographic]

Is recent mobile video advertising growth significant, stagnant or non-existent? Will in-app video ad spend continue to grow, or has mobile ad spending on online video in the United States and worldwide about to plateau?

To answer these and other questions related to mobile video ads, we took a look at data on in-app ads, we took a look at data from our mobile platforms dating back from the beginning of 2016. In short, we found that everyone is embracing video content in all forms. Even as the attention spans of the users of mobile devices shrink, more and more people watch video ads and respond to them at much higher rates than they do other formats like banner ads.

“The answer is clear: Advertisers love video ads. Publishers love video ads. And users enjoy well-delivered and well-placed video ads,” Srinivas KC, Vice President and General Manager of Advertiser Platforms at InMobi, told MarTech Series in July. “In 2017, advertisers doubled video ad spends over 2016. This is a huge move, and it continues into 2018, where we expect similar growth to continue. Publishers have responded to this move, more than doubling video ad inventory from 2017 to 2018. On the InMobi Exchange alone, we saw a 400 percent increase in video ad inventory in Q1 2018 vs. Q1 2017. It’s an exciting time for the ecosystem as far as mobile video ads are concerned.”

In our latest infographic, we dive into the stats, highlighting just how the in-app video advertising space is growing and evolving.

Predicting the Future of Mobile In-App Video Advertising

While in-app video ads have grown to new heights from 2016 to 2018, what does the future hold? How will the space evolve and morph in 2019 and beyond? While no one knows for sure, it seems safe to say that mobile in-app video ads will likely be even more popular in the new year and beyond. As long as mobile devices and apps are popular, and as long as apps monetize through advertising, then video will remain a highly effective and efficient format for reaching and connecting to various mobile audience segments.

“We have moved into a world of video consumption and video advertising that’s cross-device and predominantly rooted outside of the browser. A tremendous amount of video viewing is being consumed within mobile apps or connected TVs rather than only on desktop and mobile web experiences,” Anne Frisbie, Senior Vice President of Global Programmatic and North America at InMobi, said to MarTech Series in March 2019. “This alone is a major shift for advertisers. In the past, cookie-based audiences could effectively address audience buying in digital (browser-based) inventory including for video. Today, cookie-based audiences alone will simply not enable effective audience buying into the most premium video ad experiences within mobile apps and connected TVs. InMobi has spent the past two years addressing the challenges of advertising into mobile apps across smartphones and tablets. We have worked diligently to move the industry from javascript, browser-based technology like VPAID to technologies like VAST that can work with the native environments of these connected devices. InMobi has also worked to solve MRC accredited viewability and fraud metrics that will work seamlessly with VAST, and have rolled out ways to execute interactive creative with VAST and native technologies of the Android and iOS operating systems.”

What are your predictions for the in-app mobile video advertising ecosystem for 2019 and beyond? Do you think in-app video ads will become more common in the new year, or do you predict that they will fall by the wayside? Let us know in the comments below, or write us a note on Twitter or LinkedIn!