As published by IAB UK: https://www.iabuk.com/press-release/smartphone-video-fastest-growing-online-ad-format

Smartphone video is fastest growing online ad format

Near half-billion £ rise on smartphone video ads a key factor as phones overtake computers for internet time.

Advertisers spent £476 million more on smartphone video ads in 2017, making it the fastest-growing online ad format, according to the latest Digital Adspend report by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK and PwC.

This was a rise of 69% on 2016 and took total spend on the format to £1.17 billion. Video ad spend overall (including phones, computers and tablets) increased 47% to £1.61bn. Thus, 73% of all video spend now goes on smartphones.

Video contributed heavily to the total amount spent across all smartphone advertising rising by 37.4% to £5.2bn. As a result, 45% of all digital ad spend went on smartphones – compared to just 9% five years ago. However, the IAB’s chief digital officer Tim Elkington noted “there’s still significant room for smartphones share to grow” as they accounted for 59% of online time¹ in the final quarter of 2017.

Overall, total digital ad spend increased 14.3% to £11.55bn.

In terms of other ad formats:

• Social media spend rose 38% to £2.39bn, or one in every five pounds spent on digital ads – 83% of social media budgets now go to smartphones
• In-feed advertising rose 9% to £950m
• Outstream video (up 94% to £900m) overtook pre/post-roll (up 11% to £671m) as the largest video format
• 80% of the £3.84bn spent on display advertising was traded programmatically – up from 72% in 2016 – 63% being traded through direct means, such as private marketplaces, rather than on open exchanges (17%)
• Paid for search rose 16% to £5.82bn, classifieds fell -1% to £1.47bn