Mobile web advertising is gaining ground among UK consumers as a viable form of marketing, a new study has suggested.

Conducted by mobile social community Limbo and GfK Technology, the research polled 3,000 adults across the UK, the US and India to piece together views on mobile marketing.

It found that more than half of British mobile users now receive some form of advertising through their mobile handsets, with text messaging being the most common format.

Mobile web advertising was found to be the most powerful in the UK, where 16 per cent of those surveyed said they could remember such ads compared with eight per cent in the US and four per cent in India.

"These findings indicate the degree to which the mobile phone is used as a marketing channel ... it is only a matter of time before mobile internet advertising starts to rival the penetration of SMS or text message marketing," commented Colin Strong, head of mobile communications research at GfK Technology.

Mobile internet penetration in the UK currently stands at 12.9 per cent, according to Nielsen Mobile.