In its latest earnings call, Facebook reported that ad revenues rose from $13.5 billion to $17.4 billion in Q3 year-on-year. Mobile advertising revenues accounted for 94% of total ad sales, up from 92% last year.
Results beat analyst expectations and sent stocks up 3%.
“We had a good quarter and our community and business continue to grow,” said CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg. “We are focused on making progress on major social issues and building new experiences that improve people’s lives around the world.”
Daily active users grew 9% to 1.62 billion in September 2019. Meanwhile, monthly active users were up 8% to 2.45 billion.
Facebook estimates that 2.2 billion people are now using the social network as well as subsidiaries WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.
“Facebook continues to fortify its position with a permanent and predominant place on paid media plans. In Q3 2019, advertisers working through 4C increased their budgets by nearly 30% across the Facebook family of apps,” said Aaron Goldman, CMO of 4C Insights the marketing tech company. “Video, in particular, has become quite popular and now represents roughly 60% of Facebook and Instagram ad spend running through our platform.
“Stories are also becoming a primary format with Facebook Stories Ads spending growing 554% year-over-year in Q3 and Instagram Stories Ads spending up 139%. Clearly, brands are embracing the power of sight, sound, and motion along with precision targeting to drive measurable business outcomes.”
Facebook predicts that growth will slow in Q4 2019 compared to Q3.