Mobile ad complaints boost pressure on Facebook

Facebook executives are reminded how much work they have left to do in the $16.7 billion mobile advertising market every time they glance at two large TV screens in plain view at the company's headquarters.

The monitors, built recently by advertising Vice President Andrew Bosworth, show a steady stream of complaints lodged by marketing customers about ads shown to users of the largest social network.

[...] gaining traction more than a year after rolling out its first ads for smartphones and tablets, Facebook is stepping up the pace as it works to prove that its progress so far is no fluke.

With rivals such as Twitter, which has filed to go public, already far along in mobile ads, and Google boasting a wide lead over both rivals, Facebook has to fight harder to win share in a market that eMarketer Inc. predicts will almost double this year.

Nielsen partnershipTo keep up the gains, Facebook is taking steps to streamline ad buying, adding ways to track results and courting a wider swath of business advertisers.

The company will soon announce it's teaming up with Nielsen to introduce a way to measure mobile audience sizes the same way marketers measure television viewers, according to a person with knowledge of the project.

Steep learning curveThat's led to cultural change, said Brian Boland, a vice president who handles marketing for advertiser tools.

The company rolled out its first mobile ad products in March 2012, and just two months later and days before the IPO, it spooked investors by saying daily active users - especially mobile users - were increasing more rapidly than the number of ads it was delivering.