Scientific Advertising

Claude C. Hopkins argues that advertising, once a gamble, had in capable hands become a science resting on fixed principles, and he sets out to teach those proven principles rather than theories and opinions. His method is to test and measure, keeping losses from unsuccessful ads small while multiplying the gains from profitable ones. The book is cited as the first account of split testing and of tracking customers through coupons, and it is widely regarded as the foundation of direct marketing. Hopkins wrote it as both a textbook for students and a safe guide to follow for advertisers. David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert and Jay Abraham are among the advertising and marketing figures who have pointed readers to it.

It appears on David Senra's list for Founders Podcast episode 430, How to Write Ads That Sell. Bliss Bean Bags founder Dean Roller called it a classic for grasping the basic principles of how people operate.