Does anyone run ads successfully?

[XCSme]

Over the last 10 years, I kept trying to run various ad campaigns for my products. NEVER was I able to get any sale from ads, and it seems like all traffic is bot traffic.

I am not sure if I'm doing anything wrong, or maybe my budgets are too low (<$50/day), but runnings ads always seemed like simply burning money to me.

Are there any tricks I'm missing to actually get sales and good traffic from ads? I tried even very niche targeting (only high-paying countries, very specific keywords, etc.), but very rarely I managed to get any human-looking visitor.

[chistev]

Not an answer to your question, but it's ironic to me that I hate ads but wonder how to promote my product (if I ever have one) or services if I do not use ads.

[Peroni]

When there are entire multi-billion dollar industries built on trying to solve the problem you are facing, you can safely assume that the solution is likely more complex than you or I are capable of figuring out effectively. If you're spending +$10k a year on ads, then it might be worth investing a portion of that into a consultation with a small, independent performance marketing agency.

[XCSme]

Oh, and I forgot to mention. I tried to get ads both on X and Facebook, but on both platforms the payment or creating the ad failed in various ways. Searching online, I noticed many people had the same issues. I can't understand how those big companies simply don't care that customers want to give them money but can't