Is "marketing" individual homes a waste?

[Carl Ohai]

I am studying to obtain my RE Agent's license and I am trying to learn about the industry.

My question revolves around selling homes once you have it under contract as the listing agent.

How homeowners actually shop for homes? It would seem to me that the vast majority of homebuyers would simply start the browsing process on something like Zillow and then when they are ready to start seeing homes, their buyer's agent would also ensure that they get shown homes that meet their criteria.

The reason I ask is that I am trying to learn about marketing homes for sale. I see so many ads in my local newspaper with agents listing individual homes for sale. These 3x4" ads are something like $100/each for a week in our (dying) local newspaper. 

Of course, the homes are on Zillow/whatever other site anyway, so I highly doubt interested buyers wouldn't find the house, anyway.

This has me wondering if spending money marketing individual homes is even worth the dollars it takes to put that specific home in front of people.

1) Is spending $$$ marketing the individual homes actually worth the money? 

2) Do you feel that homes that are listed places other than Zillow/Whatever actually sell any faster than if they only listed on sites like Zillow?

3) Are there any stats on this?