Facebook "promote this post"

[williemeikle]

I decided to try a Facebook promote for a post about my Newsletter.

$16 Canadian (the maximum allowed), and they say it will reach around 5000 people

To my surprise it seems to be working... 15 new sign-ups to the newsletter this past hour.

Here's my very simple spiel....

Sign up for my newsletter and get a free kindle or nook ebook of my novel The Midnight Eye Files: The Amulet

http://www.williammeikle.com/newsletter.html

I'll keep you posted if it looks like a winner...

[Spell-it-out]

Nice one William, hope it works.

[williemeikle]

22 new sign ups to the newsletter now, which I already count as a success, and still 80% of the promotion to go.

I will be doing this again. I'm in the process of setting up tabs on the page for my books,newsletter sign up, freebies etc, and will do a big push when I'm finally happy with it.

In the meantime... any comments on what I have so far would also be gratefully accepted...

https://www.facebook.com/williammeikle

[veinglory]

I used this method to get people to follow an "issue" page. It seemed to be quite effective, especially as you could target certain demographics. I am not sure it would translate all the way into book sales though?

[williemeikle]

At least if I can get folks to sign up to a newsletter, I have a captive audience who already have at least a small amount of interest in what i'm selling.

That's the thinking anyway...

[veinglory]

Or possibly they get the free book and then block the email? It is worth a try for sure, but I would be curious what their reception and open rate turns out to be.

[Tuckerooo]

I was hoping to use the Facebook 'promote' option for my page as well. I'm definitely interested to see how this works out for you - all the best!

[williemeikle]

34 new sign ups today to the newsletter because of the promotion, and still 2/3 of it to go.

My post has been seen by over 1000 people as opposed to an average reach of around 350. I guess it'll reach around 3000 before we're done.

I'm impressed, and will use it again when I want to push something.

[TroyJackson]

Interesting. Some might say that it really boils down to book sales and whether it helped you with that. But I am of the mind that if it draws attention to your newsletter and they are reading what you write, that seems to be a WIN. Perhaps the true test is that after the promotion ends, you retain them? Or most of them?

[veinglory]

My goal is ultimately to sell books. To assume all advertising is somehow successful if it causes some intermediate steps is to risk paying for nothing, IMHO.

[roach]

I used FB advertising last year to increase the number of likes for Eggplant's page. It worked well for about the first two weeks, added about 150 new likes to the page. Then it sort of petered out.

I had considered trying another campaign but it seems that FB is throttling one's reach to people's news feeds (as in you post something to your page and only a certain percentage of those who have liked it will see it). That put a kibosh on that idea.

[nkkingston]

I don't think it's a percentage thing. Facebook has a slightly circular policy of showing posts to people who look at them. The more someone looks at your page the more often your posts will appear in their feed (it's more complicated than that, but broadly). It keeps feeds manageable for readers. So you have to drive people to your page to appear on their feeds.