It does work. Despite the anti advertising rhetoric of Hacker News users advertising can and does grow many brands very quickly and profitably. I think you've h

It does work. Despite the anti advertising rhetoric of Hacker News users advertising can and does grow many brands very quickly and profitably. I think you've hit on some reasons in your post why though many people fail at advertising. They want it to be a linear sort of thing when in reality it mirrors more of a exponential success or failure sort of model (not unlike startups) instead. Your creative and audience have to match and your offer has to be extremely compelling to get someone cold. It's also notable that direct response advertising, which many people conflate with the overall ads ecosystem is a actually a very small piece of the pie as it were. Most larger brands are fine losing money on a first interaction or sale because they have a good handle on CLTV. That said this specific article is about things like mobile app ads and website banners. It's actually much easier to succeed in walled garden environments like Facebook etc.