I review some of the statistical/experimental papers in https://www.gwern.net/Ads . For example, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2367103 observes that given plausible effect sizes / variances, you can't run an advertising experiment which will pay for itself; https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/gordon_b/files/... demonstrates that even using absurd amounts of detailed tracking data from FB, you still can't recover actual causal effects.

I started shopping at American Apparel because I liked their banner ads back in the day. Same with this other apparel brand that used to be around in Richmond (Need Supply I think.) I’ve also bought things from Instagram and things advertised on podcasts, so maybe I’m the kind of person willing to buy things from ads?

In any case, the ads that appealed to me sold an aesthetic.

° And people in those age groups are most definitely responding to ads even if they aren’t clicking them.

Could you provide a source for me to read more?