Business 101, it is like a sale. And you may lose money but may draw in even more people when you trend or if it is a store where you draw in even more to come to the store and some will come back again and again in the future to share and to maybe upvote future posts and the long-term potential may be worth the investment, the temporary losses for future potential gains.
Sure, but most people here don't have the money to spend $700.00 on advertising and anyway that is a hit or miss idea. I think it would be more reasonable and more profitable to just buy $700.00 worth of Steem, and start upvoting people, you will probably get more followers this way and maybe make a killing if the price of Steem spirals upward, , and people tend to upvote articles of people who have given them a good vote. And remember $700.00 is something you have to spend on every post you make before you get any traction which could result in a lot of money.
Agreed, it can be too expensive to buy ads on Steemit or other places too. And it is generally a bad habit for a bunch of fundamental reasons. There can be better ways of marketing but it may take more time and work.