I personally have had great luck on all my vehicles with ceramic pads. My wife's subaru clocked 88k before the front pads needed changing. The rears could probably have gone to 130k at the rate they were wearing. I believe Ford uses a Ceramic formulation, most manufacturers are going this route to keep dust down since so many people love having shiny rims (myself included).
However, if you're not into racing I must highly recommend sticking with solid vented rotors. Slotted, dimpled or even cross drilled rotors are subject to more cracking stresses because of the thinner/non-existent material on those rotors. You will stop more effectively, but your chances of getting as much life out of far more expensive rotors (especially if you haul at all) is very slim. They're fine for sport cars, but then you're only stopping 3,000 lbs of car. Our trucks weigh on the order of around 6k for most configurations, then add on the payload or whatever you're towing. You're subjecting breaks to longer duration braking events and probably experiencing a higher delta in temperature because of the amount of mass having to be stopped. Besides, with solid face rotors, you can probably machine them and get some decent life out of them with a 2nd set of pads.