Facebook betting big on mobile ads

Unstoppable social media juggernaut Facebook is wagering – and winning – on the idea you can’t get enough of their content on your mobile device. The platform is making more money on its mobile ads than ever before. After Facebook released its earnings report to Wall Street, the impressed stock market sent shares up more than 8 percent after the final bell.

Pretty much everything’s up, from growth of new users, sales and profits. The company cleared a whopping $5.8 billion in profit in the last quarter of 2015, an incredible 123 percent increase over its profit in the same quarter of the previous year. Much of that profit is coming from an increased focus on mobile advertising. According to Facebook’s reporting, about 80 percent of all ad revenue comes from mobile advertising. Consumers LOVE looking at Facebook on their phones and tablet, and advertisers love finding them there.

But the good news for Facebook doesn’t end there. CNN is reporting more than 1.59 billion people access Facebook each month … and the site is making more cash off of each one than ever before. In the United States alone the per user profit margin jumped from $9 to $13 as compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

Do you hear anyone complaining? Not really. And that’s the icing on the cake for Facebook. Zuckerberg’s baby is raking in the cash, and his customers absolutely love it. The products – that’d be users – love it too. Everyone’s pretty happy. Users get what they want. Advertisers get what they want, and Facebook ownership and shareholders are definitely getting what they want.

Facebook found a winning strategy by giving customers what they want, and, even when people were unhappy, still giving them a reason to stick around. What was once a small network for college friends has evolved – by careful control – into a massive international sensation. As long as they continue to keep everyone happy, there’s no reason that trend won’t continue.