Once again, there has been a prediction that proves the certain success of mobile advertising for many years to come. This time, however, the prediction has been made about a specific type of ad spend and that is for mobile web search ads. It is not a type of mobile advertising that you hear a lot of talk about, but it would appear that it is doing quite well. A forecast from Juniper Research, the trusted marketing research company, shows quite a bit of confidence that mobile web search ads will sort of sky rocket in popularity over the next few years.

Juniper Research’s report shows their forecast, stating that the ad spend on mobile web search advertising will reach $12 billion per year by the year 2017. As of right now, the annual ad spend on mobile web search ads is $4 billion on average. With a prediction of the ad spend tripling in the next 5 years, Juniper must expect some sort of huge burst of interest in mobile web search ads to be happening soon. There is so much interest in it now, though, that I did not even think it could get that much higher at all.

Here is some of Juniper’s reasoning on their prediction;

The size of tablet displays – typically either 7-inch or circa 10-inch – makes performing search queries a more comfortable experience, while the fact that these devices are used more in the home or at work for longer periods also means that users will make more queries per session. For these reasons, the report found that tablet users on average make around three times as many queries as smartphone owners, and ten times the number made by users of other handsets.

What that quote tells me is exactly what I forgot to consider. The popularity of tablets these days is through the roof. What do people use tablets for? Search. As the report says, the screen size makes it the optimal mobile search device. Even though people do use web search on smartphones, the tablet has made the experience so much easier and more comfortable that we can probably contribute a majority of the mobile web search success to them. When tablets came into existence, they ushered in countless new opportunities for marketers and advertisers, and one of those was the ability to more effectively use mobile search as an advertising platform.

Juniper’s prediction may seem huge, and that is because it is. However, though it is quite large, there seems to be a very good chance that it is also quite possible.

Usage of web search on mobile devices will be driven by continued adoption of high-usage tablets, with the number of these devices in-use reaching 672 million by 2017.

To have 672 million tablets in use in the world by 2017 will make the mobile advertising business quite a hot one. The year 2017 is still quite a ways away, but if Juniper’s prediction is anywhere near the mark, then marketers can still look forward to the steady increase in mobile search ad performance from now until then.

Written by Michael Levanduski

Michael Levanduski is a news reporter at Performance Marketing Insider. He’s been a writer at one level or another for the past 15+ years. He has three kids and lives in Grand Rapids, MI.

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