I seem to be on a retro track these days. I tripped over this Team Rubber post recently about the father of “measured” advertising, Claude C. Hopkins, whose 1923 classic “Scientific Advertising,” broke new ground for the then-infant advertising industry.
“For those who are sometimes tempted to believe that advertising has been thoroughly re-invented by Google, Hopkins is a salutatory read,” says Team Rubber’s writer.
“The severest test of an advertising man is in selling goods by mail,” wrote Hopkins. “But that is a school from which he must graduate before he can hope for success. Their cost and result are immediately apparent. False theories melt away like snowflakes in the sun. The advertising is profitable or it is not, clearly on the face of returns. Figures, which do not lie, tell one at once the merits of an ad.”
To measure results, Hopkins used specially marked coupons to test competing ads. By measuring results, Hopkins continuously improved the effectiveness of his ad campaigns.
In the online universe, click-to-call does exactly what those coupons did for Hopkins. With click-to-call icons linked to specific sites, pages, offers and campaigns, businesses can get a clear picture of what works – and what doesn’t.
You can read more of Hopkins’ book here.