A thriving mobile ad business is doing wonders for Facebook's bottom line, as the social networking platform posts a 76.6% surge in quarterly profit.

Revenue from mobile ads accounted for 85% of total ad revenue of $7.86 billion (€7.2bn) in the three months to March 31st. Ad revenue overall is up 51% on the same period a year ago.

Research firm eMarketer has said Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant should generate $31.94 billion in mobile ad revenue this year, a 42.1% jump from 2016.

The rapid growth of mobile advertising continues to drive surging revenue and profits growth at Facebook

Total advertising revenue in the first three months of the year to the end of March rose by more than 80% to $7.9bn compared to the same period last year and mobile advertising comprised 85% of that total

Net income or operating profits rose by more than 75% in the period to just over $3bn

David Bergin of Goodbody Stockbrokers told Breakfast Business:

"1.9 billion users –  that's just on Facebook alone. They also have WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger as well. It's 70 million companies – that's all sizes, so small companies to large companies – are using Facebook's advertising technology to hit their consumers."

Total revenue at Facebook climbed from $5.38bn to $8.03bn. Net income attributable to shareholders rose $3.06bn ($1.04 per share) from $1.73bn (60 cents per share).

The quarterly report shows advertisers' love affair with the social media giant is only growing, and why wouldn't it when the site's userbase continues to expand. 

The number of people using Facebook on a monthly basis has increased to 1.94 billion, with almost 1.3 billion logging on every single day. 

Future expectations were curbed by the company itself, however, which tempered share price movement.

On a conference call following the report, executives warned that there is a limit to the number of ads it could host. They stated that it expects revenue growth to be down "meaningfully" when it stops increasing the frequency of marketing spots in its news feed later this year to improve its UX.