Facebook’s hot streak continued with a strong Q2 2017 earnings report. It earned $9.32 billion. Revenue growth was 44.7 percent year-over-year.

Mobile now accounts for 87 percent of ad revenue, or $8 billion, compared to 85 percent last quarter and 84 percent a year ago. Total ad revenue was $9.16 billion.

The Facebook numbers are crushing it; they hit all the projections and their main issue is that they are running out of space to advertise (a preview of my blog next year blog “It was the Instagram, stupid”). But the main takeaway for mobile marketers is that 87% of Facebook’s revenue is mobile. 87%! So, less than 13% of revenue is severed digital. Is Facebook’s reporting for the last three years a behavior limited to Facebook or is it a system shift in the way we are using the Internet?

Search Engine Land reported late in 2016 that, “It’s Official: Google Says More Searches Now on Mobile Than on Desktop.” Google said that.

So here we are again: another milestone. Another indicator the mobile has and will continue to rule the world! With mobile-only apps like Instagram and Snapchat not hitting stride, there is a lot of room for revenue. Mobile marketing companies such as Copley Advertising have tapped into supply-side app platforms like MoPub, Rubicon, Smatto and others, providing an endless sea of impressions available through their network. In 2017, mobile marketing will continue to move at breakneck speed. If medium and large companies have not allocated enough of their marketing budget, they will find themselves playing catch up.

Everything is a learning curve and for companies just getting into mobile (or yet to do so, in the future), they’re going to pay a much higher price than early explorers. As with any advertising and marketing system, it takes time to understand which aspects of mobile marketing make the most sense. Maybe a DSP that delivers impressions at a high rate of speed? Or a platform with granular reporting? Low CPM with high frequency? App placement by 1,200 impressions and no clicks? Android or iOS? There are just so many questions that can only be answered by taking the program out for a drive.

Plus, client’s goal projections need to be aligned as mobile is not (for the most part) a CPA-driven media outlet. Things like email collection are short-sighted. “Email is fine, but the goal is to engage the target to such an extent that we will have a major influence on both their long-term and short-term decisions.” states John Flynn, CEO of Copley Advertising.

While spending on mobile advertising is taking a larger chunk of companies’ advertising budgets, many are not yet adopting the right tactics. When starting to run mobile advertising campaigns, a company should consider working with a proven mobile marketing agency; this will help you find your targeted demographic and help your company become an important influencer in that target’s decision-making process. Once that formula is found, a funnel of prospective customers can be sent to a landing page to capture their mobile ID and retarget it with offers and quality content. This will increase short-term action and longer-term influencers and will do so by not only 2X, but 10X!

Or… you can buy a newspaper ad.

Copley Advertising is a mobile marketing company that uses the tools of mobile targeting and their worldwide relationships to help clients reach and influence their demographic. Call (617) 651-2249 or email [email protected].

He’s right.

Right now Facebook is an incredible value.  $6 CPM is a steal based on the platform’s capabilities.  Every month Facebook rolls out new features and updates.  It’s an embarrassment of riches.  Here are the top five features that make Facebook’s Mobile DSP Platform a great fit for B to B mobile advertising.

Self-Optimizing – I am a big fan of granular reporting.  Most of the time I like to get my hands dirty and pick which apps are performing, tracking operating system click rate, creative A/B testing and many other benchmarks.  Facebook’s self-optimization will choose which demographic features (age, sex, placement) is working and move your impressions to ensure a lower cost per click.  And Facebook does a very good job.  They will even notify you if they think a change in targeting is needed to further optimize your program.

Video Ads – You can upload your video ads to the Facebook platform in seconds and begin your video campaign.  I use my YouTube videos and never had an issue.  When the campaign starts Facebook will log in views, how long the views are and the price per view which is usually pennies.  Why is Facebook doing this?  YouTube.  Facebook wants YouTube out and is replacing it with its own video platform.  The engagement rate using video ads is huge.   Video ads are taking over mobile.  It’s another differentiator from other advertising.  The fact that Facebook recognizes this and makes life easy is huge.

Dark Posts – One of my favorite phrases in media…Facebook Dark Posts.  In reality, it’s easy to do.  The point of dark posts is that the ad is not posted to your “page” when published. An example is my business page is Copley Advertising.  I use my platform to post ads for clients all the time.  I don’t want every client’s ad on my newsfeed.  Dark Posts helps solves the problem.  Plus it seems the click rate is very good on average.

Targeting – Facebook has great targeting.  You can target by street address, hobbies, last time you traveled, what newspaper your demo likes,  job title, company employed by, Facebook groups, pages you follow, income and on and on.  Pretty impressive.  Plus setting up different Ad Sets for each test is easy.  With Split Testing you can increase your optimization and Facebook will reward you with a cheaper CPM.

Ease of Use – Facebook has made the platform very easy to set up with little or no knowledge of code.  The ad manager is great for the majority and the Power Editor allows the user to take a deeper look at the campaign and offers more tools to play with. There is no reason why you can’t have your first Facebook ad up in minutes.

So why is Facebook doing this?  Easy.  Money.  They are proving that they are a serious B to B DSP mobile platform.  They are looking to attract big companies and agencies to hop on the program.  Facebook is a great mobile platform for B to B advertising.  Use it now because late 2017 it is going to cost you a lot more.