This answer is a good answer for some companies, but for other companies it's very hand-wavy. Paid ads have value and you can make a pretty penny even on Meta (actually, especially on Meta compared to others) if you do it right.
Still curious about alternatives for paid ads
Sure you can make penny, you can do a lot of pennies on various amoral businesses, often the deeper this shit goes the more gold is in it.
I call it amoral, nobody even trying to object it since we all know reality, and I stand by it. It slowly but surely destroys future of our kids and makes it bleaker, and objectively worse. Maybe not massively (and maybe yes, I don't know and neither do you), and its hard to pinpoint a single actor, so lets point it in ad business.
But I guess as long as you have your 'pretty penny' thats all you care about? I don't expect much sympathy on a forum where better half of participants work for the worst offenders, 'pretty penny' it is as we all know, but curious about a single good argument about that pesky morality.