Facebook's earnings will address video advertising and the dreaded autoplay

Most analysts are now falling over themselves for Facebook.

Facebook is "cranking on innovation," an analyst at Cowen wrote in a note last month. It has "unmatched targeting potential and very potent monetization formats," explained an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. For that reason, an analyst at Pivotal Research concluded, "Facebook is still our favorite among companies dependent on digital advertising."

So perhaps it's no surprise that analysts and Wall Street are expecting big things from Facebook ahead of its earnings report on Wednesday afternoon.

The social media giant is expected to post earnings of $0.40 per share on revenue of $3.56 billion for the first quarter of this year, according to the consensus estimate from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Those are big expectations. It would mean that Facebook would have grow its revenue more than 40% year-over-year, which would, in turn, mark the company's second best sales quarter of all time.

The analysts' faith in Facebook is based on the continued success of Facebook's efforts to convince businesses to advertise on mobile devices, once viewed as the company's weakest point.

No longer: Shyam Patil, an analyst with Wedbush, estimated this week that mobile ad revenue will account for more than 70% of Facebook's overall advertising revenue this quarter, up from 66% the previous quarter.

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

Taking on television's advertisers

A key focus for many analysts, however, will be on one of Facebook's big potential revenue driver that is just now kicking into gear: video advertising. Facebook has chosen the controversial strategy of "auto-play," which means the video starts playing as soon as the page opens.

Video ads — even with auto-play — could lure advertisers who usually only buy TV time.

"Facebook has continued to roll out auto-play video ads with additional advertisers and we expect a gradual expansion throughout this year," Arvind Bhatia, an analyst with Sterne Agee, wrote in an investor note this week. "Ultimately, video ads will help Facebook more directly go after the $200B+ worldwide TV advertising market."

Analysts with Deutsche Bank also forecast "solid results" for the quarter "fueled by continued growth in video and core newsfeed monetization."

In recent months, Facebook has begun prioritizing video content in the news feed and encouraging users and media outlets alike to share more videos directly on Facebook, rather than via YouTube or other services. During its last earnings call in January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted that Facebook now serves more than three billion views a day.

Beyond that, we'll be listening for any new information about Facebook's progress in making money from its various platforms, including Instagram (now with more than 300 million users and slowly rolling out ads), WhatsApp (now with more than 800 million users, but not rolling out ads) and Messenger (now with more than 600 million users and rolling out payments between contacts).