Why ARPU Is a Flawed Metric for Multi-Surface Ad Businesses Like Meta

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A data analysis piece argues that Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is a misleading metric when used as a single stored figure for companies like Meta. The metric obscures critical variables such as geography, ad surface type, and data density that actually drive revenue differences. For example, North American ARPU is significantly higher than Asia-Pacific ARPU not due to different ads, but because advertiser willingness-to-pay reflects local disposable income and ad-market maturity. The author proposes treating ARPU as a derived calculation across dimensions like region and product surface — such as feed ads, Reels, or click-to-WhatsApp — rather than a flat stored value. The piece concludes that a schema unable to answer 'ARPU for which surface in which region' cannot meaningfully explain how a multi-surface ad business generates its revenue.

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