Why would you think someone who actively pays to not be served ads would be a good fit to be advertised to?
Eg. My personal experience with buying products (food, software, SaaS, etc) based on ads conditioned me to actively distrust products that are heavily advertised compared to stuff that's just mentioned in reddit threads or used by friends. Would I be a good fit for ads?
I think I took an advertising class long time ago (so long ago that I don't remember if it was an actual advertising class, Advertising 101 or some marketing class). But, what stuck to me was, that most people said that they were unaffected by ads, and the data showed otherwise. Ads also help with brand recognition etc. Typically, people are very familiar with some space, say desktop CPUs... and they'll say, "I'll never buy an intel CPU just based on an ad", and that might be true. However, when it comes to a space that's completely far away from their day to day expertise, say... weedkiller in the garden, and they're more likely to trust a branded product that they've seen product placement or other types of ad.
Of course, not everyone is that way, but ads have different objectives, and they are effective.
Disposable income. Demographic is different for people who pay to remove ads than people who don't. I pay to block ads on Hulu and Youtube and buy upcoming brands like Vuori, Away, Peloton, Allbirds etc.
Marketing works. How do you think your friends learned about product that are mentioned in reddit threads? Guarantee it wasn't organic. If the company was launched in the last 10 years, it was built on VC dollars used to spend tens to hundreds millions in marketing.
The goal of an ad is mostly to make potential buyers aware of a specific product/brand. Hence, showing ads to potential buyers is most effective, even if many/most will not become actual buyers (like you, apparently). The conversion rate among the potential buyers (who can afford to pay for an ad-free service) is still much higher than among users who agree to see the ad (by not paying for an ad-free service), but cannot afford to buy the product.
If you are willing to pay for something that is free, it generally means you have more disposable income. It's not that you become more valuable, it's that the remaining cohort becomes less valuable.
Few people making $30,000 a year are going to pay to disable ads. many people making $200,000 or more are going to consider it.
Eg. My personal experience with buying products (food, software, SaaS, etc) based on ads conditioned me to actively distrust products that are heavily advertised compared to stuff that's just mentioned in reddit threads or used by friends. Would I be a good fit for ads?