Mobile Ad Growth Of 81% Drove Facebook’s Huge Fourth Quarter

80% or $4.5 billion of $5.6 billion in ad revenue attributable to mobile.

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In 2012, investors were anxious that Facebook was behind the curve of consumer mobile adoption. Since that time, Facebook has built a massive multi-billion-dollar mobile business that captures a huge chunk of available mobile ad spending.

Yesterday, Facebook announced a $5.8-billion quarter, the majority of which is ad revenue ($5.6 billion). The company also reported that an astounding 80 percent of its ad revenue ($4.5 billion) was generated by mobile advertising. That represented revenue growth of 81 percent year over year.

The company added that 90 percent of its monthly and daily users are accessing the site on mobile devices. Facebook has the number one mobile app in the US in terms of audience reach, according to comScore, and it has been that way since the metrics firm began reporting on app usage.

Facebook mobile users

Facebook’s mobile user numbers are massive. More than 1.4 billion people use Facebook on mobile, with 934 million mobile daily active uniques. The mobile number goes up when Instagram is included: 400 million monthly active users. And mobile-only monthly users number 823 million.

During the earnings call, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said, “Marketers now realize that if they want to reach their customers where they are, mobile is essential. Our conversations with clients have shifted from if they should market on mobile to how.”

Right now, the mobile advertising landscape in the US is dominated by a very small number of companies, with Facebook and Google topping that list. Facebook has pitched itself as the most effective way for brands and small businesses to reach mobile users. These results show that they are responding.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

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