The Internet Advertising Bureau reported in March of 2011 that mobile advertising for last year (2010) increased 116% in just the UK alone, compared to a 32% growth in 2009. Similar trends follow worldwide, as the use of mobile websites by smartphones drives the trends even higher in 2011.

The top categories of mobile advertisers were entertainment & media, finance, telecoms, consumer goods and automotive. The top two formats for mobile ads were search ads (66%), followed by display advertising (29%). The display advertising was mainly banners and text links, but also included pre- and post-roll ads on videos, and display ads within SMS and MMS messages.

The increase in mobile ads was helped along immensely by the huge increase in smartphone sales in 2010. Apple, Blackberry, and Android based smartphones all had sales increases of at least 40% for the year over the previous year. With so much new hardware in the field, advertisers took advantage of it. People are using this mobile hardware to watch a lot of videos as well, which is great since the Mobclix mobile ad exchange reports that mobile video ads have three times higher engagement rate than online video ads.

An additional factor driving a huge increase in mobile ads is the adoption of mobile apps by smartphones and tablets. Also according to Mobclix, 90% of mobile apps use banner ads within the app. With many mobile optimized websites also acting as "virtual apps", this trend will only increase, though the click through rate is six times higher on mobile app ads.

There is another catalyst for mobile ads coming over the horizon very soon in the form of NFC, or near field communications, which is a wireless method of paying for goods and services with a smartphone or other mobile device. With NFC, users can see a mobile ad, go to a physical storefront, and immediately buy what they saw with their mobile device - no cash or charge card needed.

Mobile ads can also now be sent directly to nearby customers with geo-location services. A customer's mobile device can be sent an ad based on where they are physically located, giving them special offers as they travel near a particular business.

SMS, or text messaging should not be ignored for ads either. There are still three times as many "text-only" phones compared to smartphones in the world, so SMS ads and promotions will continue to hold importance in many mobile advertising campaigns.

Search engine giant Google reports that 71% of smartphone users search because of an ad they've seen either online or offline. This should lend smart mobile ad users to ramp up their mobile ad buys even higher.

Lastly, right around the corner we have the social media giant Facebook, who has 500 million users, many of them interacting with each other on mobile devices. They now have Facebook apps for Android, Apple iPhone, and a rumoured app for Apple iPad in the works. With these they can combine ads in apps with their new Facebook places geo-location service and create yet another explosive method for mobile advertising.