One of the craziest parts is the total lack of accountability.
Google / FB just say they show your ad to a XXXX million people. You owe them $XXXX.
Google / FB just say they show your ad to a XXXX million people. You owe them $XXXX.
"We suspect X million people watch this TV show (based on highly inaccurate Nielsen ratings) and then stayed around for the ad break, pay XX dollars."
"XXX people passed by your billboard, XX saw it, X people visited your website and made a purchase, pay XX dollars."
Plus you can go watch TV and see that it's actually been on there. Or walk down the street, or pick up a newspaper.
There's definitely accountability. The problem is that you can't always blame FB or Google because maybe your targeting is off, your ad copy sucks, you dumped the user off the front page of your website and they bailed, etc. There's a lot more to performance and accountability.