Meta has reported third-quarter revenue of $64.60 billion, up 26% on the same period last year. Advertising made up $63.06 billion of the total.
Ad impressions across Meta’s apps rose 10% year on year. The average price per ad rose 14%.
So this quarter, more of Meta’s ad growth came from price than from volume. In the second quarter, Meta’s impressions grew 14% and its average price per ad grew 12%.
Meta’s apps averaged 3.64 billion daily active people in September, 3% more than a year earlier.
The quarter came in above Meta’s own forecast, which had put third-quarter revenue at $61 billion to $64 billion.
Meta is guiding to revenue of $73 billion to $76 billion for the fourth quarter. That would be 13% to 18% above the third quarter. Meta expects currency movements to take around 1% off year-on-year growth.
Meta’s operating income fell 37% to $12.99 billion. The drop is mainly down to a $9.89 billion charge for Meta’s agreement with 52 US state attorneys general, which settles litigation over teen mental health and social media.
Meta’s AI spending remains high. Capital expenditure was $34.91 billion in the quarter, and Meta expects $135 billion to $145 billion for the full year. Meta said its AI investment is already bringing in extra ad revenue through higher engagement and better ad recommendations.
The BTB take
TLDR: Meta’s ad revenue grew 26% in the third quarter, with price per ad up 14% and impressions up 10%. Meta is guiding to $73bn to $76bn for the fourth quarter.
Our view: For sellers who rely on Facebook and Instagram, the most important number here is price per ad. If it keeps rising faster than impressions, Meta’s growth is coming more from what advertisers pay than from extra inventory, and CPMs usually follow.
The fourth quarter will add to that. It’s always Meta’s biggest quarter, and guidance of up to $76bn suggests strong competition for the same audiences through Black Friday and Christmas. Smaller advertisers bidding against big-brand budgets will feel it first.
Our advice is to set Q4 budgets and a break-even ROAS for each campaign now. Work them out from current margins after shipping, fees and returns, so you know in advance when to pull spend. Deciding that in the middle of peak is harder.
Meta’s price-per-ad figure is a global average across all markets and ad formats, so it won’t match UK CPMs exactly. The direction is still clear.
What to watch: Meta’s fourth-quarter results in late January, and whether price per ad is still growing faster than impressions after peak.
