Some of these ideas were true fifty years ago, but not today. Some are more true in one media than another. Many of these myths are told by untrained advertising reps because their belief (and your belief) in these myths helps their sales. But if you are aware of these myths, you’ll make better decisions in your advertising. The Myths are listed below.

The customer must see your ad 5 (or 7 or 13) times before they buy.

That’s simply not true. Ads work better the first time they are used, and their results decline swiftly over time. This myth came about in the early days of television. A study group showed that it took 7 impression of a brand name before the name was remembered. This has nothing to do with buying. It has nothing to do with the customer wanting to buy. But this myth stays on the minds of ad reps, and uneducated merchants because now there is justification to run an ad several times (and pay for the ad run) without testing the results. If ads started working better the longer they were run, we would never see a new ad on TV or in magazines. Why would we? Doesn’t the ad get stronger as time passes? No.

You cannot directly track your sales to your ads.

Of course you can. In print, simply put in the ad that they need to bring in the entire ad with then to get a special discount. In radio, the customer says a special code word, or asks for a specific person (a name nobody there has). You’ll then know, absolutely for sure, that this ad brought the buyer in the door, or made them call. This works in any business.

You need to budget a specific amount of money for advertising.

Sometimes this is in the form of a percentage of sales. Sometimes it’s in the form of a dollar amount per month. All wrong. If you can track and ads sales results, you will instantly (meaning the first month) know if the ad generates a profit or costs you money. If the ad you run brings in five dollars for every dollar it costs, what should the monthly budget be for that ad? As much as you can. If the ad brings in sales that are less than the ad cost, how much would you continue to spend every month on that? Nothing , I hope. If you track your ad response, you’ll very quickly know if you are advertising intelligently. If an ad bombs, simply don’t run it again. The results you get from the sale ad will never improve with repetition.

Your ad should be clever and you need a catchy slogan.

Have you ever seen an infomercial? Do they use clever catch phrases? Do you hear the people sing jingles? Never. Why? Because being clever takes intelligence, but no knowledge of advertising. So it is the first place business owners go. They want to be funny, and clever.

But being clever has nothing to do with selling. Advertising is selling. Creating jingles is fun, and company CEOs love them because it’s about the company. But it doesn’t sell. Remember "Where’s the beef"? It was catchy, cute, and became a national catch phrase. But it didn’t sell hamburgers. Nobody heard "Where’s the beef" and then wanted to buy a hamburger.

I know I have a bad ad, when people I know say "Wow Claude, that’s a great ad. Very clever!"

I want them to say "Wow Claude, How can I get one of those!". That’s selling.

Your ad should have your children, wife, husband, or dog featured.

This is a lazy ad rep telling you this. Have you ever bought something because you thought the advertiser’s kids were just so darned adorable? Nobody has. And every parent on Earth thinks their kids are cuter than yours. The customer wants to know what your product will do for them. They want to know what they get and how much it is. It’s not that your family or dog is unworthy to be in the ad. But if you are paying for the ad by the minute or by the inch, you would be better off by putting benefit statements, features, and real reasons to buy...in the ad.