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Facebook's incredible ad sales machine is slowing down

On a conference call after its earnings report Wednesday, Facebook CFO David Wehner spooked investors by talking up plans for "aggressive investment" in 2017 even as it expects sales growth to slow.

"We expect to see ad revenue growth rates come down meaningfully [in 2017]," Wehner said.

The reason: Facebook expects slower growth in "ad load," or the number of ads it can put in front of users.