this is just not true, and only describes a very specific subset of advertisement. for a very large portion of ads, the advertisers want people to see it even if it doesn't translate to a direct sale of something the user already wanted.
Disney does not expect someone to see an ad for Disney World and immediately win a click-through conversion for a $2k vacation. They do expect to remain relevant, and the ads have "worked" when Disney pops into mind when I try to plan my next vacation. So they make sure to continue to advertise to families.
> Disney does not expect someone to see an ad for Disney World and immediately win a click-through conversion for a $2k vacation
Having run CPC campaigns many times, companies do care about conversion rates. However, you are tracked across multiple sites and days. But companies do want to know who converted after seeing the ad and who converted after clicking the ad.
So, you're right they might not care that you convert immediately. But they do care that people convert over time or they'll pull the ad.
You're conflating direct response with awareness marketing, which are both valid. It is a concept of information theory for imperfect markets.
In a perfect market, the consumer and seller know everything about each other and every other product and service that they could conceivably ever want.
Since we live with imperfect markets, consumers do not have all the information about everything on the market. Sellers will pay money to communicate to consumers about their brand, product, service, etc. A percentage of consumers will be aware of this seller the next time they research or consider making a purchase decision.
The perfect ad is only shown the consumers that it is relevant to. Search/display ads are still not perfect, but they're closer to this than previous mediums of communication.
Disney does not expect someone to see an ad for Disney World and immediately win a click-through conversion for a $2k vacation. They do expect to remain relevant, and the ads have "worked" when Disney pops into mind when I try to plan my next vacation. So they make sure to continue to advertise to families.
I do not want to see those ads.