Facebook Ads

[CrystalCierlak]

Has anyone tried to promote their book utilizing Facebook Ads? I only know one one person who has done it and it was mildly successful for her (was not a book promotion) so I figured I would give it a try. I'm going to be running one over a 24 hour period as a trial run to see whether or not it is effective. I'm hoping someone else has some experience (positive or otherwise) to share.

 

[Deleted member 42]

Have you ever bought a book because of an ad?

 

[CrystalCierlak]

Have you ever bought a book because of an ad?

I don't recall ever having seen one.

 

[Old Hack]

If they worked well and were cost effective I bet trade publishers would use them.

 

[Arpeggio]

Door to door salesmen and cold callers are inconvenient.....but what if they went up to a group of freinds around a pub table at a get together and tried to sell them something?

Maybe an ad on a social site is a bit like that.

I have 2 FB ads out at the moment for 2 different books since about 3 days ago. Both are well targeted with eye catching graphics.

You never know until you try but now it's just a giggle that costs me only a few quid (thankfully). Yes it's useless I will be shutting it down after a week.

I found a lot on google for "facebook ads are ______ " and the sentiment is generally that they are useless. The buyer intent isn't there, it's social network site people aren't there to buy or are in the mood to. Social sites as I read elsewhere are better used socially, which is something I've yet to do also.

My main plans for the advertising approach are high quality banner ads on relevant sites. I am fortunate in the regard that as a non-fiction author there are sites out there on already an established subject. On my enquiry an advert guy from a big reputable website told me their advertisers who do promotions and special offers always get astounding results, so I am delaying that particular campaign until I have more books as I have made my main on free as an eBook to enhance my advertising hook. There are other benifits for my free eBook too, such getting backlinks for SEO as well as getting the book itself out there. It's easier when you have something to offer that others see as an enhancement to their site.

Fiction is a different kettle of fish for advertising I would imagine because the subject is not so established other than the genre, which is something you can go on to find likeminded arena's. e.g. if I was a Romance author I'd be making enquiries to dating websites advertising.

You never know until you try, but always keep a short leash on these things at first (like I am doing with my FB ads) until it gives good signs then go for it more.

 

[merrihiatt]

I've seen ads for Nora Roberts' books on FB. I generally ignore all the FB ads unless one really catches my eye. Even then, I never click on the links.

 

[BenPanced]

I have ad blockers so I never see any ads on Facebook.

 

[Jersey Chick]

I refuse to click on ads on Facebook. I don't care what it's for.

 

[CrystalCierlak]

Well in the spirit of experimentation I implemented an ad on FB and it's been very interesting so far. Rather than going to the FB page for my book I have the ad set up to link directly to Amazon. So far (in roughly 10 hours) 7 people have clicked on it and I've reached 17,000 of the intended 20+ million my ad is designed to target. Of course I'm waiting until the ad is completed (or my $20 is spent) before fully looking at the metrics and deciding if it is worth it.

My work (non-writing work that is) is in social media so the experiment aids as research in that area. It could end up not being worth the money at all but I'm okay with spending $20 to find out.

 

[MarkEsq]

Well in the spirit of experimentation I implemented an ad on FB and it's been very interesting so far. Rather than going to the FB page for my book I have the ad set up to link directly to Amazon. So far (in roughly 10 hours) 7 people have clicked on it and I've reached 17,000 of the intended 20+ million my ad is designed to target. Of course I'm waiting until the ad is completed (or my $20 is spent) before fully looking at the metrics and deciding if it is worth it.

My work (non-writing work that is) is in social media so the experiment aids as research in that area. It could end up not being worth the money at all but I'm okay with spending $20 to find out.

Interesting, if you don't mind pop back here and let us know. I guess "success" is earning more than the $20 you spent, right? Good luck!

 

[veinglory]

I look into it but the ads are not well targeted. The only benefit I could see would be if they could target the ads to user's interests.

 

[Torgo]

If they worked well and were cost effective I bet trade publishers would use them.

We do. Quite a lot, in fact. Clickthrough rates per £ are better than other forms of online ads, according to our marketing peeps.

 

[Sheryl Nantus]

What's the definition of "successful"?

I realize it's well-nigh impossible to link a sale directly to a FB ad but there's got to be some definition of successful other than getting traffic to your website.

As we all know, traffic doesn't equal sales.

*sighs*

 

[Torgo]

What's the definition of "successful"?

I realize it's well-nigh impossible to link a sale directly to a FB ad but there's got to be some definition of successful other than getting traffic to your website.

As we all know, traffic doesn't equal sales.

*sighs*

You should be able to draw some conclusions from looking at traffic and sales while you're running the ads, compared to when you're not running ads? I agree that evaluating marketing is always tricky.

 

[dolores haze]

I ran an FB ad recently as an experiment. I focused it on getting more attention to my FB author page, targeting it at women in English speaking countries who are fans of Firefly, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, etc. - the kind of folks who would probably get a kick out of my SF stuff.

I got a lot of new "likes," some increased engagement on the page, and a bump in hits to my website and blog, but the impossibility of figuring out if it results in increased sales is kind of frustrating. My royalties get paid quarterly and are not broken down by month or week, so I don't know of way to figure out if there's a connection or not. Oh well, it was an inexpensive experiment that may result, at least, in increased name recognition.

 

[Torgo]

Dolores, your publisher ought to be able to break your sales down by week, I think. Have you asked?

 

[dolores haze]

Dolores, your publisher ought to be able to break your sales down by week, I think. Have you asked?

I haven't asked, but I will. It would be interesting to have the results side-by-side for comparison.

 

[TroyJackson]

Some places might offer some FB ad credits, like my web host. If I put a little in the kitty, I get $50 of FB credits to use for ads, so I will likely try it out when my book is released. Probably 99% of people will ignore it, but hey, if it drives even a few people to your website or Amazon or your author page on FB, isn't that worth it? It's all about recognition and getting your name out there as a new author. If I were established, I'm not sure if I would bother though.

 

[Bookkus]

For self-published authors, it could be more effective to work on getting people into your personal page instead of selling the book. Get them to know you. If you look up stats on Facebook ads you can see averages. I just grabbed this one on Click Through Rate (CTR)

"Many advertisers will see 0.020 percent to 0.040 percent on average, but I regularly see several CTRs of 0.063 percent and up to 0.5 percent"

So if you are paying $0.40 for 1000 views of your ad. And your CTR is 0.05%. You won't even get a click. So let's say you spend $4.00 for 10,000 views and get 5 clicks. That honestly isn't very good unless all 5 clicks are purchases (which won't happen).

Get people interested in your brand page, don't sell your book directly. Make a writer's group who have similarly written books and then build up a larger following for less $$. That's a better idea... In my opinion.

 

[bystevecohen]

Facebook sent me two $50 credits for ads, so I have two days of ads scheduled to follow up on my Amazon KDP freebie days, ending today for my latest book. The book goes from free to $4.99 at midnight and that's when the ad starts.

The ad rates are probably too high for a single book. If you have a list of books and you advertise one to bring people to the list, that might work.

Since the ads are free with the credit, I figured it's worth a shot to keep the name of the book out there after the all the promotions connected with the free days.

I am probably going to try google ads. They offered $100 credit if I spent $25. I'll try that when I run my last two free days next month. I don't expect any of the ads to do much beyond exposure, but it looks like selling an indie ebook is a marathon, not a sprint, unless perhaps you've just written the hottest, new, instantly-recognizable genre piece, preferably a vampire-ninja-dragon-romance.

I'll report back after the facebook ads in a few days.

 

[veinglory]

e.g. if I was a Romance author I'd be making enquiries to dating websites advertising.

This assuming people read romance because they are looking for a man. Or romance readers are frustrated in love. Or something. Either way it doesn't make any sense to me.
You have to look at your actual demographics and what interests them, not go for stereotypes.

In any case the click thru rate for Facebook is reported 1 per 4000 views. Which is terrible.

 

[Deleted member 42]

We do. Quite a lot, in fact. Clickthrough rates per £ are better than other forms of online ads, according to our marketing peeps.

Clickthrough is a nice metric to sell ads.

Does it equate to selling books? I've been unable to get real data on that, from my publisher or from others.

I note that in terms of my own links to Amazon on my site since 1997 the book with the greatest number of sales (over 800) is not the book with the best click through. The book with the best click through is in the lower third in terms of sales rank. (These are books about Celtic studies, but not necessarily books I've written or contributed too).

What that metric reflects is the interest in the page with the link, not the the interest or lack thereof in the book, or sales of that book from my site.

 

[Torgo]

Clickthrough is a nice metric to sell ads.

Does it equate to selling books? I've been unable to get real data on that, from my publisher or from others.

I dunno. I'm not sure if they know, either. <Redacts screed about marketing departments>

 

[bystevecohen]

Follow-Up On Facebook Ads

Didn't know if anyone would click but they did and the $25 credit was used up by 9 AM. Combined with the successful free days that saw my book reach the Top 100 on Amazon's Best Seller list, sales have definitely started to pick up. The problem is the cost of the Facebook ads. Your ad dollars get used up pretty fast and then the ad disappears. As a small part of an overall marketing effort there might be some advantage to this exposure, however, I think you can probably do as well by simply posting on various Facebook pages.

On another topic: Does anyone know how to add a signature here? The moderators keep telling me I'm screwing up by including a website link and that it should be in my signature.

 

[Old Hack]

I already helped you with your signature, Steve.

You posted in that thread right below me, so you should have spotted it.