{"id":7461,"date":"2014-08-31T06:30:19","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T13:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/?p=7461"},"modified":"2014-08-31T06:30:19","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T13:30:19","slug":"dead-ad-walking-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Ad Walking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s some of the best ad advice I ever done got:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job&#8230;A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn&#8217;t fail, he&#8217;s no good. He&#8217;s got to fail. It hurts. But it&#8217;s the only way to get the home runs the next time.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Who said that?<\/p>\n<p>The late great grand puba of marketing Eugene Schwartz.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of which&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>You only have one day left to get his famous seminar for only $20 (regularly $297), plus a swipe file of over 500 ads and the &#8220;Copywriting Jam Session&#8221; teaching I did with Doberman Dan about our &#8220;process&#8221; of writing ads.<\/p>\n<p>Details at:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.CopywritingGrabBag.com\/labor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>http:\/\/www.CopywritingGrabBag.com\/labor<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Where was I?<\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah, Schwartz&#8217;s testing advice.<\/p>\n<p>And he wasn&#8217;t just whistlin&#8217; dixie, either.<\/p>\n<p>Case in point:<\/p>\n<p>While back I wrote a fartload of squeeze pages for a client. Not just 2 or 3 test panels&#8230; but 20-30 test panels. Some of them play it &#8220;safe&#8221; (not veering too much from their current control) and some are so off the charts crazy different, they probably thought I was a nutcase for even submitting them.<\/p>\n<p>But you know what?<\/p>\n<p>I fully expected 95% of those tests to FAIL.<\/p>\n<p>To me they are all dead ads walking to that great electric chair of cyberspace where probably only one of them will survive the onslaught.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">In fact, my first test failed by a fat 20%<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s good!<\/p>\n<p>Did not bother me one bit.<\/p>\n<p>I knew it&#8217;d either win big or lose big.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s really the name of the game.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, what would you rather have &#8212; 100 &#8220;play it safe&#8221; tests that add up to a 100% increase over weeks or months&#8230; or one BIG winner that beats your control by 100% in a day?<\/p>\n<p>Which do you think will make you money faster?<\/p>\n<p>Something to think about.<\/p>\n<p>To paraphrase one of the great American minds:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Failure is COOL, Beavis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ben Settle<\/p>\n<p><strong>P.S.<\/strong> The $20 Eugene Schwartz seminar sale ends tomorrow (Labor Day here in the US) at midnight. This is by FAR one of the most valuable copywriting trainings I&#8217;ve ever used (and I STILL listen to it regularly).<\/p>\n<p>Usually it costs $297.<\/p>\n<p>But if you hurry, it&#8217;s yours for a mere $20 spot:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.CopywritingGrabBag.com\/labor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>http:\/\/www.CopywritingGrabBag.com\/labor<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s some of the best ad advice I ever done got: &#8220;If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job&#8230;A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn&#8217;t fail, he&#8217;s no good. He&#8217;s got to fail. It hurts. But it&#8217;s the only way [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-copywriting-and-sales-letters"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.9 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here&#039;s some of the best ad advice I ever done got: &quot;If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn&#039;t fail, he&#039;s no good. He&#039;s got to fail. It hurts. But it&#039;s the only way\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Settle\"\/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.9\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ben Settle -\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#039;s some of the best ad advice I ever done got: &quot;If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn&#039;t fail, he&#039;s no good. He&#039;s got to fail. It hurts. But it&#039;s the only way\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-31T13:30:19+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-31T13:30:19+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Here&#039;s some of the best ad advice I ever done got: &quot;If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn&#039;t fail, he&#039;s no good. He&#039;s got to fail. It hurts. But it&#039;s the only way\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BlogPosting\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#blogposting\",\"name\":\"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle\",\"headline\":\"Dead Ad Walking\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/ben-settle\\\/#author\"},\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#webpage\"},\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#webpage\"},\"articleSection\":\"Copywriting\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#breadcrumblist\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog#listItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Copywriting\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Copywriting\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\\\/\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Dead Ad Walking\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog#listItem\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Dead Ad Walking\",\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Copywriting\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Ben Settle\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/ben-settle\\\/#author\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/ben-settle\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ben Settle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#authorImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/5b41e5a7b56ff3ef2863efb96b60feb917a13ead5504ea75e8cd43c818d75f7a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"Ben Settle\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle\",\"description\":\"Here's some of the best ad advice I ever done got: \\\"If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn't fail, he's no good. He's got to fail. It hurts. But it's the only way\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/dead-ad-walking-2\\\/#breadcrumblist\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/ben-settle\\\/#author\"},\"creator\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/ben-settle\\\/#author\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ben Settle\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bensettle.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"}}]}\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO -->\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle","description":"Here's some of the best ad advice I ever done got: \"If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn't fail, he's no good. He's got to fail. It hurts. But it's the only way","canonical_url":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/","robots":"max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"miscellaneous":""},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#blogposting","name":"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle","headline":"Dead Ad Walking","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/author\/ben-settle\/#author"},"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/#organization"},"datePublished":"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#webpage"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#webpage"},"articleSection":"Copywriting"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#breadcrumblist","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog#listItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/category\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\/#listItem","name":"Copywriting"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/category\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\/#listItem","position":2,"name":"Copywriting","item":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/category\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\/","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#listItem","name":"Dead Ad Walking"},"previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog#listItem","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#listItem","position":3,"name":"Dead Ad Walking","previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/category\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\/#listItem","name":"Copywriting"}}]},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Ben Settle","url":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/author\/ben-settle\/#author","url":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/author\/ben-settle\/","name":"Ben Settle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#authorImage","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b41e5a7b56ff3ef2863efb96b60feb917a13ead5504ea75e8cd43c818d75f7a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","width":96,"height":96,"caption":"Ben Settle"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/","name":"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle","description":"Here's some of the best ad advice I ever done got: \"If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn't fail, he's no good. He's got to fail. It hurts. But it's the only way","inLanguage":"en-US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/#website"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/#breadcrumblist"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/author\/ben-settle\/#author"},"creator":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/author\/ben-settle\/#author"},"datePublished":"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-31T06:30:19+00:00"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/","name":"Ben Settle","inLanguage":"en-US","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/#organization"}}]},"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"Ben Settle -","og:type":"article","og:title":"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle","og:description":"Here's some of the best ad advice I ever done got: &quot;If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn't fail, he's no good. He's got to fail. It hurts. But it's the only way","og:url":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/","article:published_time":"2014-08-31T13:30:19+00:00","article:modified_time":"2014-08-31T13:30:19+00:00","twitter:card":"summary_large_image","twitter:title":"Dead Ad Walking - Ben Settle","twitter:description":"Here's some of the best ad advice I ever done got: &quot;If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job...A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn't fail, he's no good. He's got to fail. It hurts. But it's the only way"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"7461","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_video":null,"og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":null,"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"schema_type":"default","schema_type_options":null,"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":null,"robots_max_videopreview":null,"robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":null,"local_seo":null,"breadcrumb_settings":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":null,"created":"2023-09-10 13:16:06","updated":"2025-06-24 23:43:31","seo_analyzer_scan_date":null},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"<div class=\"aioseo-breadcrumbs\"><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\" title=\"Home\">Home<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/category\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\/\" title=\"Copywriting\">Copywriting<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\tDead Ad Walking\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog"},{"label":"Copywriting","link":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/category\/copywriting-and-sales-letters\/"},{"label":"Dead Ad Walking","link":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/dead-ad-walking-2\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}