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Facebook ads are basically extremely successful banner ads, both for FB and advertisers. There's a reason 90% of new ad spend is split between Goog and FB.

• asdff 7y ago
  Honest question: How do shareholders know FB doesn't lie about their metrics? Maybe if it leaked it would be fraud, but what stops them from saying some psuedo-b.s? Like "our ad score went from 0.4 schmeckle to 8.6 schmeckle increasing ad yield by over 78% this quarter, here is a 500 page document about it" and if I were an investor I wouldn't have time at all to figure out what a schmeckle means, and I certainly wouldn't care what a schmeckle means or even if it's all an elaborate ruse if my position is improving.
  • evgen 7y ago
    FB shareholders do not care about metrics, they care about ad revenue. The shareholders of companies spending ad money do not care about metrics, they care about revenue. People who buy those ads care about metrics, but while they cannot see inside the FB machine and need to trust them somewhat regarding views and reach they have absolute visibility on the results of that ad spend and where those visitors are coming from. These last two are not things that Facebook could fake for very long...
    • eitland 7y ago
      > FB shareholders do not care about metrics, they care about ad revenue. Agree. And I guess they have reason to be happy for now. > The shareholders of companies spending ad money do not care about metrics, they care about revenue. Agree. And they have reason to be sceptical: a lot of Facebooks growth in ad sales seems to have come from companies who suddenly had to pay to reach their fan base. > People who buy those ads care about metrics, but while they cannot see inside the FB machine and need to trust them somewhat regarding views and reach they have absolute visibility on the results of that ad spend and where those visitors are coming from. Another explanation: pay per view ads are massively overvalued but for some reason or another management isn't aware of it or doesn't care yet.
  • cm2012 7y ago
    Most FB advertisers measure sales from Facebook directly using 1st or 3rd party cookies. So you can see that you spent 100k and made 200k.
  • manigandham 7y ago
    While there's plenty of grey area in measuring "engagement", eventually ad spend either delivers ROI or it doesn't. That's not something you can fake.
  • laughingbovine 7y ago
    Successful advertising campaigns generate revenue. Can't fake that. Also there are companies that will track your FB ads and tell you if FB is lying.