People have been buying ineffective ads since the invention of ads

zero clicks is a little different

Bots do click in real ad fraud, so your moved goalpost isn't all that solid

sorry, conversions is really what I meant. if the bots are also buying the stuff then it would work.

I'm not really concerned with whether it would work out in a way that was beneficial for the ad network or their customers. Either they figure out a way to make it work such that they continue to be a useful pipe, or they don't and then maybe they'll have to shut down and find something more productive to do with their time. We'll have done the public a service either way.

Not really, advertising is really the only field of human endeavour that is both data-driven and results-oriented.

(Doesn't still stop smart people from committing fraud, but that is a different story.)

Unfortunately I beg to differ. I worked for several companies where we the management clearly saw that the results were very poor (for Facebook ads, for example) but continued to invest because there is a defined budget for it and so on. It was like this last year and 20 years ago.

Yes, most fraud is inside the corporate structure. Not shady "hacker" types in Romania.

these companies should be outcompeted by firms that don't blow a million dollars a month paying out to click fraudsters but alas the market is not perfectly competitive

is it a cargo cult? it works for coca cola so maybe if we just spend a little more we'll see returns...

Yes, I feel it might be cargo cult, at least in part. The argument I usually heard was that "But other companies are doing that, too".