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Jennifer bought a Facebook ad…
Rebel Ink Press just rereleased my first book, A Heart of
Little Faith. It was previously published by Whiskey Creek Press, but that
press was bought out and I got my rights back to my books. On November 10, A Heart
of Little Faith was released with more editing (thank goodness) and a new
cover.
Unfortunately, the rerelease occurred at a time when I had
no spare moments to do any publicity. I was in the homestretch of organizing a
fundraising auction and I hadn’t cooked, seen my kids, or slept in weeks.
Publicizing a book? Not happening.
Last month, when I went to the writer’s conference, I
attended a workshop about social media, and one of the things discussed was
using ads on Facebook. For a minimal fee, you can tailor who sees your ads and
how long you want them to run. You pay per click on whatever website you
connect it to and you watch your results in real time. So, I decided to try it.
I used my book cover, created two tag lines, linked it to
the Amazon page and spent $5 per day for 5 days. I targeted romance readers and
decided even if it failed miserably, I was only out $25.
Here’s what happened: According to Facebook, in 5 days, I
received 18 clicks on the Amazon page for a total of $24.96 spent. I’m not sure
if any of those clicks resulted in sales yet. However, what was unexpected was
my associated Facebook author page skyrocketed to reaching more than 2000
people (at one time I think it was at 2400). On a normal week, I reach 200
people max.
My conclusion is that the $25 increased my exposure. Whether
that translates into sales, who knows? But I might try it again for a few other
announcements I have coming up.
I've never done a Facebook ad, but I've wanted to give it a try.Thanks for telling us about your experience with it! I hope it did bring you some sales. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Chrys, I just looked and I have sales that correspond to the days the ad ran, so I think it did.
DeleteThanks for that great post, Jennifer - I often wondered about those ads!
ReplyDeleteDepending on what you need, they might be worth trying, Rosemary.
DeleteThink you've just done a good ad for Facebook ads, Jen :-)
ReplyDeleteHa ha, Paula.
DeleteThis is very good news. Some authors I follow swear by FB ads. I'm glad it is working for you!
ReplyDeleteIt was an easy way to try it. I might have to experiment a bit more, though.
DeleteI'm going to keep this in the back of my mind. With my last book I literally did zero promotion...kind of like a little experiment. I have yet to analyze sales figures to see if I hurt my sales or if the lack of promotion made no difference.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking, though, that with the next one I'll need to step it up and at least do something. I'm not sure about a blog tour, but a Facebook ad I could probably handle! :)
It was very easy, although a little stressful as the ticker with the number of clicks and the amount of money you're spending is right on the home page--it's like watching water boil.
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