All advertising viewed/heard by actual humans has potential to increase sales. I was not meaning to say that any of those mediums are ineffective, simply that

All advertising viewed/heard by actual humans has potential to increase sales. I was not meaning to say that any of those mediums are ineffective, simply that inflated numbers aren't a new problem. YouTube ads are actually one of the best values right now, because 1) a lot of advertisers are scared of video ads and 2) you get access to search audiences. That being said, I don't care how great Google tells me my YouTube campaigns were. I care about dollars spent and leads that became paying customers (with a recognition that direct attribution undercounts, so break even is positive).