For example, among Nanigans' ad clients, the share of total ad spend dedicated to dynamic ads increased by 135% from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2017. After comparing data from the same advertiser set, the ad software firm found that spending on dynamic ads increased by nearly 300%, year-over-year.

Entertainment upstarts are spending mountains of cash on original content. Netflix, for one, spent about $6 billion on fresh fare last year, and plans to pump upwards of $8 billion into new shows this year. While it's too soon to tell whether Netflix's strategy will pay off, it sure as heck is generating a ton of interest in entertainment apps.

Get ready for a lot more consolidation in the mobile ad-tech sector in 2018. That's what I'm hearing from numerous execs, including Abhay Singhal, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of mobile ad platform InMobi.

Finally living up to years of hype, QR codes are becoming central to mobile marketing strategies. That's according to fresh estimates from Juniper Research, which predicts that the number of QR coupons redeemed via mobile will reach 5.3 billion by 2022.