It's obviously difficult to generalize about ads and I don't think ads were the way to promote Dr. Dobbs.
My personal experience with Google AdWords (take it as an anecdote) is depressing. 10 years ago I had a real and measurable ROI using it. Fastforward a few years and I didn't receive a single customer from them until one day I turned off all my campaigns. In parallel I received many customers from our blog articles, links, etc.
There is another force against ads: AdBlock. The use of adblockers is growing, more in our field.
My personal experience with Google AdWords (take it as an anecdote) is depressing. 10 years ago I had a real and measurable ROI using it. Fastforward a few years and I didn't receive a single customer from them until one day I turned off all my campaigns. In parallel I received many customers from our blog articles, links, etc.
There is another force against ads: AdBlock. The use of adblockers is growing, more in our field.