• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, December 18, 2012

Driven by strong performance for native ad formats from Facebook and Twitter, mobile ad spend in the U.S. ended the year considerably better than expected, according to revised estimates from eMarketer.

Display, search and message-based advertising across devices will increase 180% over 2011 to reach $4.06 billion this year, the research firm expects. The 180% spike in growth is revised from a previous projection of 80% growth for the year to a total spend of $2.61 billion. eMarketer explains that the popularity of newsfeed ads into Facebook and Twitter's Promoted Tweets were among the reasons for the striking change in estimates. The increase in Facebook mobile ad revenues stood out and beat most analyst expectations handily.

Still, Google continues to take the lion’s share of mobile advertising. The mobile ad powerhouse was responsible for earning $2.17 billion, or 56.6% of the total ad spend on mobile this year. Facebook earned $339 million, Pandora $226 million, Twitter $135 million, Apple iAds $123 million and independent mobile ad network Millennial Media $93.7 million.

With the revision, eMarketer now expects yet another 77% of growth in 2013, and total mobile ad spend in the U.S. to hit $7.19 billion. In 2014, spend will hit $11.14 billion, and by 2016 mobile ad spend in the U.S. will reach $20.89 billion, eMarketer expects. 

"Smartphone with success growth photo from Shutterstock"