On Monday, BIA/Kelsey put forward a new estimate suggesting that U.S. mobile local advertising revenues will grow from $664 million in 2011 to $5.8 billion in 2016.
The well-known advisor to companies in the local media industry says this growth represents a compound annual growth rate of 54.2 percent.
BIA/Kelsey’s projected mobile local ad revenues represent a subset of overall U.S. mobile ad spending, which the firm forecasts to grow from $1.62 billion in 2011 to $9.92 billion in 2016.
In the big picture, this puts locally targeted mobile ads at 41 percent of overall U.S. mobile ad spending in 2011, growing to 58 percent in 2016.
BIA/Kelsey says its mobile forecasts are based on usage trends, mobile ad spending across various formats, consumer adoption patterns, advertiser penetration and ad performance measurements.
“Growth drivers include smartphone penetration, location data, ad targeting innovation and advertiser evolution to utilize these factors for higher-performing mobile local ad campaigns,” says Michael Boland, program director at BIA/Kelsey. “New mobile ad formats will also drive demand including Facebook’s quickly evolving options like sponsored stories and app install ads – currently accounting for 14 percent of Facebook’s revenues and quickly growing.”