Will Facebook’s Focus Shift to Mobile Ads?

Has the whole world gone mobile? Apparently. Fresh off its app split – remember all the controversy over the FB messenger app? – Facebook has announced a move toward more mobile advertising.

The move comes on the heels of less than stellar first quarter revenues. When Wall Street hemmed and hawed, the folks at Facebook decided to look at a fairly bright silver lining. User engagement and mobile ad revenue were both up, indicators that user habits are shifting…and so is the profit center. How skewed is that shift?

Well, according to reports, mobile accounted for about 87% of Facebook’s active user base. That’s up 24% over the same time last year. More people going mobile? A lot more apparently. Try roughly 1.25 BILLION users. That’s a lot of clicks.

Given this massive shift toward mobile use, it’s not surprising that Facebook’s mobile revenue is also on the rise. Nearly three-quarters of Facebook’s total advertising revenue came from mobile ads in the first quarter of 2015.

More importantly, daily user numbers are up. 936 million users access the site daily, a massive number that is both driven by and driving the shift to mobile, as well as mobile profitability. These markers fit well into Facebook’s ongoing strategy to reach more users across the world, specifically in places where the Internet is only or primarily accessible on a mobile device.

But to truly tip the scales, Facebook needs more major marketers to invest in mobile. While that trend is promising, it isn’t quite there yet, creating some tentativeness in the company’s approach to the not yet fully tapped mobile market. When that happens, expect the Internet’s social media Big Dog to telegraph a sea change in the way everyone uses and profits from online content.

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