Protests, like voting, are only a form of manufactured consensus on behalf of some group of elites - usually the mass media - targeting another, like politicians or in the case of color revolution movements, prior organized dissident movements.

Genuine grass-roots protests have little benefit if the entire establishment is against you or uninterested. They can inspire other people but only if the media doesn't cover up or lie about them. And even then, it does nothing until it hits a threshold of influence where some elite circle notices and thinks that supporting your movement will help them in some way.