Local Ad Spending Forecast, 2013-2018 [CHART]

US mobile ad spend is projected to grow from $7.2 billion last year to $30.3 billion in 2018, with a slight majority 52% – or $15.7 billion – of that eventual figure being location-targeted spending, according to anew forecast released by BIA/Kelsey. The projections represent a significant uptick from last year’s forecast, and the analysts see search accounting for the bulk of the location-targeted mobile ad spend at the end of the forecast period, with native social ads and display also playing a role. 

Of those, native social ad spending – defined as “visual and textual brand messaging that is merged into the organic feed-based interfaces of mobile social apps such as Facebook and Twitter” – will see the most rapid relative growth. BIA/Kelsey forecasts mobile native social ad spend to climb from $178 million last year to $499 million this year, before more than tripling to almost $3.5 billion in 2018. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.