When Apple first introduced its Add Tracking Transparency policy with iOS 14.5, Facebook was particularly displeased with it. See, it makes a lot of money off of serving targeted ads to users of its services and platforms. The social media goliath braced for the revenue impact that was sure to follow. It, however, may have braced a little earlier than it had to. Thanks to the company’s recent earnings call, we can now see that Facebook actually had a pretty bumper Q2 this year.
Facebook’s killer quarter
Facebook’s ad revenue this quarter was $28.6 billion, up by 56% on a year-over-year basis. This makes up the majority of its total revenue, which was $29.1 billion, up an equal 56% on a year-over-year basis.
Facebook still has users on its several platforms in spades, too. CFO Dave Wehner reported that there were, on average, 2.8 billion people using at least one of its platforms daily through June, and 3.5 billion used at least one on a monthly basis.
So as much as Apple’s Add Tracking Transparency policy looked dangerous when it first arrived, Facebook’s numbers appear unaffected for the moment. Wehner does warn that they’re expecting it to take its toll next quarter.
“When viewing growth on a two-year basis, to exclude the impacts from lapping the COVID recovery, we expect year over two-year total revenue growth rates to decelerate modestly in the second half compared to the second quarter rate,” he said.
“We continue to expect increasing ad targeting headwinds in 2021 from regulatory and platform changes, notably the recent iOS updates, which we expect to have a more significant impact in the third quarter compared to the second quarter.”