• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 19, 2012

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of small and medium businesses (SMBs) will increase or keep the same mobile ad spend in the next twelve months. Of those increasing spend, 65% of SMBs expect to increase spend by up to 30% in the next twelve months, according to a new study by Borrell Associates.

The survey, conducted on behalf of mobile lead gen firm Pontiflex, found 26% would prefer to pay for signups (the email addresses and social networking handles of consumers interested in their businesses) as compared to clicks (19%) or impressions (6%). In addition, 75% of SMBs said that the ability to target ads by location was very important or somewhat important in a mobile advertising campaign.

Pontiflex CEO Zephrin Lasker said the results show that small businesses want options other than CPM- or CPC-based buying for mobile advertising to achieve solid returns. Among other findings from the survey of 1,300 local businesses:

--7% of SMBs say that the ability to analyze campaign performance is somewhat important or very important.

--75% say that the ability to optimize campaigns in real time is very important or somewhat important.

--Of the SMBs who plan to increase ad spend, 32% plan to increase their mobile ad spend   by 11-20% over the next twelve months.

--46% would be very interested or somewhat interested in a self-service solution for mobile ads.