Facebook and Twitter Ads

Sarah M

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
117
Reaction score
6
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Is it better to make a facebook ad through my author page or through their business page? If I go through the business page, what is likely to get better results: having an ad on the feed or using the right hand column?

Also, what size is usually the best to go with?

Lastly, is it worth doing Twitter ads as well or just sticking with facebook and AMS ads and promoting my books on my Twitter myself?
 

cool pop

It's Cool, Miss Pop if You're Nasty
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
660
Reaction score
131
Location
Texas
Your author page and business page is the same. Do you mean your profile? You can't run ads through your main profile page so you'd run it through your author/business page. When I did FB ads, I tried both boosted posts and the regular ads. Saw no big difference. If an ad was going to work it worked either way, if not then it didn't work no matter what size you picked. I found sizes didn't matter either.

I don't do FB ads anymore. Stopped a year ago. They didn't work well for me. I never got clicks on the other retailers outside Amazon and I need something that focuses on all stores. Never used Twitter ads but haven't heard good things from them.

I use Bookbub click ads. You can set up ads easily, they don't need approval, you can pick certain retailers to target those readers and you don't have to go through all that extra targeting and stuff you do on FB. Bookbub ads are easy to put together but might have a learning curve. It's best to test any ad before running it.

I do Amazon ads but only a few and I keep a tight budget. You can also promote to Amazon from Bookbub ads. If you do look into Bookbub ads I suggest you get David Gaughran's Bookbub Ads book to save you any trouble. It's a great resource and helped me get my ads to do better.

Did you join the Wide for the Win group on FB? That's a great resource for wide authors.
 
Last edited:

LJD

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
4,226
Reaction score
525
tbh, I've never heard of an author using Twitter ads.

I've been experimenting a bit with FB ads but have yet to really get them to work for me, and you can spend a lot of money playing around with FB ads.

I use AMS ads and I've come out ahead there...but it's not like it's made a huge impact on my sales.

You also have to keep in mind that many authors are willing to accept a loss on the book they're advertising, or they advertise free books...with the assumption that they will make it back on read-through, ie, readers then buying their other books, especially in the same series.

So if you have no backlist yet, it can be hard to really make some ads worthwhile.
 

cool pop

It's Cool, Miss Pop if You're Nasty
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
660
Reaction score
131
Location
Texas
tbh, I've never heard of an author using Twitter ads.

I've been experimenting a bit with FB ads but have yet to really get them to work for me, and you can spend a lot of money playing around with FB ads.

I use AMS ads and I've come out ahead there...but it's not like it's made a huge impact on my sales.

You also have to keep in mind that many authors are willing to accept a loss on the book they're advertising, or they advertise free books...with the assumption that they will make it back on read-through, ie, readers then buying their other books, especially in the same series.

So if you have no backlist yet, it can be hard to really make some ads worthwhile.

Great point! Only so much you can do until you got at least three books. In self-publishing the back list is the ticket. And yes, I agree that ROI comes in different forms not just immediate sales. For wide authors especially, it's about brand building first and having a long term strategy.