With more and more US consumers using smartphones, there’s no question that one of the best ways for brands to reach customers and gain awareness and exposure is via digital mobile advertising.

The numbers say it all—the latest statistics show that in 2021, every single industry in the US spent a big majority (67.9%) of their digital advertising budget on mobile. 

The industry with the highest mobile advertising spend was retail. In 2021, the sector spent $30.91 billion on digital ads on mobile devices, a significant 35.6% increase from 2020. 

The industry with the second-highest mobile ad spend was consumer packaged goods. That sector increased its expenditure by 32.4% in 2021, hitting $21.83 billion. This is followed by financial services, with $17.24 billion, a year-over-year increase of 17.7%. 

The fourth- and fifth-biggest spenders on digital mobile advertising were the computing products and consumer electronics and telecom industries. Mobile advertising spend from these two sectors was $12.37 billion and $10.37 billion, respectively.

Here’s how much some other industries spent on mobile ads:

  • Automotive: $9.29 billion
  • Entertainment: $8.54 billion
  • Health care and pharma: $6.98 billion
  • Media: $6.14 billion
  • Travel: $2.09 billion
  • Other: $4.03 billion

Even though the entertainment industry’s mobile advertising spend in 2021 wasn’t as high as that of other sectors, it dedicated the biggest portion of its total digital ad expenditure to mobile. Of its digital ad spend, 76.5% was on mobile ads. 

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Mobile ad spend market share

As the industry with the biggest mobile ad spend, retail had the biggest mobile ads market share, with 23.8%. In other words, nearly one in four dollars spent on mobile advertising was from the retail sector. 

The consumer packaged goods sector’s mobile ads market share was 16.8%, followed by financial services, with 13.3%.

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Here’s how the other industries stacked up in terms of mobile ads market share:

  • Computing products and consumer electronics: 9.5%
  • Telecom: 8%
  • Automotive: 7.2%
  • Entertainment: 6.6%
  • Health care and pharma: 5.4%
  • Media: 4.7%
  • Travel: 1.6%
  • Other: 3.1%

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