Mobile Marketing Grows Fastest Among All Advertising Channels

A new study by Microsoft Tag is making rounds on mobile marketing and other marketing sites these past few days.

It shows that mobile marketing experienced the biggest growth in the one year between 2009 and 2010. With a growth of 75%, mobile marketing was the clear leader with social media trailing at only 32% and Internet marketing, television, radio all weakly rounding up the top five marketing channels according to growth. The Microsoft Tag infographic also explains that in just 2 years, mobile marketing spend will reach more than $2 billion. A projected rise from 2009′s $0.91 billion to $2.30 billion in 2013 is truly phenomenal.

Take note, however, that TV and newspaper ads corners close to $100 billion of marketing budgets in the U.S. in 2010, while newer technologies such as social media, mobile marketing and Internet advertising only sees less than $40 billion combined. But this might be because it is inherently more expensive to buy airtime and newspaper inches than it is to create social media and mobile marketing campaigns.

But what’s more interesting with Microsoft Tag’s findings is that marketers are veering away from traditional media. TV and radio ads now grew only 11% and 9% respectively, while outdoor and magazine advertisements now only grew 3% combined. Newspaper advertising actually fell by 7% from 2009 to 2010.

Microsoft Tag also revealed that there are now 350 million Android and iOS devices currently available, with 1 million more activated every single day. This shows that mobile devices are also growing, giving credence to the rise in mobile marketing spend.

But why are marketers increasingly putting their marketing budgets into mobile channels? It’s simple, people spend more time on them. For instance, Microsoft Tag found that people spend an average of 4.3 minutes on mobile apps , that is more than 400% longer than the average time they spend on a website.

If you still do not have a mobile marketing campaign for your products and services, now is the best time to start!