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Would those "happy" customers lead to more word of mouth though?

Not everything has to be a gimmick, right?

If I used a matchmaking service and it provided me with "end your subscription to a dating service 90% of the time" matches I would be telling everyone I knew.

This is why there are matchmaking services charging 10k a year.

You used to see ads for them in Skymall.

And how often did they work?

No clue. I never used them.

My role here was writing snarky comments in Skymall catalogs to unwind on my Friday night redeye flights home. (I used to fly a lot for work)

I will say that the ads were a bit creepy.

Always sort of ethereal looking hot 40'sish blonde women. Implicitly promising you'll be able to date and marry one of those (but of course the hot 40's lady is the matchmaker).

They sort of similarly implicitly promised you could meet and marry a doctor or exec or something.

Also - the ads were never targeted at women.

Most relationships end at some point, and datings sites are often used by those still in relationships (open relationships, polyamory, cheating, etc...)