I know people who spend large budgets on Facebook and Google ads. What I hear almost universally is that they aren't effective, yet everyone feels compelled to pay for FB ads and Google ads because they see everyone else doing it. The customers I have spoken too feel that it simply isn't working but they're afraid to stop buying the ads for fear of slipping into online oblivion. Numerous people have shared the same experience with me and nobody is happy. Now there is the chance that I just happen to know only statistical outliers, the people who pay a lot of money and feel they aren't getting anything in return but feel compelled to continue. Maybe I just happen to know a dozen or so very unlucky resentful people. I don't have solid "evidence". It's all anecdotal. That said, this experience I've just described is most likely common and hardly unique.