• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, March 23, 2016

ClicksMob, a mobile audience acquisition platform, has announced a merger with AppGrade, a mobile video monetization platform. The companies will focus on monetizing video ads and acquiring audiences.

“User experience and the ability to match users with the most appropriate advertisers have always been and will continue to be our key objectives,” ClicksMob CEO Chen Yahav Levanon stated.

Avishai Shoushan, AppGrade’s CEO, will be the CEO of the new company, and Levanon will be the president — although she reportedly has plans to leave the company in a few months.

“Mobile video has seen dramatic growth in the last 12 months, and we expect it to further dominate the market in 2016, delivering higher engagement, better retention and a non-intrusive user experience for our direct advertisers,” stated Levanon.

ZenithOptima, a Publicis Groupe company, released a forecast on Monday predicting that mobile ad dollars will increase $64 billion, or 128%, by 2018. Based on those figures, mobile advertising will account for 92% of all new global ad dollars.

ClicksMob currently operates on a cost-per-install (CPI) basis, and counts companies like Machine Zone, Kabam, Gree, SGN, and Skout among its clients.

Mergers and acquisitions in the ad tech space are expected to increase this year, and many companies are looking to buy or sell. However, mobile marketing has bucked that overall trend, with a sharp reduction in acquisition interest in that sector, with a smaller number of companies with critical mass available in the market, according to M&A firm AdMedia.