Most observers agree that Facebook initially flubbed the shift to mobile devices smartphones and tablets. In 2011, Facebook had virtually no ad revenues from mobile
devices and no mobile strategy. At the time of its botched IPO in 2012, Mark Zuckerberg,
CEO of Facebook, was developing a mobile strategy that essentially depended on inserting
ads into users’ News Feeds. No one knew at that time if it would work. There is no side bar
for ads on smartphones, and limited space on tablets, so the only ad marketing opportunity
appeared to be in the News Feed. Throughout 2012, Facebook took a crash course on
mobile by redesigning its Facebook app specifically for smartphones, introducing ads into
users’ News Feeds, and creating a new kind of ad called an “app-install ad,” which are
ads paid for by Facebook app developers that encourage users to download their apps
(usually for free). App-install ads and in-app ads became Facebook’s secret weapon that
investors had not even heard about. Facebook was aided by a shift away from mobile
browsers to apps: in 2013, more than half of mobile users worldwide regularly use brand,
product, or store apps.