Advertising Your Book is a Necessity ~ Part Two: Ads

Now that you've collected all your ARC (advance reader copy) readers and a good number of reviews (fingers crossed!) on publication day, there's no time to waste. 

Remember that a book's success depends on steady, consistent sales. And now that you've got social proof in the form of reviews, it'll be much easier, theoretically, to find success with paid ads.

Anecdotal reports tout Meta (Facebook) ads over Amazon's in terms of sales. That may seem counterintuitive, since Amazon is the world's largest book seller, but an Amazon ad is competing with every book on the site, whereas with Facebook, your ad is competing with Grandma's pot roast recipe...or whatever it is that people post about there. 

I've tried both, and all I can relay is that I did get more clicks on my Meta ad. That's the sum total of my knowledge. In order to do either of these the right way requires study. Don't go into it blind, because there are so many fields to complete that will trip you up, and you won't even know it. Check YouTube for video tutorials. David Gaughran has some, and I'm sure there are countless others. 

The only advice I offer is:

1. Start with a small spend per day.

The "experts" all advise using A/B testing, meaning trying two different ads at once to measure which one produces the best results. My budget never allowed for that. What I would say is, whichever way you go, don't be afraid to stop a campaign is it's not performing. There's no sense continuing to spend on an ad that's not working.

2. Use targeting.

Whether it's targeting specific readers or keywords (preferably both), you don't need your ad showing to people who are absolutely not interested (e.g., a romance novel appearing in male users' feeds). That's just a waste of your money.

I'm far more comfortable talking about newsletter promos, because I've tried virtually all of them. For the most part, newsletter promos have built-in targeting without the confusion and uncertainty of setting up targeting on your own. 

If you haven't used promo services before, know that you choose your genre when you purchase a placement, so your promotion will be seen by subscribers who have explicitly stated their genre preference(s). This is good, because readers nowadays are extremely picky about what they read and don't read. You don't want your romance novel presented to sci fi fans; they'd never even consider buying it.  

I won't say that you get what you pay for—some sites are expensive, yet produce lackluster results. If you find a site that specializes in your genre, great! I would definitely go with that. There are some genre-specific promotion sites, such as Book Barbarian for sci fi and fantasy, and Red Feather Romance, obviously for romance. But most have "all" genres (although women's fiction seems to be the ugly stepchild for some).

You're paying for a one-day newsletter placement, which is enough. Don't purchase a promo to run consecutive days, because the same people will be seeing your book day after day, and if they didn't choose it the first time, they're unlikely to ever buy it. Too, a one-day appearance can really be looked at as two days, since not everyone opens their email messages promptly.

How much can you expect to pay? Generally, from $10.00 to $45.00. I've never gotten any purchases from my $10.00 promotions. I get that those are tempting because of the small cost, but they simply don't have the reader base needed to drive sales.You'll have better luck with the most well-known sites, such as Bargain Booksy and The Fussy Librarian. (The Fussy Librarian is surprisingly inexpensive.) 

This brings me to BookBub. BookBub was once considered the top-tier book promotion site, but something or a lot of things have happened to change that. I'm not talking about its featured deals, which, should your book be chosen, are wildly expensive. As an example, if my women's fiction novel was chosen, I would pay between $1,027 and $3,901, depending on my book's price and the region I choose (in this instance, US only). It's important to know that if your book is exclusive to Amazon, you have no chance of it being chosen. Wide distribution prevails.

So, let's talk about BookBub ads. With a BookBub ad, you set your own spending limit. I've personally never gone above $40.00, since I have a very small marketing budget. In order to maximize your ad, you'll need to work on your targeting. David Gaughran emphasizes that author targeting is key. Find mid-list authors in your genre to target, not highly successful or puny ones. Mid-list authors ostensibly have a more dedicated reader base, plus if you choose big name authors, you'll be wasting ad impressions (ads will be heavily delivered to those big-name fans, thus depleting your budget quickly).

You also want to target the usual: age, gender, geographic region (you can choose one country or as many as you like), retailer(s) so your ad isn't wasted on stores that don't carry your book.

This brings us to the ad copy itself. My feeling is that BookBub sells ads to indie authors simply to bring in more revenue. It features traditionally published books in all their glory—blurbs, reviews, buy links for each retailer; and reserves one spot at the very end of its newsletter for one indie book. That ad copy has room for a cover image, a four-to-five-word pitch and generally a spot for price. That's it. Could anything scream "self-published" louder than an amateurish ad next to a traditional publisher's ad? It's practically self-defeating. And your bid will have to surpass other authors bidding for that lone spot.

I'm certainly not telling you not to do it. Your ad could be wildly successful. I'm just pointing out the pitfalls. 

So, choose your poison marketing strategy. If you're shooting for steady, consistent sales, as you should, stack your promos. Don't buy one promo one week, then another three weeks later. Whatever momentum you gain will quickly dissipate that way. Budget wisely.

I've been asked many times which sites work and which ones don't. This is my real-world experience, but I hardly speak for genres other than my own. Some genres are easy sells, some not so much.

If I was flush with cash, I'd probably focus on Facebook ads. Go where the readers are. But it's certainly not the only game in town. 

If you have questions about any of the sites I haven't mentioned, feel free to ask. I'm happy to share my experiences.