Typically, yes. But one thing I’ve noticed is that most PTC sites tend to have ads for other PTC sites, not really much else.
I actually got a considerable bump in shares after I made an ad, views too. Odds are most people are just going to click and not really care about the content, tho I think on SC you have to stay on the page or it won’t load. And then you gotta click a confirmation to exit the ad. Kinda not worth switching pages for just 30 seconds to let the ad time out, you know?
Anyway, even if most people do just ignore the page itself and only care about points, there’s still a possibility someone might see it and might be interested in it.
Is it going to be worth it for most people to make an ad on a PTC site? Probably not. It takes a while to build up funds to pay for it. I just happened to have used PTC sites a while back ago and can’t get my idle funds out anyway so I decided to use it this way.
So it’s free advertising in some capacity. I’m not saying it’s super effective but it does reach out to a different audience than, say, TWC - where it has ads all over the place and your ad is just kinda lost amongst the other ads on a site meant for webcomics. By using a PTC site, you reach a different audience, who may very well find the ad interesting and will want to learn more about it.
In the wonderful world of webcomic competition, it doesn’t hurt to branch out to other avenues. For me it’s worth it, but that may not be the case for everyone.