There is a difference between a month of impressions and an audience you can reach again tomorrow without paying an auction for the privilege.
Most developers are renting. The tell is simple: when spend pauses, pipeline disappears within a fortnight.
The four things worth owning
A list you can email. A retargeting pool you built rather than bought. A content estate that answers buyer questions permanently. And a documented record of which message moved which persona.
None of these are campaigns. They are infrastructure, and they appreciate.
Paid still matters
Paid media is how you reach people who have never heard of the project. The mistake is treating it as the whole system rather than the intake valve for one.