Now that I’ve found the Duane Jones book again, I’m reading it again. He was writing in the early 50s when radio and magazines were established but TV was too new to quantify. He was mostly discussing household products sold by radio soap operas and magazine ads.
He calculated the advertising cost to acquire one new customer, and then to keep the customer. He said that the cost to acquire was about 17 cents, but half of those didn’t stick with the product, so the cost for a permanent customer was about 34 cents. Inflated, these would be $1.70 for an initial customer and $3.40 for a permanent.
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Is online advertising cheaper than radio? It’s hard to find exact numbers; most sites on this topic just tell you how to estimate your cost. This site gives a few specific costs.
Travel: Priceline.com: $7
Telecom: Sprint PCS: $315
Retail: Barnesandnoble.com: $10
Financial: TD Waterhouse: $175
Barnes and Noble is probably closest to the Jones product type, and it’s three times the Jones figure after inflation. So digital is NOT significantly cheaper than previous media despite universal claims to the contrary. It’s in the same range as the older methods.
Polistra's Mill 