Advertising is a billion dollar strategic issue for some companies and those monies are rapidly shifting online. Spending on online advertisements globally is increasing about 25 percent annually according to edMarketer, and represents about 39 percent of total advertising spending in the United States. However, Google recently reported that 56.1 percent of online ads go unseen. Comscore puts that number at 54 percent. Nearly 2 million firms of all sizes now pay to advertise on Facebook, up from about 1 million 18 months ago.

To identify online advertising trends, a glance at Facebook’s operations is useful, because companies do more online advertising on Facebook than any other outlet. Facebook counts an ad view as soon as any part of the ad comes onto a user’s screen. However, due to complaints from advertisers, this practice changed in October 2015 when Facebook added the option for companies to only pay for ad views after an ad has become 100 percent viewable. Additionally, Facebook recently began offering third-party video ad analytics from Moat. These moves help Facebook continue increasing its average ad prices because, now, if an ad goes unseen by users, it does not impact their total cost. Facebook also now offers companies the option to pay for video ads only after users watch 10 seconds. Facebook’s new partnership with Moat provides more insight into how users are responding to video ads. The Moat partnership helps removes any bias involved in Facebook’s analytics, providing impartial feedback to companies as to how their Facebook ads are working. Finally, Facebook has updated its Conversion Lift tools for advertisers. The new tools allow companies to measure brand and sales lift of an ad campaign, against both a control audience and against other ad campaigns.

Source: Based on http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/03/facebook-inc-looks-to-appease-advertisers-with-new.aspx?source=eogyholnk0000001&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article. Also, Jack Marshall, “Online Ads Lure Cash, But Losses Still
Mounht,” Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2014, B1.