Ask HN: Is anybody successfully finding customers using ad tech?

There seem to be a lot of folks on HN that are really down on ad tech. Some have privacy concerns, but a lot of people just don't seem to think ad tech actually provides any true value, other than driving views (which may or may not be fake) to "content" (which may or may not be clickbait).

In my own experience working with ad tech in a business-to-consumer company, it seems to generate very few sales, both overall and relative to the amount of money invested. I'm not sure if we're doing it wrong, though?

I'm interested to know... are there HN-types out there who are actually generating leads and customers through ad tech? Are there situations you've found that it's good for, and situations it's not good for?

Mostly interested to see if there's a counterpoint to the general negativity around here.