THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
238 
Cheaper and More Productive Advertising 
By E. II. Favor, Managing Editor, The Fruit-Grower, St. Joseph, Mo., Read at Convention og American Asso¬ 
ciation of Nurserymen, Milwaukee, Wis., June 29,1916. 
C HEAPER and more productive advertising,” the 
topic assigned for my ten-minute period of this 
convention’s time, is the very kind of advertising 
that all of us are seeking. To get close to this subject in 
the ten minutes available, is impossible, except in the way 
of a general outline of some of the essentials. 
Cheapness Determined by Cost and Returns 
In arriving at these esentials we might first ask our- 
tion will have a rate of approximately 50 cents an agate 
line; a publication having 200,000 circulation will have a 
rate of approximately $1 an agate line. 
With that fact in mind, it is easy to see that buying 
space in the better class of farm publications, where this 
scale of rates is observed, becomes as simple a matter as 
buying postage stamps. The more money you spend the 
more circulation you get. 
selves what is meant by “cheaper” advertising? The 
cost of advertising takes into consideration the amount of 
money spent for the white space or whatever form of 
medium is used, and the value of this space to the adver¬ 
tiser is measured by the returns he gets. A medium that 
brings a return of $5 for every dollar spent is worth a 
good deal more than a medium that brings back only ten 
cents for the dollar, yet the outlay for each may be the 
same. Rased upon the returns the former medium is by 
far the cheaper of the two. 
Cost is Ratio of Space to Circulation 
What determines the cost of an advertisement ? 
In publications, it is the size of the space in relation to 
the volume of the circulation. In such publications as 
are most largely used by nurserymen, that is farm publi¬ 
cations, the cost of the advertising space is based on what 
is almost a standard rate of % cent an agate line for each 
1,000 circulation. A publication having 100,000 circula- 
Forty-first Annual Convention, American Association of Nurs 
The Value is Measured by Returns 
Rut the cost of the space does not necessarily deter¬ 
mine its cheapness or its value. Four inches of space 
in one publication of 100,000 circulation may produce or¬ 
ders amounting to many times the actual expenditure for 
the space, while another publication having 100,000 cir¬ 
culation and supposedly reaching the same general class 
of readers may not bring back enough money to buy a 
postage stamp. Every firm that has ever done much ad¬ 
vertising finds this to be the case, and on that account, to 
lessen the cost of advertising, the very first matter to con¬ 
sider is the selection of the medium to be used. 
Selection of the Medium 
This is a matter which must not he left to the smooth 
talk of the solicitor for the publication in question. It 
not infrequently happens that the poorest mediums have 
the most skillful salesmen as solicitors for their adver¬ 
tising space; and some of the best mediums are unfor- 
