The global advertising spend is expected to increase by 4.4 per cent to $ 561 billion this year, with mobile being the prime driver of online growth going forward, says marketing intelligence firm Warc.

However, despite the rapid gains being made by mobile spend, the report forecasts that overall global ad spend growth will slow to 3.7 per cent next year, with almost all regions witnessing a slowdown.

“Despite an air of economic uncertainty, consumer spending will rise globally both this year and next, and with it the level of advertising investment aimed at influencing the flow,” Warc research analyst James McDonald said.

While global ad spend on desktop Internet has stagnated at around $ 112 billion and is likely to decline further from this year onwards, Warc calculates that $ 90 billion will be spent on mobile-specific ads in 2017, or 44 per cent of all online ad investment.

Advertising budgets allocated to both mobile social formats and mobile video are also growing rapidly around the world and they are expected to be worth $ 28 billion and $ 10 billion, respectively in 2017.

Meanwhile, ad spend on mobile search is on course to reach $ 40 billion by the end of next year, a near doubling from 2015 level, it noted.

“The allocation of marketing budgets is seen to be mirroring consumer trends, particularly the rise in Internet access via mobile devices and the increasing use of mobile video, social and search platforms,” McDonald said.

“While this digital trend evolves, TV spot, an industry staple, will see record levels of investment this year as brands vie to secure ad space during major events such as the Summer Olympics and Euro 2016 football tournament,” he added.