As soon as your fan page gets to 50 likes, Facebook will email you a coupon code offering you the start up funds to create an ad campaign. The first two I received I more or less blew them off. I got busy and forgot about them until they expired. This time, I made the effort to create the ad and I couldn't be happier.Since the second book in my Now and Forever series is due to be released next month, I've been looking for additional ways to promote book one and get people prepared for book two. I decided to make an ad promoting my Tammy Dennings Maggy author page. That is one area where I discuss the Now and Forever series and have my blog and twitter accounts linked to post there automatically as well. Since I started the ad on 9/29/12, the number of folks who've visited my page has gone from 115 to 22,703. That's right. From less than 150 people to over 22,000. Twenty-two new visitors "liked" my page and sales of my books on Amazon have started to climb again. The number of sales I received have outnumbered the clicks by over 2 to 1. Whoohoo!
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Part of the set up process helps you pick what kind of audience you wish to see the ad. I set up the usual for me: romance, erotic romance writers and readers, over 18 years old, etc. I also chose target countries of the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. Just these parameters alone set my target audience at over 1.3 million. Whew!
Now based on that, Facebook gives you a range of what they think you should bid on your ad space. The bid helps you get up further in the ad space line. The more you bid the higher you will be on the list. For me, I chose to be charged each time someone clicks on any part of the ad. There is a "like" button there in the ad, so they can just click that or the link in it to take it directly to my page. Now remember what I told you before? I got twice as many sales as I did clicks on the ad AND I got more likes for my author fan page. Exposure baby!
Initially, the suggested bid for me was between $0.80 and $1.40. Yeah, no! I set mine at a quarter a click. I got a few clicks with that so I raised my bid a few days later to $0.40. Again I got a nice spike in the number of views. I jumped to $0.65 a two days ago and this is where I plan to stay. Even though it's less than the suggested amount, I've achieved my goal. I've extended my reach in one more area and have not spent $14 yet of my $50 budget. My ad will run through 10/29 and at that time I think I will put up another one focusing on the new release. The timing couldn't be any better!
So if you've been thinking about trying out a Facebook ad for yourself, go ahead and do it! You don't have to have an unlimited budget. You can use the ads on Facebook to your advantage and not break your pocketbook, especially when they start you off with $50. Click HERE to take you to the help page for Creating an Ad or Sponsored Story. You won't regret it!
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This is really a Wow! learning moment for me. I did exactly what you did - just blew them off. But I never went back to look because I assumed it was too expensive and the payout wouldn't be worth it. But you've changed my mind. I have three more books coming out between now and Christmas. I plan on trying a fb ad.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to add a second one next month and focus on the new release. Now that I have seen the amount of visibility the ads get, I'm going for it with the links to my book's purchase page.
ReplyDeleteThe latest Facebook page report showed that my author Tammy Dennings Maggy author page visit numbers/visibility numbers have gone up by over 400% in the last week. People are seeing the ad and clicking on it to visit the page. They may not click like each time, but they are looking at it and checking out my other fan pages too.