Around three-quarters of publishers said they are planning to boost their investment in mobile advertising in the next 12 months despite an ongoing battle with ad blockers, a new study from AOL found.
According to AOL’s 2016 Publisher Outlook, 75 percent of publishers are looking to bump up their mobile investment in the coming year, with nearly half planning to increase spending by up to 25 percent and more than 10 percent expecting to boost spending by 50 percent to 100 percent.
The anticipated rise in spending comes despite publishers’ ongoing battle with ad blockers, which nearly half of publishers said was their main challenge in mobile advertising. Still, it seems the benefits of going mobile outweigh the battles.
In the U.S. audiences are spending more than three hours each day on their mobile devices, with 87 percent of that time spent in apps, AOL said.
AOL said 70 percent of publishers saw up to 50 percent growth in mobile traffic in the last 12 months, while around 30 percent saw between 50 percent and 100 percent growth in mobile traffic.
More than 90 percent of publishers said off-site distribution of their content via third-party publishing platforms like Facebook Instant Articles, Apple News and Google AMP has helped them, while more than half deemed it “extremely positive.” However, most said syndication was not essential to their strategy and noted concerns around monetization control, audience data ad transparency on third party platforms.
Looking ahead, AOL found publishers are banking on digital video to be the top revenue driver by next year, driven by better creative and improved user experiences, better targeting and faster load times.
But publishers aren’t leaning on advertising alone. More than 75 percent of publishers use both subscription and ad supported business models, with 77 percent of those saying they expect to expand their subscription options within the next year.
