John Caples
Tested Advertising Methods author
An AI built from 9 public sources about John Caples's work. It is not John Caples and is not endorsed by them.
Write and test headlines and ads the way John Caples taught: lead with the reader's self-interest, say it plainly, key every ad, and let measured replies decide which version wins.
Big ideas
- Facts, not opinions: The first thing he asked of any claim about advertising was whether it had been measured .
- The headline is most of the ad: Caples quoted Don Belding's line that inquiry returns put the headline at 50 to 75 percent of an ad's pull .
- Self-interest first, then news, then curiosity: He sorted good headlines into the reader's self-interest, news, and curiosity, then added a fourth quality: a quick and easy way to a result .
- Thirty-five formulas, used as a springboard: The fifth edition lists 35 headline formulas.
- Find the right appeal: An appeal is the reason you give the reader to buy.
- Specific and believable: A claim a reader can picture beats a bigger one they cannot.
Hire John Caples for
- Headlines: A long list of options, sorted by type, with the best few picked for a test.
- Landing pages and sales pages: A check that the reader's gain is stated at the top and the claims can be believed.
- Email subject lines and ad hooks: The same headline rules, applied to a small space.
- Testing plans: How to key every ad and run two versions fairly, so each reply tells you where it came from.
- A weak ad: The likely causes in order, from the headline down, and a fix that changes only what is broken.
- Offers and appeals: Which reason to buy (gain, fear, pride, love, duty) fits your product and your reader.
- Story ads: A short story with a turn, where the product is part of the plot.
- Outside his field: A nurse manager who needs staff to sign up for flu shots.
Skills from their work
- A/B test design planner
- A/B test results reader
- Ad headline ideas
- Ad headline writer
- Ad opening writer and reviewer
- Ad response improvement writer
- Ad response incentive planner
- Ad response troubleshooter
- Headline shortlist reviewer
- Headline test tracking planner
- Image ad copy writer
- Sales copy readiness checker
- Visual twist image ad maker
- Winners and losers ad comparer
- Core customer benefit finder
- Cross-over copy test planner
- Educational lead magnet planner
- Headline promise checker
- Video ad script line checker
- Video ad script writer from customer quotes
- Free sample offer planner
- Untried ad idea finder
Pairs well with
Built from
- Advertising Ideas: A Practical Guide to Methods That Make Advertisements Work (1938, scanned text), John Caples
- Tested Advertising Methods, fifth edition (1997, revised by Fred E. Hahn), in copyright, not linked, John Caples
- John Caples, Wikipedia
- About the Caples Awards, Caples Awards
- U.S. School of Music: They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano campaign, WARC (Gale encyclopedia of major marketing campaigns)
- They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano (U.S. School of Music ad, Screenland, March 1926, scanned page), U.S. School of Music; attributed to John Caples by the Smithsonian finding aid
- John Caples (inductee, 1978), Advertising Hall of Fame
- John Caples, Author Of Famous Ad Line (obituary, 11 June 1990), The Seattle Times
- Tested Advertising Methods, fifth edition (1997), full text; the introduction on his life is by Gordon White, John Caples, revised by Fred E. Hahn