Mobile advertising raked in $8.9 billion in 2012, an 82.8 percent year-over-year growth, driven by 3G and 4G penetration as well as increases in time spent on mobile, according to a new report from the United States IAB, IAB Europe and IHS.

The new report outlines the types of ad formats and the demographics where mobile advertising is most likely to make a punch with advertisers. In particular, North America had the highest growth rate of any global region, with mobile ad revenue up 110.6 percent.

?The sheer size of the audience makes mobile increasingly important to advertisers,? said Joe Laszlo, senior director of the Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence at the IAB, New York.

?Also, we?re starting to see some key mobile industry initiatives, around ad measurement standards, standard ad formats and tools to simplify rich media ad creation, begin to gain traction in the marketplace,? he said.

?These will help make mobile ad buys more scalable and give advertisers more confidence that they are getting what they pay for.?

Mobile growth
To compare to the 2012 numbers, mobile advertising generated $5.3 billion in 2011.

Mobile search, in particular, is on the uptick with a 88.8 percent year-over-year growth.

Search grabbed 52.8 percent of total global mobile advertising revenue in 2012, representing $4.7 billion. This represents a growth from $2.5 billion in 2011, per the IAB?s findings.

Meanwhile, display and mobile messaging ad spend is also up.

Display advertising grew 87.3 percent and mobile messaging grew 40.2 percent at a global level.

?The IAB doesn?t forecast advertising revenues going forward, so we don?t have any basis to estimate growth rates going forward,? Mr. Lazlo said.

?However, we believe that the work the IAB and the industry are doing to improve mobile creative and measurement, and to educate ad buyers about mobile opportunities will establish a solid foundation for future mobile advertising growth,? he said.

Global division
The IAB report also splits up mobile ad spend across different demographics.

The Asia-Pacific region represents the largest area of mobile ad spend with 40.2 of spend, or $3.558 billion, pointing to the marketing opportunities for marketers to crack into the market.

North America brought in 39.8 percent of global market share, and Western Europe generated 16.9 percent of ad revenue.

Other key markets for mobile revenue in 2012 include Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Latin America.

All of these areas also saw substantial year-over-year growth. For instance, North America saw a 111 percent year-over-year increase in mobile ad revenue, and revenue in Western Europe grew 91 percent year-over-year.

Mobile ad revenue increased 71 percent year-over-year in Latin America and 69 percent in Central Europe.

Additionally, mobile ad revenue increased by 68 percent in the Middle East and Africa and 60 percent in the Asia-Pacific region year-over-year.

The report cites rising 3G and 4G penetrations as one of the key factors in the uptick of mobile advertising.

Similarly, time spent on mobile devices continues to grow as consumers become more accustomed to using their mobile devices for different daily activities.

?The global mobile ad revenue report gives marketers a sense of how fast and where regionally the mobile advertising medium is growing,? Mr. Lazlo said.

?North American advertising revenues grew by 110.6 percent from 2011 to 2012, the highest growth rate of any global region,? he said.

?This suggests that although mobile remains a relatively small part of total advertising spending in North America, it is a medium that advertisers are taking increasingly seriously here.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York