Bought followers vs Promote ads: cost-per-real-follower

Bought followers vs Promote ads: cost-per-real-follower
n=40 accounts, audited 90 days post-acquisition.
— Bought followers: ~$0.01 each, but median 71% purged or inactive by day 90 → effective $0.034 per surviving account, near-zero reach contribution
— Meta Promote (follower objective): $0.18-$0.40 per follower, 88% retained, normal reach behavior
The cheap option costs more per real human and drags your reach rate down via dead weight in the ratio.
So what: bought followers are a vanity liability that suppresses distribution. Paid ads cost 15-30x more nominally but are the only one that actually compounds.