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Google has every incentive to find you the least expensive lead, which is not good for you. The least expensive lead is the one that would buy from you even if they didn't see the ad. This means you wasted money, and a lot of it.

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But I can judge whether I'm wasting money with google ads vs using TV ads or billboards. Do NPR promise me my sponsorship will result in increased sales or that it's the "lowest" possible price?

Maybe some people hearing an NPR sponsorship would have bought from me anyways - is this now a crime?

What about when people are bidding on CPA and not CPC? Surely that gives a representative number.

A representative number of what? The real price of the CPA? But google controls both the bid price and the ask price, so it could be arbitrary for all i know.

Every other marketing option also is arbitrary. A social influencer doesn't owe you a low price, they will charge what they can. Google will charge what it can for CPA etc.

Once more, there are thousands and thousands of influencers, their price is set through competition. Google is only 1 (one) company, no competition to force them to adjust their prices.

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