Personally I do suspect it&#x27;s a multi-level, recursive scam. After all, convincing you that advertising works is itself advertising from the point of view of companies that you&#x27;ll pay to advertise you (note: unless you are personally going door-to-door and telling people about your product, you&#x27;re always paying someone; printshops that make your leaflets and posters are a big part of advertising industry). And since so many advertising is dishonest, it stands to reason that advertising of advertising will also often be dishonest.<p>A corollary: I do believe that &quot;metrics&quot; in on-line advertising are a tool for people using them to bullshit <i>themselves</i> into believing their ads work. Even an average college-educated person has <i>zero</i> understanding of statistics, and without it, it&#x27;s easy to draw any conclusion you like from any dataset.