Meta’s price per ad up 10% in strong quarter marred by big tax bill
Meta's Ray Ban augmented reality glasses are receiving a lot of attention from the company
Meta has posted strong quarterly financials that show its ad engine running hot globally, with impressions and price per ad up and ad revenue growing 26% year on year.
Despite the robust numbers, Meta stock fell sharply in after-hours trading, a reaction to news that earnings had been hit by a one-time tax bill of US$15.93 billion.
That bill was triggered by changes under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. Meta said the non-cash charge would reduce its future federal cash tax bills.
The Q3 results show total ad revenue of just over $50 billion (total revenue $51.24 billion with Reality Labs and other minor revenue lines thrown in), with an expectation that Q4 will see “continued strong ad revenue growth”.
Enjoying Mumbrella? Sign up for our free daily newsletter.
The fundamentals of the business are apparently healthy, with daily users across the Meta family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) up 8% to 3.54 billion, ad impressions up 14% and average price per ad up 10% (all compared to Q3 2024).
Meta’s releases did not break out Australia-specific figures, or give any details about how its new AI ad formats were contributing to the bottom line.
ANZ managing director Will Easton provided a comment that drew attention to Meta’s augmented reality AI glasses, which elsewhere in the release had been credited to contributing to revenue growth.
“This past quarter, we unveiled a new category of wearable AI products, including the Oakley Meta Vanguard and the Ray-Ban Meta 2.0 glasses. Looking forward, we see glasses as the most exciting new hardware category of the AI era, and we can’t wait for more Australians to experience them,” Easton said.
“Our leading AI-powered ad solutions continue to accelerate results for our partners, and we look forward to supporting them during the upcoming sales season.”
