Tested advertising methods
by John Caples · first published 1932
93% recommend7% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Easy-to-read guide to writing ad copy, built on split-test results from the print era. It gives headline formulas and shows how readers respond to copy; useful for anyone writing web ads, emails or marketing text.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Here are all the proven selling techniques to remove the guesswork from advertising, making it a science of sure results. From writing the headline to making the offer ... from finding the right appeal to putting it into your copy ... from selling layouts to conducting practical, affordable testing, Caples shows you, step by step, how to make all your advertising successful." "You'll learn why some ads work, and why others fail. You'll discover how to write headlines that attract readers ... choose graphics that help sell your product ... and find the right appeal for your audience."--Jacket.
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…across all demographics. So we get anti-HIV ads aimed at safe demographics instead of at-risk demographics. This ad not only compounds that problem, but goes for the "clever" hook. The excellent book _Tested Advertising Methods (Prentice Hall Business Classics)_ by John Caples and Fred E. Hahn talks about "clever" hooks - how, when they're A/B tested, they always fail. Creative types love funs, plays on words, etc. http://www.amazon.com/Advertising-Methods-Prentice-Business-...…
on “Anti-Abuse Bus Stop Ad Only Batters Women When Nobody's Looking” ↗…factitious fall guy." They laughed when Neville sat down at the keyboard, but when he started to write... In all seriousness though, read On The Art of Writing Copy by Herschell Gordon Lewis, and also Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. By reputation they are the two best books on copy writing and advertising ever written.
on “How To Lose 1% Of Your Customers With Just 1 Email” ↗Tested Advertising Methods, by John Caples (the writer of this headline), is one of the best books you can buy on how to write advertising copy.
on “They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I started to play” ↗…subject are: 1. The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes 2. Zig Ziglar's The Secrets of Closing the Sale 3. Brian Tracy's The Psychology of Selling Copywriting: The 3 Best Books (All out of print): 1. Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples 2. Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins 3. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz If I could add a fourth it would be: 4. The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy If you…
on “Ask HN: Best way to learn copywriting and sales?” ↗Ugly ads, long copy, many things still work. If anyone is interested in learning more about marketing methods, get: "Tested Advertising Methods" by Caples (be sure to get 4th edition or earlier because later editions have LESS ads!)
on “This Ugly Ad Saved My Business” ↗…Myself from a Failure to Success in Selling" Betger "How to Write a Good Advertisement" Schwab. "How to Write Sales Letters That Sell" Drayton Bird "The Robert Collier Letter Book" - by Robert Collier "Tested Advertising Methods" -by John Caples "The Lazy Man's Way to Riches" - by Joe Karbo "Break-Through Advertising" - by Eugene M. Schwartz "Advertising Secrets of The Written Word" by Joe Sugarman "Making Ads Pay" by John…
on “Ask HN: Best way to learn copywriting and sales?” ↗…prove it long before "analytics" was a common idea -- the very term A/B testing refers to the "A" and "B" sides of a newspaper print roller being able to print two versions of an advertisement. Source: Tested Advertising Methods by Caples. A fascinating, if depressing, read.
on “The internet is an SEO landfill” ↗Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. It's an oldie but a goodie. It talks a lot about split testing from the print days -- catalogs, newspaper classifieds, etc. Writing headlines gets its own chapter. Really great book.…
on “Use Adwords to find the best title for your Hacker News post” ↗There are many, many headline formulae in the world ( some of my favourites were written in the mid 1920s, in John Caples' book "Tested Advertising Methods" ) but they still take time to iterate through and hone for each article. I'd like a robot to do that for me, please :)
on “Auto-Generating Clickbait with Recurrent Neural Networks” ↗I spent the last month going through books that one must read to understand the fundamentals of copywriting. The books I refereed to are: 1. Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins 2. Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples 3. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy 4. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan 5. Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman In the linked article, I summarize my major takeaways from…
on “A Primer on Copywriting” ↗…response. Copywriting forces you to trim the cruft and makes you take the reader's perspective. Their time is valuable so you need to be entertaining and engaging, AND you need to get to the point fast. Tested Advertising Methods & Scientific Advertising are just some of the classic books about sales copy. I don't know what topic you're writing about, but sometimes you really just need to get your work out there, despite it not…
on “A blogging style guide” ↗…Cialdini 4 Steps to the Epiphany is a phenomenal book on selling new b2b IT products. Secrets of Question-based Selling is the best consultative sales book SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham is also quite good Tested Advertising Methods and Scientific Advertising continue to be two of the best books on copywriting, despite being very old.
on “Ask HN: Any great books on Sales and Marketing?” ↗Question Based Selling is a great intro book on how good salespeople approach sales. It has good detail in it as well. Tested Advertising Methods is a must read for learning how people respond to copy (can be applied to ppc ads, direct emails, etc).
on “Ask HN Hustlers: What are you favorite books on sales?” ↗Tested Advertising Methods is great. It's also worth checking out the book Ca$hvertising. Its marketing is exactly as cringe-inducing as it sounds, but it has a lot of solid advice.
on “This Ugly Ad Saved My Business” ↗To save others a search, here's the book on Amazon. I'm surprised I've never heard of it before, even though I have Ogilvy & Tested Advertising Methods: https://smile.amazon.com/Being-Direct-Making-Advertising-Pay...
on “Lester Wunderman, Father of Direct Marketing, Has Died” ↗