The number of mobile display advertisers has doubled in the last two years, according to a new
comScore study. As of April, 689 advertisers ran
mobile display campaigns, up 128% from the same period in 2009. Most of the advertising was endemic, with mobile content and publishing accounting for half of the ads. The finding was based on
tracking of mobile ads across more than 600 of the top sites and "sub-sites' on the mobile Web.
Consumer discretionary goods made up 26% of
mobile ads, while other categories such as information technologies, financial services, telecom were 7% or less.
Growing use of smartphones is helping to drive mobile advertising.
Specifically, smartphone owners were far more likely than feature phone users to mobile Web on in-app ads, at 27.5% versus 5%. That's a result of their heavier use of mobile browsers and apps. So 85%
of smartphone owners have used an app and 82% browse the mobile Web, compared to 16% and 19% of feature phone users, respectively.