Friday 12 August 2011

The Results of my Foray into Facebook Ads...

This time last week I set up a facebook ad for my short story collection 'Where the Dead Live'. I wanted to test out how well the ad worked before bothering to consider using ads as part of my promotion for 'Alone' when it is relaunched (and I'll be done with edits today, hurrah!).

So, I only wanted to spend a small amount of money as this was more of a tester than anything else. The way facebook ads work, you're basically paying for each time a person clicks through to your facebook page via the ad. You can choose the limit on how much you want to spend each day and once the money has been used up, the ad is withdrawn until the next day. You also decide how long you want the campaign to run for. I went for eight days at £3 a day, which totalled in a £24 spend.

The Results!!!!

Initially, I saw a definite jump in sales. I went from selling one or two books on Amazon a week to selling seven in the first four days. However, after that sales dropped off again. The main thing I noticed was a definite increase in the number of 'likes' I had on my page. I went from 221 likes to 256 in a week, an increase of 35 likes which I was really pleased with. Normally, I'll add a couple of 'likes' to the page in a week so this was a huge jump.

My Conclusion...

Because of the initial jump in sales, followed by the tail off, I've decided for my 'Alone' facebook ad campaign, I'm going to spend more money over a shorter period of time. I've decided to spend £10 a day over three days to try to give the book a good boost as a 'new' release. Getting a book up those sales charts early on really helps because it makes the book more visible to those who otherwise might not have stumbled across it. I'm also going to focus the ad on people with precise interests in vampires/vampire romances/etc. Dare I say it, I'm even going to aim the book at Twilight fans and also fans of The Vampire Diaries.

So I'll definitely use facebook ads again. They turned out to be a relatively cheap and VERY easy way of advertising. I will be using it in the future as well as for my 'Alone' campaign. I don't think its the be-all and end-all but I think used in combination with blog tours etc. it certainly doesn't do any harm!

Oh, and here is a link to my facebook page should any of you want to check it out. I hope my results prove useful to all you other authors trying to find ways to promote. I know its a long, hard slog!

12 comments:

  1. Oooh very interesting, something I will keep in mind for myself. Thanks!

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  2. You're welcome, GLH! Hope it comes in useful...

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  3. Thanks Marissa - really valuable. Good luck with the relaunch of Alone.

    Scuttling off to download Where The Dead Live now - I have some collections planned too!

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  4. Thanks for sharing this information! Sounds like it is worth a shot. Maybe you'll teach those Twilight-heads, too! :p

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  5. Thanks so much, Lily! You'll find the story I wrote for your FFF included. Glad the post was helpful!

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  6. Lol. Thanks Rebecca! Don't you ever sleep??? Yeah, this one might give the Twilight crowd a shock (violence, sex and vampires who kill -- who'da thought it!) but what the hell!

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  7. Great info! Thanks for sharing it with us. I need to try it out too!

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  8. Good information on this, Marissa. Good luck on the relaunch. And yeah, definitely go after the Twilighters--what do you have to loose and they need something to read, now, don't they? (That is, after they've read my book LOL)

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  9. Well done! I'm thrilled to see someone else taking the plunge with the ads. You did a good test run and I hope it pays off for you with Alone.

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  10. Thanks for the tip! I've wondered how those ads worked. I'll definitely be trying it when I have items released.

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  11. Thanks for all your comments, ladies (where the heck are all the men???). Hopefully my experience will make things a little less daunting!

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  12. A man has arrived! This might be good for "Satan's Toybox:Demonic Dolls." Thanks for the great information, Marissa. I will check out your Facebook page as well. We have to use all the tricks, don't we?

    Blaze

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