Mobile advertising seems to still be in its infancy, but it’s a rapidly developing industry, with plenty of potential.  No matter what business you’re in, mobile advertising is likely to affect your marketing capabilities in one way or another.  The latest S.M.A.R.T. report from mobile ad network Millennial Media shows what sectors are seeing the most growth for mobile advertising, starting with retail and restaurants.  It grew a whopping 1342% year-over-year, leading U.S. and international trends.  This vertical is an ubiquitous point of interaction in the mobile realm, combining customer service with research and information, proving a potent marketing tool.

It’s not surprising to see this type of uptake in the retail vertical, even with entertainment often topping the most popular apps list.  Mobile retail has become a tool for consumers, extending opportunity for countless tactics to be applied to advertising in this realm. With the local drill-down mobile devices provide, we’ve seen a recent uptick in related acquisitions, including eBay’s deal for mobile app WHERE.  It’s important to note other verticals that saw triple-digit growth in the past year, including health, automotive, finance and education.  Millennial Media goes on to highlight that these high-growth verticals align nicely with the top advertising channels in its network, emphasizing their correlation.

With more advertising budgets making room for mobile marketing, Millennial Media’s expanded its scope for data collected in its S.M.A.R.T. report.  A majority of campaigns in its network (nearly 80%) leveraged broader, cross-platform delivery options in Q1, maximizing reach.  The most notable trend for advertisers in mobile marketing, however, is finding optimal ways to target consumers at scale.

The break down for broad versus targeted audience reach is about even, with targeted campaign methods taking a 44% share.  Millennial breaks this down further, presenting more details on the Targeted Audience Mix.  Forty-six percent of advertisers targeted based on demographic, while 42% took to local markets.  Behavioral audiences were targeted by 12% of campaigns, indicating an area still in need of tweaks and development.

What’s important to note here is the developing trends around targeted advertising methods in the mobile sector.  Now that mobile’s become an accepted platform for effective advertising, it’s time to develop standards and use cases around varied marketing schemes.  So far, driving traffic to a site is still the most effective type of engagement for a given campaign, taking 47% of this market. Custom landing pages and application downloads were other popular methods, taking 32% and 21% respectively.