I agree that there a lot of (smaller) players in the ad tech space who are scamming companies out of money. And especially if you've been in this industry for a while, this practice was much more prevalent a decade ago.
I don't think your view is representative of how most F500 companies, or many of the new DTC brands, invest on major ad tech platforms though (FB/G/Snap/etc.). Experienced marketers try to measure metrics as close to core business KPIs as possible, and comparing ads based off of simple A/B tests is increasingly becoming a technique of the past. Measuring the incrementality of ad campaigns through long-term holdout groups gives companies a much more accurate read of their investment, while bringing higher statistical rigor as well. So rather than looking for cumulative increases on <metric> after advertising for a year, you could instead point to group A (who saw no ads) and see that group B (who saw ads) drove a 1.5x higher <metric>.
I'm not sure how you can say advertising is a scam when there are clear examples of popular brands that most likely wouldn't exist today without digital ads? Take Allbirds as an example. There are dozens of consumer shoe brands that are already in physical stores and have higher brand recognition; how can you argue that advertising didn't help them cut through the noise and grow their bottom line?
I don't think your view is representative of how most F500 companies, or many of the new DTC brands, invest on major ad tech platforms though (FB/G/Snap/etc.). Experienced marketers try to measure metrics as close to core business KPIs as possible, and comparing ads based off of simple A/B tests is increasingly becoming a technique of the past. Measuring the incrementality of ad campaigns through long-term holdout groups gives companies a much more accurate read of their investment, while bringing higher statistical rigor as well. So rather than looking for cumulative increases on <metric> after advertising for a year, you could instead point to group A (who saw no ads) and see that group B (who saw ads) drove a 1.5x higher <metric>.
I'm not sure how you can say advertising is a scam when there are clear examples of popular brands that most likely wouldn't exist today without digital ads? Take Allbirds as an example. There are dozens of consumer shoe brands that are already in physical stores and have higher brand recognition; how can you argue that advertising didn't help them cut through the noise and grow their bottom line?