Companies have been trying and succeeding with targeted ads*
There’s a reason a bunch of the biggest tech companies in the world’s main revenue is these ads, they absolutely work unfortunately.
You’d be surprised to hear, how many users are still clueless and don’t use an ad blocker.
More than half of the surfers don’t use an ad blocker: https://earthweb.com/how-many-people-use-ad-blockers/