Facebook to See Three in 10 Mobile Display Dollars This Year
Mobile advertising will reach $7.29 billion in 2013, and Google will take home more than half of it — Following explosive entrances by Facebook and Twitter to the marketplace, as well as a strong performance from Google …
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook’s mobile-ad entry follows a 2012 forecast that Google would overtake Facebook in display-ad sales. The 2013 projections put Google at more than half of all mobile ad revenue while assigning Facebook 30% of mobile display spending, showing that mobile is becoming a major competitive front for both platforms.
The story travelled across marketing, technology and finance outlets, reflecting advertiser interest in how quickly mobile budgets may concentrate among the largest audience platforms.
First-order effects
- Facebook gains a projected 30% share of 2013 mobile display dollars, giving its mobile product a meaningful position alongside Google’s broader mobile-ad lead.
- Google’s projected majority of mobile ad revenue makes it the benchmark Facebook and Twitter must compete against as they enter the mobile marketplace.
Second-order effects
- Twitter faces a market in which advertiser spending is already expected to cluster around Facebook and Google, raising the pressure to establish a distinct mobile advertising proposition.
- Advertisers allocating mobile display budgets gain a major Facebook alternative to Google, but their largest platform choices remain concentrated among a small set of sellers.
Third-order effects
- If these projections hold, mobile advertising shifts digital ad competition toward platform gatekeepers whose scale lets them capture both audience attention and advertiser demand.
- The split between Google’s broad mobile-ad lead and Facebook’s display position suggests that ad-format specialization may shape which platforms control particular mobile budgets.
The trend: Mobile advertising is consolidating around large audience platforms, with Google leading overall revenue and Facebook rapidly establishing a mobile display business.