Facebook announced its fourth quarter (Q4) earnings last month and – surprise, surprise – the company’s profitability appears unaffected by a year of controversies and criticism. Despite being plagued by privacy breaches and negative publicity, the social media – and social media marketing – behemoth reported $16.6-billion in advertising revenue last quarter, up 30 per cent from 2017. Total revenue reached $16.9-billion, underscoring advertising’s importance to the company’s bottom line.
“Obviously we believe we’ve got the best advertising products out there in terms of being able to deliver measurable business results to clients,” said chief financial officer David Wehner during the earnings report call, according to MarTech Today. “And so we think that does help us in that environment.”
Booming revenue wasn’t the only good news for social media marketing professionals: price-per-ad dropped 2 per cent while ad impressions rose 34 per cent. Daily active users also grew to 1.52-billion, up 9 per cent year-over-year.
Impression growth was spurred by Instagram and Facebook’s mobile News Feed. In fact, 93 per cent of ad revenue last quarter came from mobile. In 2019, the company plans to capitalize on Stories (Instagram and Facebook) and Instagram’s e-commerce potential.
“There’s a lot of natural activity happening here, and this year I expect us to deliver some qualitatively new experiences around that,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the call.
As a Google Premier Partner digital and social media marketing agency with access to valuable insights on Google’s preferred practices, GrowthEngine Media works to ensure our clients are found by the customers that matter most. In today’s online ecosystem, that goal requires presence on both Facebook and Google. While each client requires a unique approach, these platforms are cornerstones of most digital marketing strategies in 2019. Combined, their vast, committed user bases include a large percentage of total global internet users. If you want to reach a digital customer, chances are they can be found on Google or Facebook.
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