Forecasts for the amount of money spent on advertising by media agency, ZenithOptimedia, suggest gains made by the industry will peak in two years’ time.

By the end of 2013 there will have been a 3.6% annual rise in spend, followed by 5.3%, 5.8% and 5.8% for 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. The predictions in Zenith’s Adspend forecasts December 2013 report have been revised since earlier in 2013.

Europe is one of the worst regions for advertising growth in the world. Northern and central Europe have the best of it, with a 2.4% increase predicted. The peripheral Eurozone, which includes Ireland, Spain and Italy contracted by 0.9%.

Even northern and central Europe’s gains were half of those made by North America, which itself saw half the growth of eastern Europe and central Asia. The region with the most growth, fast-track Asia, which includes China and India, was up by 10.5%.

UK is fifth globally

Globally, the UK was fifth in the top contributors to world adspend growth between 2013 and 2016. Although its princely $3.6 billion was eclipsed by the US’s $23.4 billion. China, Argentina and Indonesia sit between the two English-speaking countries.

France and Canada’s ability to attract ad dollars is set to dwindle between now and 2016. Both occupy the top 10 ad markets chart in 2013, but by 2016 they will fall down the ladder, overtaken by the likes of South Korea and Russia.

At a growth rate of 19%, display is expanding faster than paid search, which will average 14% a year to 2016. Much of display’s gains are the result of the big social networks’ investments in media opportunities. They are up 28% a year.

In all markets, mobile advertising will be the biggest contributor. Revenue made from this medium on smartphones and tablets is forecasted to grow by 50% every year between 2013 and 2016. Meanwhile, desktop will increase by 7% a year.

Youth population behind growth

Steve King, ZenithOptimedia’s CEO, reiterated the importance of mobile, but also pointed to a number of countries with a rapidly increasing youth market that global marketers should be looking to exploit.

“Mobile technology is creating new opportunities for marketers to connect with consumers,” King said. “Combined with the continued rise of young, dynamic markets, this will spur healthy and sustained growth in global ad-spend over the next three years.”

Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey are all markets that have a median age of 27. The collective countries are expected to have an annual average growth rate of 15% from 2013 to 2016. Their global adspend contributions will rise from 7% to 16%.