Mobile text ads are expected to generate $1.5 billion in sales this year, according to a new Wall Street Journal article.

The total is an 85 percent growth over 2007. In addition, clickthrough rates for cell phone and mobile device ads is ranging between 1 and 10 percent, the Journal says.

The clickthrough rate compares to a typical Internet banner rate of less than 0.1 percent.

The high clickthrough rate for mobile ads is likely due to the newness of mobile advertising, the relatively small volume of mobile ads compared to banners and the fact that users typically request the ads.

The majority of mobile text advertising is national, while the local market remains largely untouched because of the much smaller audience sizes.