Mobile lifestyles are becoming more prevalent, mobile devices are getting better and mobile video content choices are exploding. No surprise then, that with lots more mobile video viewing happening, mobile video advertising is booming. A recent check-in call with Frank Sinton, CEO of Beachfront Media, confirmed this, and he also shared insights on key challenges that remain.

Beachfront provides a number of different services to content providers that puts it squarely in the middle of the mobile video advertising business. Its Beachfront Builder app platform allows content providers to quickly create custom branded mobile apps. This is geared for content providers looking to engage fans and build their presence off of YouTube. Over 40 content providers have used Builder to date to create their own branded mobile experiences.

In addition, Beachfront.io is a programmatic video ad platform enabling mobile monetization. Beachfront also helps content providers syndicate their content across both mobile and web.

Frank highlighted that 16 billion mobile video ad requests are now flowing through Beachfront.io per month, up from around 100 million per month last year, underscoring how agencies and brands are increasing their spending on mobile video. Consequently, Beachfront.io's fill rates for its content partners have experienced "hockey stick" growth, according to Frank.

Frank noted advertising's increasing importance to mobile content providers because of the paltry free-to-paid conversion rate mobile apps generate. This was substantiated in a recent WSJ article about Trivia Crack, the top-rated free mobile app, with over 130 million downloads to date. The article mentioned that fewer than 1% of Trivia Crack players have forked over the measly $2.99 to play the game ad-free (I'm not one of them!).

Despite advertising's crucial role for mobile apps, key challenges remain. At the top of the list is that cookies don't work in mobile, so they can't be carried over from online. But Frank said advertisers demand targeting, so Beachfront is surmounting this problem by using Apple's IDFA (identifier for advertisers) and Google's Advertising ID for iOS and Android devices, respectively. Still, for advertisers constantly challenged to understand the ROI of their spend, this represents another new wrinkle for cross-device optimization.

Frank sees plenty of growth ahead for mobile video advertising, as eyeballs continue to flow to mobile devices. Forecasts corroborate this, with Cisco anticipating that 72% of all mobile traffic will be video by 2019. The flurry of mobile video apps, like Snapchat Discover and Reuters TV, plus the array of OTT apps like YouTube Kids, Sling TV, CBS All Access, NBC's rumored comedy app and plenty of others, will help fuel all of this.

Bottom line, mobile video advertising is going to be a very hot area to keep an eye on.