Google earnings top estimates, despite mobile problems

Mobile continues to be a problem for Google, as the company struggles with how to make money off mobile ads and its Motorola smartphone unit. But earnings still beat Wall Street estimates.

Overall, Google's first-quarter revenue jumped to nearly $14 billion, in line with Wall Street expectations. Net income rose to $3.9 billion, or $11.58 per share, handily beating estimates. Though Google is a dominant mobile player thanks to Android, the shift away from desktops has caused the company some problems. Of particular concern is a metric called cost-per-click, or the average amount that advertisers pay to Google each time a user clicks on an ad.

Mobile ads command lower prices than desktop ads do, so the average cost-per-click has fallen even as the number of paid clicks increase. In the first quarter, Google's cost-per-click fell 4% compared with the prior year. That's the sixth consecutive quarterly decrease. The number of paid clicks rose 3% over the year.