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The probability is that out of scores of
traced ads the type which you see has paid the best.
Many other ads which are not keyed now were keyed at the
beginning. They are based on known statistics. They won on a small scale before they ever ran on large scale. Those advertisers are utilizing their enormous powers in full.
Advertising is prima facie evidence that the man who pays
believes that advertising is good. It has brought great results to
others, it must be good for him. So he takes it like some secret tonicwhich others have endorsed. If the business thrives, the tonic gets credit.
Otherwise, the failure is due to fate. That seems almost unbelievable. Even a storekeeper who inserts a twenty-dollar ad knows whether it pays or not. Every line of a big stores ad is charged to the proper department. And every inch used
must the next day justify its cost.
Yet most national advertising is done without justification. It is
merely presumed to pay. A little test might show a way to multiply
returns. Such methods, still so prevalent, are not very far from their end. The advertising men who practice them see the writing on the wall.
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