Advertising across mobile advertising formats has leapt 82.8% from €3.8bn in 2011 to €6.9bn in 2012 according to figures collated by IAB Europe, the US IAB Mobile Marketing Centre of Excellence and IHS.

With an 88.8% growth in search, 87.3% in display and 40.2% in messaging at a global level, the IAB said the ad spend reflected bullish growth in the sector.

The search segment continues to dominate mobile advertising revenues at €3.6bn while display advertising spend was €2.6bn and €589m was spent on messaging.

Ad spend was highest in Asia Pacific with 40.2% of the global share, with North America following closely at 39.8%. Western Europe was third at 16.9%, while Latin America saw the least ad spend with 0.6% of global spend.

“Today’s advertising is happening in a world where ad campaigns can be planned and bought across global networks on multiple media, but the massive and continuing acceleration of mobile’s international impact provides new and exciting frontiers for content and communication,” said Anne Bager, vice-president and general manager, Mobile Marketing Centre of Excellence, IAB US.