Mobile ad spending to top $18B en route to $42B by 2017

Global mobile advertising spending will jump to $18 bn this year, up from an estimated $13.1 bn in 2013, and explode up to nearly $42 bn by 2017, according to the latest data from Gartner.

The report says that mobile display ads will continue to garner the largest share of mobile ad dollars through at least 2017, but audio and video ads will gain share over the next couple years as tablet usage increases.

"Mobile advertising spending will slow due to ad space inventory supply growing faster than demand, as the number of mobile websites and applications increases faster than brands request ad space on mobile device screens," Stephanie Baghdassarian, a research director at Gartner, said in the report. "However, from 2015 to 2017, growth will be fueled by improved market conditions, such as provider consolidation, measurement standardization and new targeting technologies, along with a sustained interest in the mobile medium from advertisers."

While Google continues to dominate the mobile advertising landscape – roughly 53 percent of the global mobile ad share as of the third quarter – competitors such as Facebook and Twitter are making strides to close the gap.

Gartner said all search and map ad types will benefit from geolocation data gathered from users' devices, providing a golden opportunity for local advertisers to ramp up their mobile campaigns.

"The split between in-app and Web display is taking longer to shift in favor of the latter, as the use of HTML5 tools in mobile website development is taking longer to impact the market," according to the report.

By region, Asia-Pacific remains the most mature for mobile advertising, but it will still enjoy growth averaging around 30 percent a year through the next three years. North America is projected to enjoy the sharpest increase thanks to what Gartner calls the "sheer scale" of the region's advertising budgets and a shift from print and radio advertising to mobile alternatives.