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It happens! I spent $800 on google ads for a product and didn’t get a single sale either.

I haven’t gone for ads since then.

Perhaps my target audience are also the kind that are likely to use ad blocking, or ignore ads in general.

Perhaps my use of ads was rubbish...

Too much competition nowadays!

Yeah the game has changed. Burned some money on LinkedIn ads last year. It was more of an exercise in learning how to create campaigns and place creative.

In the end all you need is one post to go viral (or hit the front page of HN) and it is off to the races for a while.

I've decided to put that money into my content.

Geek out a bit on camera and audio equipment.

Hire a part-time editor for videos and podcast.

Buy some e-books off gumroad.

I think I'm happier for it.

As an experienced media buyer, I would highly suggest avoid direct site buys like this. Most are total scams that may even resort to sending fake or bot traffic to inflate their clicks. Usually prices are 2-10x higher than just using site targeting on Adsense if available.

The way the scam works is churn and burn. Advertiser 1 is sold package for $5k-$25k on popular site X, advertiser realizes it’s total trash and loses all his money with 3 sales. They convince the next advertiser and the process repeats.