Paid advertising has long been considered a popular customer-outreach method because, well, it works. In general, paid ads expose more people to your brand and help generate demonstrable business growth. Accessible metrics give fast results, costs are easy to measure, return on investment is easy to track, and campaigns are controllable and optimizable. U.S. advertisers understand this; it’s why they spent more than $190 billion on digital ads in 2021, according to Statista.
For all its perks, however, paid advertising is tricky to do well — and there are consequences for those who cut corners. Amazon, for instance, is under fire for its allegedly deceptive paid ad strategy. In early December 2021, the Washington Post reported that the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of labor unions, had filed a new complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
