# Facebook Ads and How to Use Them Effectively.



## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Hi guys. 
So I'm reading an article about how to go from making a five figure income to making a ridiculous income per month, I mean six figures per month... Okay, the article just says "increase" but geeze, the results they were showing are crazy... And it reminded me of the post someone here made on a recent thread about how she'd moved from "lower figure" to "HIGH FIGURE" by using Facebook ads. (I can't remember which thread, but I helped her figure out how to post images...) The article in question was ALSO talking about Facebook ads and how that was the thing that made the huge difference.

SO TLR What about those Facebook ads? How do you leverage them to sell your book?
The article in question linked this guy's site and said that you could learn it all from his free blog stuff, but he has a LOT of stuff on his blog and I have no idea where to even start. Any advice or thoughts or discussion would be cool.


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

I started using these ads a few weeks ago for mailing list sign-ups.  I haven't tried for paid sales yet, but when I do, I'll probably promote a box set.  I heard somewhere that box sets are what have the potential to do well there.  

I average maybe 15 new subscribers per day on $5.  Some days, I have more.  Facebook also gives you a relevance score, and the higher it is, the cheaper your ad will be.  

I target people who are fans of popular YA authors or book series, since I write YA.  I also offer a starter library, which includes the first book of each of my series, in exchange for signing up.


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## Katherine Stark (Jul 30, 2015)

Hi Shei, I've been toying with FB ads myself today. I signed up for Mark Dawson's mailing list on how to use them and watched the free videos for tips on targeting, wording, etc. I haven't had any crazy results yet but I only have the one book to market so far. I'd suggest starting with his videos and working up from there!


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## No longer seen (Aug 17, 2013)

I originally posted that link.

Mike does not go into great detail about how to run Facebook ads,  but if 
you read the post carefully, you  can pick up a few clues.

He says he writes only in series because he doesn't know how to sell standalone books.

He also says he gave away a million free books in 2014, and paid for most of them.

To me, that's saying most or all of his Facebook ads gave away the first, permafree,
books of his series.

He then relies on series sell-through to sell subsequent books. And of course, built 
up his email list so he could market future books upon release.

Therefore, he invested money into Facebook ads long before he turned a profit.

He could afford to do that because he does have a day business that brings in
cash.

Mark Dawson sells the course on Facebook ads for writers. Somewhere, I've heard
or read him say he could not make a profit on novels priced the usual $2.99 or 
$3.99, but he could on higher priced collections.

Somewhere else, I know I read of another author who said she could not make 
a profit selling a $2.99 book thru Facebook, but by promoting a free  book she
built her list. Which paid off upon release of future books.

Therefore, manage your cash flow. Don't expect instant profits to pay the bills.
A large mailing list can be very valuable, but it's an investment.

"Just write the next book is the best marketing" is not always the best advice, but it's essential when 
you're just beginning.  To see an immediate profit you must have at least one book of a series
in permafree status and then the second available for customers to buy.

The more books you have for customers to buy, the more valuable each customer is to 
you, and the more you can afford to spend on Facebook to find them.

If you can afford to start building your email list by selling books on Facebook
or anywhere else (at a loss, but hey, somebody will buy), that's not a bad thing. But don't 
spend the rent money on it.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Sign up for Mark Dawson's free videos, that's the place to start. Nick Stephenson also does some stuff with FB ads. Whatever you do, you want to try to gather author-specific information not general FB advertising. My short summary of it is that it can take a fair amount of time and trial and error to find the right combination and it's something you have to monitor every day and adjust regularly. It also works best with books over $4.99, like a Boxed set. You really have to be willing to learn the nuts and bolts and develop a set of skills that few of us have naturally. The videos help a lot in that regard.

Having said that, I only began playing around with FB ads in June. I spent about $100 total with different targeting and different ads - I was very cautious on the spend. It can be difficult to evaluate the results of an ad with complete accuracy (this topic alone could take pages) but basically for that first hundred dollars, I probably only made $40 in royalties plus whatever page reads in KU I decide to attribute to the ads (very hard to say). So I lost money, but not that much - this is expected as you're starting out. Then last week I finally had an ad break through. I spent $15 for 11 sales of a $3.99 book so I made back almost double what I spent. I would have increased my spend from $3 a day to $5 a day after that, but this week I have a 99 cent promo on the book for three days, so I have dialed the ad back temporarily since it's impossible to make money with as 99 cent book via FB ads.

All this is to say that most huge FB ad successes likely begin with small successes like mine last week and also begin with some cost trying to find something that works. But if you find a $3 daily ad that works and then it scales successfully to $5, $10, $20, $50, suddenly your ad could be netting you real money.


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Sign up for Mark Dawson's free videos, that's the place to start. Nick Stephenson also does some stuff with FB ads. Whatever you do, you want to try to gather author-specific information not general FB advertising. My short summary of it is that it can take a fair amount of time and trial and error to find the right combination and it's something you have to monitor every day and adjust regularly. It also works best with books over $4.99, like a Boxed set. You really have to be willing to learn the nuts and bolts and develop a set of skills that few of us have naturally. The videos help a lot in that regard.
> 
> Having said that, I only began playing around with FB ads in June. I spent about $100 total with different targeting and different ads - I was very cautious on the spend. It can be difficult to evaluate the results of an ad with complete accuracy (this topic alone could take pages) but basically for that first hundred dollars, I probably only made $40 in royalties plus whatever page reads in KU I decide to attribute to the ads (very hard to say). So I lost money, but not that much - this is expected as you're starting out. Then last week I finally had an ad break through. I spent $15 for 11 sales of a $3.99 book so I made back almost double what I spent. I would have increased my spend from $3 a day to $5 a day after that, but this week I have a 99 cent promo on the book for three days, so I have dialed the ad back temporarily since it's impossible to make money with as 99 cent book via FB ads.
> 
> All this is to say that most huge FB ad successes likely begin with small successes like mine last week and also begin with some cost trying to find something that works. But if you find a $3 daily ad that works and then it scales successfully to $5, $10, $20, $50, suddenly your ad could be netting you real money.


This is really interesting. Thank you for taking the time to post this info. I watched Mark Dawson's videos on how to leverage FB ads to build a mailing list, and I'd love to find some resources that went into detail about selling a book just so I can compare the two.


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## Guest (Aug 12, 2015)

I've just started experimenting with FB ads as well, and here's the good thing about the learning curve: we can set the daily allotment to just $1/day as we try to figure out what's going to work and what isn't. That way, we won't spend a fortune on something that isn't going to produce results. 

That being said, at only $1/day, one shouldn't expect great results. The ad simply isn't going to reach a lot of people, but you can still get an idea of its effectiveness that way. 

The last ad I ran had too broad an audience. I'm trying a different ad set with a more specific audience now.


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

These are all great responses! I'm going to read back over it again carefully to absorb it all. 

Does anyone want to share examples of the kind of ad they're pushing with Facebook? Like what image or such you're using? 

I know making the right kind of visual element is one of the big thing.


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Here's one of my very successful ads

https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

I did some experimenting, and found out how important it is to split test.  I tested two different pictures for the ad...one sold about six times as many.  I tested an audience that Facebook suggested, based on my page - supposedly a similar audience to my fans - versus, an audience that I created myself by targeting specific authors.  The audience that I created for myself sold waaaay better.

The book that I sold was 99 cents and that was what I was advertising - 99 Cents For A Limited Time.  

I think with every campaign, it's smart to start out small, like say with a $5 or $10 budget, and test two things against each other - see which headline works better. See which picture works better.  See which audience works better.

Then when you find the most popular combination, that's when it makes sense to scale up if you can afford to.


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## MYLL (Aug 11, 2015)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


You can use affiliate links for facebook ads??


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


Thanks thewitt, appreciate the example. Did you do any fb ads when you had just one book or did you start with a book further down the series ?


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## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

Richard Stooker said:


> He says he writes only in series because he doesn't know how to sell standalone books.
> 
> He also says he gave away a million free books in 2014, and paid for most of them.
> 
> ...


Interesting. I had heard that Mark Dawson's facebook strategies worked best on higher priced books, and I wondered if anyone had success advertising permafree book 1 of a series. Seems that those who picked up free books from facebook ads mightn't be as saturated with free books as those who sign up to free/cheap book sites thus might be more likely to read, and more likely to pick up the later books in a series.


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## AuthorX (Nov 11, 2014)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


Since these are ads for paid books going to Amazon, how did you judge your success? Did you just see a direct uptick in sales once you launched the ad or were you using a different metric to determine that it was very successful?


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

MYLL said:


> You can use affiliate links for facebook ads??


It is against the TOS to use affiliate links anywhere except on a page that you control...


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Adair Hart said:


> Thanks thewitt, appreciate the example. Did you do any fb ads when you had just one book or did you start with a book further down the series ?


I have done single book ads, free giveaways, boxed set, but this carousel ad continues to be my best overall. I have several flavor of this one running in different countries with different target audiences.


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## Guest (Aug 13, 2015)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


I have a carousel ad running but I can't get that much text above my ads. I'm limited to 90 characters. How did you get so much text above your images??


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

mshistory said:


> I have a carousel ad running but I can't get that much text above my ads. I'm limited to 90 characters. How did you get so much text above your images??


Make sure you only edit in the Power Editor. Always download before you start, but don't edit in the Ad Manager.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

I'm hopeless. I signed up for and studied Mark Dawson's videos and ran a $5/day campaign, which somehow managed to jump up to a CPC of 78 cents in three days. Even Facebook was like "dude, your cost per click is way too high, you should do something about that" -- and having no clue how to change that, I just ended the campaign.

Maybe I'll try again someday after I read the crap out of everything out there on FB ads. Or maybe I will just remain very far from rich...


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## Guest (Aug 13, 2015)

thewitt said:


> Make sure you only edit in the Power Editor. Always download before you start, but don't edit in the Ad Manager.


Thanks  Wow, I don't have a web browser that supports Power Editor. Talk about starting from scratch  I'm going to start experimenting with it though as soon as I get Google Chrome running. Appreciate it!


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## Melody Simmons (Jul 8, 2012)

I am highly suspicious of FB ads. I did a paid FB ad promo for my website. They charge you after the campaign and let you know how many clicks your ad had.  However, my website stats that show how many clicks come into my site and where they come from did not nearly match the number of clicks FB claimed I had. 

In addition I read that FB employs people to do clicks for them...don't know if that is true but honestly I did not gain any new followers or customers from the campaign.

Maybe authors have more success with book ads.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

The clicks coming from Facebook to the page that I advertise only on Facebook (and is not accessible through other ways on my website) are actually higher than the clicks Facebook reports.

As for the click farms, yes, but that's easily circumventable by selecting countries and by being very specific in your targeting. You never, ever, advertise for Likes on any page. Those likes you get are rubbish.


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## countwordsmith (Aug 13, 2015)

I suspect the likes as well. I advertised a while ago and ended with 10k likes, but most of those people seemed to have nothing to do with my genre or books for that matter. Then I discovered FB claimed I liked a lot of people I know I never did. So I began to wonder how many of my 10k likes clicked the button themselves.

My FB ad for my box set failed. I spent $35.00 to get 6 buys. I have no idea how to do better. I turned off the ad because I didn't want to throw more good money down the drain.


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Melody Simmons said:


> I am highly suspicious of FB ads. I did a paid FB ad promo for my website. They charge you after the campaign and let you know how many clicks your ad had. However, my website stats that show how many clicks come into my site and where they come from did not nearly match the number of clicks FB claimed I had.
> 
> In addition I read that FB employs people to do clicks for them...don't know if that is true but honestly I did not gain any new followers or customers from the campaign.
> 
> Maybe authors have more success with book ads.


Did you notify facebook of this? What was their response?


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Melody Simmons said:


> I am highly suspicious of FB ads. I did a paid FB ad promo for my website. They charge you after the campaign and let you know how many clicks your ad had. However, my website stats that show how many clicks come into my site and where they come from did not nearly match the number of clicks FB claimed I had.
> 
> In addition I read that FB employs people to do clicks for them...don't know if that is true but honestly I did not gain any new followers or customers from the campaign.
> 
> Maybe authors have more success with book ads.


They only charge you at the end of the month. And you can watch your CPC as your campaign is running. I don't know how you only saw them after the fact.
And no, they do not employ people to click for them. That's a fact. I would have alot more clicks on my ads if that were true.


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## MYLL (Aug 11, 2015)

thewitt said:


> It is against the TOS to use affiliate links anywhere except on a page that you control...


Then how can your amazon links be affiliate links on your facebook ads? Isn't it controlled by facebook?


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

MYLL said:


> Then how can your amazon links be affiliate links on your facebook ads? Isn't it controlled by facebook?


You have a page on your own website that uses a redirect.

Facebook ad>your own page>Amazon sales page


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## Bob Stewart (Mar 19, 2014)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


I like your ad! But why is it those images aren't in violation of the no-more-than-20%-text rule? They've turned down my images with much smaller ratios.


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Bob Stewart said:


> I like your ad! But why is it those images aren't in violation of the no-more-than-20%-text rule? They've turned down my images with much smaller ratios.


Book covers get a free pass. If they deny the ad, appeal it and it'll get approved.


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## bberntson (Oct 24, 2013)

I must just simply jinx myself.  I just spent 50.00 on ads, did the newsletter, not a single subscriber.  Did a few 99 cent ads, and I don't think I got a single sale.  Of course, there's the idea I just don't know what the hell I'm doing.


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## Bob Stewart (Mar 19, 2014)

JalexM said:


> Book covers get a free pass. If they deny the ad, appeal it and it'll get approved.


Jalex,

Thanks! I'll try that...


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Shei Darksbane said:


> These are all great responses! I'm going to read back over it again carefully to absorb it all.
> 
> Does anyone want to share examples of the kind of ad they're pushing with Facebook? Like what image or such you're using?
> 
> I know making the right kind of visual element is one of the big thing.


Here are a couple of mine.


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## Melody Simmons (Jul 8, 2012)

Melody Simmons said:


> I am highly suspicious of FB ads. I did a paid FB ad promo for my website. They charge you after the campaign and let you know how many clicks your ad had. However, my website stats that show how many clicks come into my site and where they come from did not nearly match the number of clicks FB claimed I had.
> 
> In addition I read that FB employs people to do clicks for them...don't know if that is true but honestly I did not gain any new followers or customers from the campaign.
> 
> Maybe authors have more success with book ads.





sstroble said:


> Did you notify facebook of this? What was their response?


No, I just let it go. Learnt my lesson that's all. Searched the internet with terms like "Facebook ads fake clicks" after the fact and discovered many others had similar experiences.


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Melody Simmons said:


> No, I just let it go. Learnt my lesson that's all. Searched the internet with terms like "Facebook ads fake clicks" after the fact and discovered many others had similar experiences.


Thanks, Melody. What is most irritating is that there are those that fb ads did not work at all for and a few who claim huge mega success because of them. Then again, it's the same results for self-publishing as a whole.


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## Guest (Aug 13, 2015)

I'd like to know why I'm seeing my ads on my own newsfeed. If I'm limited to a small number of "reaches" per day, it's counting ME among one of those "people reached," isn't it? Seems kinda sketchy ... 

ETA: OMG. Chatting with ad support person. Getting such BS answers. Starting to rethink FB as ad tool …


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## MYLL (Aug 11, 2015)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> You have a page on your own website that uses a redirect.
> 
> Facebook ad>your own page>Amazon sales page


That is what I thought. However on that link provided on the previous page with the sample ad, it goes directly to Amazon, not to anyone's site to then go to the sales page.


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

It's pretty easy to see the impact of your ads.  Turn them off for a week. Turn them back on.  Turn them off. It is very apparent.  

Even with affiliate links, you don't get a cleans picture. Most of my clicks come from mobile and sakes are much more likely to come from desktop.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

thewitt said:


> It's pretty easy to see the impact of your ads. Turn them off for a week. Turn them back on. Turn them off. It is very apparent.
> 
> Even with affiliate links, you don't get a cleans picture. Most of my clicks come from mobile and sakes are much more likely to come from desktop.


What kind of campaign are running to set up a carousel?


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Which thingy do you choose to start with for that carousel thing??










I'm thinking of boosting a bit for tomorrow's big promo... But I have no idea what I'm doing. :/


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Shei Darksbane said:


> Which thingy do you choose to start with for that carousel thing??
> 
> https://i.gyazo.com/66350c51594149e8c7a5c448e79a3cf8.png[mg]
> 
> ...


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

JalexM said:


> Don't boost! You'll see the carousal when you're actually making the ad. It's going to be hard to build a successful ad over night as it takes time thinkering your ad picture, wording and ad audience.


I figured out where power editor was, but that was basically my question. I had no idea how to START making ads. 
And yeah, I'm going to STARt tinkering with it tonight when the book finishes publishing and I have a link to share. :3
Found the carousel in power editor. woot.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


That is a great ad. Can I ask how much it costs? I have tried Facebook and Google Adwords in the past, but I find the whole bidding business far too complicated.


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2015)

Doglover said:


> That is a great ad. Can I ask how much it costs? I have tried Facebook and Google Adwords in the past, but I find the whole bidding business far too complicated.


I know this wasn't directed to me, but you don't have to do bidding with Facebook ads. Even with the carousel ads and using Power Editor, you can still set a fixed amount. I set a "lifetime" budget over the course of a matter of days. I never choose the bidding option.

I don't use Google Adwords because of the bidding thing - I want to know exactly what I'm spending upfront. Plus, I haven't heard such great things about them on here, but if someone has different results, I'm sure we'd all love to hear about them


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Okay, now I have my ad set up in Power Editor but I have NO idea how to build an audience. All three of the options it gives me seem like not the thing I need. 
How do I build an audience based off of interests and behavior like in the "boost post" setup?


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2015)

Shei Darksbane said:


> Okay, now I have my ad set up in Power Editor but I have NO idea how to build an audience. All three of the options it gives me seem like not the thing I need.
> How do I build an audience based off of interests and behavior like in the "boost post" setup?


Best way to target your audience is by choosing specific authors that are similar to your style. You mentioned before that your book was compared to Laurell K. Hamilton, so go to the interest bar, type in her name, it'll come up, just click on it and it'll add that to your list of interests. I wouldn't use something generic like "fiction" because 350,000,000 like fiction and the vast majority of them don't read the particular kind of fiction you want to target.

Choose a few authors best suited for your genre, and start there. (That's what I'm trying out anyway). Others may have ideas that work for them &#8230; I'm new at this, too.


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

mshistory said:


> Best way to target your audience is by choosing specific authors that are similar to your style. You mentioned before that your book was compared to Laurell K. Hamilton, so go to the interest bar, type in her name, it'll come up, just click on it and it'll add that to your list of interests. I wouldn't use something generic like "fiction" because 350,000,000 like fiction and the vast majority of them don't read the particular kind of fiction you want to target.
> 
> Choose a few authors best suited for your genre, and start there. (That's what I'm trying out anyway). Others may have ideas that work for them ... I'm new at this, too.


This were the tinkering happens. It took me ten different authors to find the ones that worked for me. That's why I said it'll take more than a night to see if the audiences works best for you. I generally run an ad for three days before I pull it, if it's not performing.


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

mshistory said:


> Best way to target your audience is by choosing specific authors that are similar to your style. You mentioned before that your book was compared to Laurell K. Hamilton, so go to the interest bar, type in her name, it'll come up, just click on it and it'll add that to your list of interests. I wouldn't use something generic like "fiction" because 350,000,000 like fiction and the vast majority of them don't read the particular kind of fiction you want to target.
> 
> Choose a few authors best suited for your genre, and start there. (That's what I'm trying out anyway). Others may have ideas that work for them ... I'm new at this, too.


Another author compared me to her, but I'd probably go more toward comparing it to a few others. 
Then, I've never read Laurell K. Hamilton so who knows.

I meant more, I literally don't know how to access this option. When I click Audiences, it brings up three options and none of them are interests.


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

This








I have no idea how to access the interests option. :/


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## Mark Dawson (Mar 24, 2012)

Shel - without being too shamelessly self referential, the free vids I put together at selfpublishingformula.com will walk you through all of that.


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Mark Dawson said:


> Shel - without being too shamelessly self referential, the free vids I put together at selfpublishingformula.com will walk you through all of that.


Mr. Dawson, you can be as shamelessly self-referential as you want when you're offering me a valuable guide for free! Geeze! Thank you sir!
I'll go check those out! ^^


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## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

After a reasonable amount of success boosting a post a couple of months ago, I decided to stake some cash on Facebook advertising. So far I've reached 394 people at a cost of £0.24 and had 2 clicks through to Something Nicer.

Fine-tuning...


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## Eric Z (Apr 28, 2015)

I got 5 subscribers per day for 5$ running this ad:









Made it in about 1 minute with canva.com

I used all of Mike Shreeve's tips from this podcast:
http://www.zbooks.co/2015/08/zbooks-dives-deep-with-mike-shreeve.html

BUT I did not run the ad directly to my -zon page, instead to a book page www.befreud.com - going for sign ups, not downloads as Mark Dawson and Nick Stephenson recommend.

The facebook ads for authors video course on that page is dirt cheap!

Brgs
Eric


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Eric Z said:


> I got 5 subscribers per day for 5$ running this ad:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You get what you pay for, I suppose. I can only afford $5 a day on my Facebook ad that I run to attract subscribers and I am getting between 5 and 7 per day, sometimes more. I am giving away three books, one of them exclusive, so I am pleased.

Isn't Mike Shreeve the one who says he employs ghost writers to do all the work while he just thinks up the plot?


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## Eric Z (Apr 28, 2015)

Doglover said:


> You get what you pay for, I suppose. I can only afford $5 a day on my Facebook ad that I run to attract subscribers and I am getting between 5 and 7 per day, sometimes more. I am giving away three books, one of them exclusive, so I am pleased.
> 
> Isn't Mike Shreeve the one who says he employs ghost writers to do all the work while he just thinks up the plot?


Ah, so similar results!
No, at least Mike doesn't do that anymore. He said he did do it in the past but got away from it. He writes 10,000 words a day now.
It's all in his blog mikeshreeve.com , basically he didn't like losing the control and the quality involved with ghostwriters. Also there is a lot of re-work when you hire a ghost writer and if you have to re-work everything - why not write it yourself, -almost- the same amount of time.

BUT you know who does outsource everything? -- Patterson! The Warren Buffet of writing! LoL


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Eric Z said:


> Ah, so similar results!
> No, at least Mike doesn't do that anymore. He said he did do it in the past but got away from it. He writes 10,000 words a day now.
> It's all in his blog mikeshreeve.com , basically he didn't like losing the control and the quality involved with ghostwriters. Also there is a lot of re-work when you hire a ghost writer and if you have to re-work everything - why not write it yourself, -almost- the same amount of time.
> 
> BUT you know who does outsource everything? -- Patterson! The Warren Buffet of writing! LoL


Jeffrey Archer never wrote a word in his life, so I read. James Patterson is one of those writers that I think I love, then I read another one and change my mind. I loved his Lakehouse books, the ones with the bird children, but don't really go in for detectives like that one of his. I like some detectives, but not all. I've even gone off Stephen King lately, which I never thought I would do.

I don't understand how you can be a ghostwriter, myself. How does anyone in fact stick rigidly to a plot line, especially someone else's plot line? I start with an idea, bring in some characters and see where they take me.


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## juliatheswede (Mar 26, 2014)

After reading the discussion regarding Facebook Ads here, I have to admit I'm not as excited about using them . Based on everyone's responses, it seems it's mostly a crap shoot...


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I boosted a post on my freebie today and so far I've got 253 downloads. That was about 10 hours ago. I'll be trying a carousel ad next Thursday. I'll start setting it up tomorrow. Giving myself plenty of time to figure it out.


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## portlandrocks (Jul 18, 2013)

Hi everyone. I'm Mike (the guy guilty of that hideous post).

I never post here (or anywhere) because forums scare me.

Also, I have PTSD and since the technology doesn't exist (yet) that would allow me to reach through the screen and juijitsu trolls, I bottle that negative energy into not writing the rest of the day.

However...

This is the 3rd time I've seen that abomination of a post floating around Kboards so I thought I'd clear some questions/concerns/excuse myself from creating something so awful and letting it affect others.

*1. That post sucks. *

It sucks because I got lulled into the "make money online selling what you know" scammery known as info marketing. One of my other companies is a copywriting business where I write sales copy for online businesses... most of them info marketing. I saw my clients make bank, and I thought "what the heck, I could help authors get rich too. It's easy!"

That post was written by me to be given away in exchange for emails from authors like you. Some might call it a "lead magnet".

Then I was going to sell a "how to run FB ads" course. Much like other authors have done.

Except then I felt icky about the whole thing and realized I had neither the time nor the interest in actually seeing it all through. I'm too busy actually writing.

So, instead of tossing the words into the toilet of the Interwebs (aka 4Chan) like I should have... I put it up on my blog. That was my first mistake.

Really, it needs to be rewritten. It's a sales piece right now, not a "how to". A whitepaper/presell content piece. It's terrible.

And I'm sorry.

*2. As penance, let me tell you what I am actually doing.*

Because that post tells you nothing.

*How I Sell Books With Facebook (and other stuff you need to know about that post) *

I write only in series.

I used to do heavy/epic/rude cliffhangers. I try not to do that anymore.

I used to write only novellas. I only write novels now.

Sometimes, I summon my inner Nora Roberts and have a centralized cast of characters that each get their own book. Mostly I follow one character through multiple arcs exploring one theme.

I always give book #1 away for free.

Or at least, I used to.

Recently, I've been playing with doing ALL paid books only. The new KU means you can run Facebook ads to people who are in KU. In other words, you can run ads and get paid to give books away for free.

PLEASE NOTE: The above is not a long term strategy. Other than working your bum off to get better at writing, I'm not sure a long term strategy exists for selling books as a self-pub. I use what works now and worry about tomorrow when it comes. Shortsighted? Yes, but I don't know any other way than focusing on today.

If you don't want to play that game, then give stuff away for free. Or don't. I don't have a dog in this fight either way.

Also, I rely heavily on Website Custom Audiences.

Sometimes I create these using a Top 10 article. I might use a book trailer and video ad combo. I upload my email list and create a WCA from that. Mostly, I pixel readers who sign up to my newsletter and create a look-a-like audience based off that.

I retarget people when I can. It's harder to do when you run direct ads to Amazon, but if you put up an article or pixel your website you can retarget. Retargetting works. Big time.

Most importantly, I don't rely on Facebook only. Anymore. When I wrote that article, I promoting my books almost entirely on Facebook.

Now I use:

+ Youtube ads
+ Twitter ads 
+ Pinterest ads
+ Google remarketing
+ Email drops

It's a lot of stuff. I don't recommend it to authors.

To keep pumping out works, I used to employ ghostwriters. Dumb idea for me. I want to control too much. Also, turns out I actually like writing.

Now I try and write 10,000 words per day. Sometimes I do that 6 days in a row. Sometimes I don't even hit it once in a month.

My strategy is all about volume.

I need more books. I need to give as many of those books away for free as possible. I need to repeat those two things as often as possible. Ads help with the latter two.

I pay out the nose for covers. More than that for editors. Yes, editors with an 's'. I pay proofreaders and beta readers.

It's not sexy. I'm not creating life changing works of fiction. I'm not that good of a writer, but I like to think I'm getting better. I work way too much. I hide behind pen names. Most likely, nobody will remember my name when I die except for my close family and friends.

I'm ok with that.

As mentioned by another Kboarder in this thread, I had capital laying around from my other two companies to get started. That helped speed the process along quite a bit.

I also owned a digital ad agency, then copywriting firm before starting out in selfpublishing. My background is in online marketing. I think that is an unfair/perhaps unrealistic advantage that is worth noting.

Now, on to your comments (because they are way more important than my blabbering on):



DanaG said:


> I did some experimenting, and found out how important it is to split test. I tested two different pictures for the ad...one sold about six times as many. I tested an audience that Facebook suggested, based on my page - supposedly a similar audience to my fans - versus, an audience that I created myself by targeting specific authors. The audience that I created for myself sold waaaay better.


This is everything. Watch Mark Dawson's weekly income reports. He is always testing.

All good marketers test.

Marketing isn't foolproof, but testing is. Numbers can lie all day long until you start testing.

How do you test?

One thing at a time.

Don't test a headline and an image and an audience and a book and a whatever.

Create 5 ads that are completely the same EXCEPT for the headlines. Run them. You'll find your best headline.

Then do that with images. Then with the copy of the ad itself.

But never do it all at the same time.

Test your way to cheap ads. It's easier.



S.W. Vaughn said:


> Maybe I'll try again someday after I read the crap out of everything out there on FB ads. Or maybe I will just remain very far from rich...


Or maybe try something else.

I know (personally) someone who did $650k in sales last year (that includes print and audio) with just email drops.

Email drops = Bookbub, ENT, BKnights etc.

To me marketing has to be fun, otherwise you'll never get it right.



Melody Simmons said:


> I am highly suspicious of FB ads. I did a paid FB ad promo for my website. They charge you after the campaign and let you know how many clicks your ad had. However, my website stats that show how many clicks come into my site and where they come from did not nearly match the number of clicks FB claimed I had.


Clicks and website clicks are two different things. Facebook is finally admitting this and including it in their reporting.



sstroble said:


> Thanks, Melody. What is most irritating is that there are those that fb ads did not work at all for and a few who claim huge mega success because of them. Then again, it's the same results for self-publishing as a whole.


Seems to be true of all worthwhile pursuits.

You should see how much not-abs I have achieved following a certain well known and highly advertised ab workout regime.



mshistory said:


> ETA: OMG. Chatting with ad support person. Getting such BS answers. Starting to rethink FB as ad tool ...


Facebook ad support personel are mislabeled.

They are sales people whose primary job is to get you to spend money. Doesn't mean they are evil or misleading, but it does mean they have an agenda when you pick up that phone.

Also, Facebook is a huge corporation. They feel nothing.

I spent a few hundred thousand dollars last year on ads between 3 online businesses I've got going on. Then one day they shut my ad account down for no reason. Luckily, I didn't put all my eggs into one basket. Also luckily, they gave me my account back (but not until I begged them for almost three weeks with daily emails).

Proceed with caution.



mshistory said:


> Best way to target your audience is by choosing specific authors that are similar to your style.


That's an excellent way to get started.

Here's a more cost effective way:

1. Put a tracking pixel on your email newsletter sign up page
2. Create a website custom audience based off that pixel
3. Create a look-a-like audience based off that WCA
4. Run ads to that look-a-like audience

If you aren't getting enough traffic to your email newsletter sign up page then you can do this instead:

1. Create a book trailer
2. Run the trailer as a video ad
3. Use the website custom audience builder now built into their video ads to build a WCA
4. Create a look-a-like audience based off that custom audience
5. Run your ads to that look-a-like audience

If you don't have enough money to create a good trailer then there are other ways as well. The list is endless really.

But the best bang for your buck is NOT running ads to interests. Run ads to custom audiences that you build yourself.

Interest based ads are a last resort/the most expensive way to go.

WCAs are way better. Way cheaper. Harder to do, but better (like most things).



Doglover said:


> Isn't Mike Shreeve the one who says he employs ghost writers to do all the work while he just thinks up the plot?


Biggest mistake of my life.

Ended up being way more work and drama for worse results.

When I write a book myself, I generate $0.78 per word in revenue (within a yearish).

When I work with ghostwriters I generate $0.34 per word in revenue (within a yearish). Plus I have to pay them. No more.

I know there are incredibly successful authors/publishers who do this well. I am not one of them. I micro-manage too much for it to be cost effective and haven't been able to transfer my ideas well enough for it to be what I want it to be. Probably has more to do with my inexperience as a writer of fiction than the ghostwriting process/talent itself.

I'll (probably) never do it again. Unless I can learn to let go. Not likely.



juliatheswede said:


> After reading the discussion regarding Facebook Ads here, I have to admit I'm not as excited about using them . Based on everyone's responses, it seems it's mostly a crap shoot...


It isn't a crap shoot.

It's a skill that needs to be learned. It tooke me almost 6 years. But I'm pretty slow at most things.

The nice thing is that you don't have to use Facebook ads.

Andy Weir didn't, and let me be the first to say:

I'd rather be Andy Weir.

*** My editor wasn't available to line edit this late Saturday night confessional hence the terrible writing/grammer/everything. I'm lost without her.


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## Mark Dawson (Mar 24, 2012)

This is gold, folks. 

Great post, Mike.


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

I haven't been spending as much time and effort on Facebook ads as I should.

Quick experiment on ad I am running currently - I spent $12 and change to get 6 sales of my 99 cent book today.  Now, this book is doing extremely well on its own, without any advertising, but I figured I'd use it to experiment with.  My CPC is about 16 cents.  I used a custom audience made up of women, aged 24 on up, US English speaking, who like certain authors who are similar to me.  I am not saying I used an Amazon associates link in my ad, and I'm not saying I didn't.  But if I had, it would indicate 6 sales.  And Facebook says about 104 website clicks.

Oh, and - the book is on KU, and I'm getting excellent page reads, and I have no idea how I'd tell if any of those were due to the Facebook ad or not.  So maybe a bunch of people clicked through and got it in KU.  

So, I don't know if that's good or not. It's not profitable, that's for sure.  Now, let's say I were to launch a new series, with a new pen name.  I'd probably throw at least a few hundred bucks into Facebook advertising (with a lot more split testing) so I could boost the book and get some visibility.

But for my existing pen name, I have not yet figured out how to make Facebook ads increase my sales to a significant degree. I'm selling 600 to 800 copies a day when I have a new release and getting 100,000-plus page views per day, and 6 new sales does nothing for me.  I don't regret the spend or the experimenting - it's just not worth scaling up, at this point.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Thanks for the post, Mike (the new one, I mean . Really appreciate your frankness.

This may be a dumb question, or off-topic enough to warrant its own thread, but...if the learning curve on Facebook ads is so steep, isn't this a task that could be delegated to an expert? Like cover design or copyediting? Are there not (non-scammy) services that will put FB ad campaigns together for an author?

My concern is not only the time and effort involved, but the fact I can't have a Facebook account under a pen name. I could start an author page administered by my real name's profile, but I've heard horror stories of Facebook "outing" people and linking their pen name's pages to their real names. Which defeats the purpose of having a pen name, no?

Not to mention the fact I can't enter Facebook without losing an hour of my life to...I don't even know what.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

P2F, too late right now to read the entire thread, off to bed, more work/reading for me tomorrow


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

AveryCockburn said:


> Thanks for the post, Mike (the new one, I mean . Really appreciate your frankness.
> 
> This may be a dumb question, or off-topic enough to warrant its own thread, but...if the learning curve on Facebook ads is so steep, isn't this a task that could be delegated to an expert? Like cover design or copyediting? Are there not (non-scammy) services that will put FB ad campaigns together for an author?
> 
> ...


Anyone who has had success with a particular method is an expert. The problem with wanting them to sell their expertise by doing it for you is, as you have noted, open to scams like everything else. It is time consuming, but well worth the effort to watch Mark's videos, listen to tips from others and do it yourself.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Doglover said:


> Anyone who has had success with a particular method is an expert. The problem with wanting them to sell their expertise by doing it for you is, as you have noted, open to scams like everything else. It is time consuming, but well worth the effort to watch Mark's videos, listen to tips from others and do it yourself.


But as I mentioned, I cannot do it myself because of the pen-name issue. You need to have a Facebook account to do ads, and accounts opened under pen names are against Facebook's ToS. Authors have not only been outed but doxxed over this. It's not a risk I'm willing to take.


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

AveryCockburn said:


> But as I mentioned, I cannot do it myself because of the pen-name issue. You need to have a Facebook account to do ads, and accounts opened under pen names are against Facebook's ToS. Authors have not only been outed but doxxed over this. It's not a risk I'm willing to take.


If you have an account under your real name, you can manage as many pages as you like for your pen names. That is what I do for my pen name. I have run Facebook ads using my pen name.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

DanaG said:


> If you have an account under your real name, you can manage as many pages as you like for your pen names. That is what I do for my pen name. I have run Facebook ads using my pen name.


You're right, it is possible. What I meant to say was that I can't have a Facebook page that's unconnected to my real name's profile. Assuming I never accidentally post to the wrong page/profile (a faulty assumption, as I've done it a dozen times with my real name's author page), there are too many ways others can pull back the curtain, as demonstrated by this article:

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/05/2015/using-author-pen-names-on-facebook-and-getting-locked-out/

So until Facebook changes its policies I'm choosing to stay away, which means I miss out on a lot of reader interactions, not to mention the ads. OTOH, I have more time for writing.


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

I have accidentally outed myself a couple of times on my Facebook page. I fixed it quickly, but one person messaged me asking if my real name was (insert real name here.)

It's no longer a big deal for me, but back when I had a full time job it would have been.

So, yesterday's Facebook ad results - 11 sales if my affiliate link is to be believed, book is 99 cents, cost me $20.  Now - my ad stressed that my book is free on KU, so who knows how many page reads I got from that ad? I have no way of knowing. 

So, if I were to scale up...let's say I'm launching a new pen name.  And let's say I were able to scale up those results. So, $200 would get me 110 sales.  And $400 would get me 220 sales. (Theoretically.) Plus an unknown amount of page reads.  That would get me some quick visibility and maybe get me on some bestseller lists. I think it would be worth it.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

DanaG said:


> I have accidentally outed myself a couple of times on my Facebook page. I fixed it quickly, but one person messaged me asking if my real name was (insert real name here.)
> 
> It's no longer a big deal for me, but back when I had a full time job it would have been.
> 
> ...


Do you put your affiliate link to Amazon on Facebook ads? I thought that was against Amazon Associate's ToC.


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Ahem. Not saying that occasionally I do, not saying I don't. (And, that's yet another reason I don't post under my author name or real name here...) But yes, my understanding is that you can only use the Amazon affiliate link on your website. 

I honestly don't know how else you'd get an accurate idea of whether your Facebook ad is working, though. Clicks on the ad tell me nothing.  If I get a couple hundred website clicks, that doesn't mean that I get a couple hundred website sales.  I wish.  It's more like eight to ten percent of the people who click on the ad go on to buy the book.

One time when I advertised a book that was selling five copies a day, for a few days, while I was running the ad, the number jumped to 10 sales a day.  So when I'm selling very little, I guess it is a little easier to spot an uptick.  But as I recall the extra 5 sales a day cost me about $40 a day, for a $2.99 book, so...I stopped doing it.  And this was a book that had been a bestseller when I released it a couple years earlier, so the problem isn't the book.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Your secret is safe with me, Dana!


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

From what I've heard, if an author gets busted putting their affiliate link where they shouldn't, Amazon just sends them a note telling them not to. If I got such a note, I would certainly stop. 

I wish there were some other way to figure out exactly how many sales a Facebook ad generates, but I don't know of one.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

DanaG said:


> From what I've heard, if an author gets busted putting their affiliate link where they shouldn't, Amazon just sends them a note telling them not to. If I got such a note, I would certainly stop.
> 
> I wish there were some other way to figure out exactly how many sales a Facebook ad generates, but I don't know of one.


Apart from ads for mailing list subscribers, I have only advertised one, a boxed set, and I know it stopped selling when I stopped the advert. But I still get page reads, so perhaps there are some lingering KU subscribers still reading. It is 2000 pages. I stopped it because I want to throw everything into subscribers and I don't have the money for both. I also want to do Mark Dawson new course but he hasn't said how much it will be yet. I wish I could find a nice millionaire to marry.


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## AlexisR (Apr 3, 2015)

portlandrocks said:


> 1. Put a tracking pixel on your email newsletter sign up page
> 2. Create a website custom audience based off that pixel
> 3. Create a look-a-like audience based off that WCA
> 4. Run ads to that look-a-like audience


In case anyone wants to know how exactly to do this, here is a great post on setting these up: http://clairepells.com/website-custom-audiences/


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## dragontucker (Jul 18, 2014)

Twitter, Pin Interest and Youtube ads work for marketing books?


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## Mark Dawson (Mar 24, 2012)

dragontucker said:


> Twitter, Pin Interest and Youtube ads work for marketing books?


Twitter is good for mailing list signups; you can serve Lead Cards where a subscriber can sign up with a tap (no forms). Facebook do that too, of course, but Twitter is automated through integration with MailChimp, etc. Pinterest is interesting, and there are some cool features with YouTube ads that I am very keen to get my teeth into (you don't pay until the user has seen a certain amount of the ad).


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## HN Wake (Feb 24, 2015)

A very big thanks to both Mark and Mike for their ongoing transparency and support to the indie community.  Invaluable.  Truly.  Especially for us newbies.

(PS Mike, at the end of your post I imagined you saying, "boom" and dropping the mic on stage.  Well said, my friend.  Extremely helpful insights.)


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## dragontucker (Jul 18, 2014)

Mark Dawson said:


> Twitter is good for mailing list signups; you can serve Lead Cards where a subscriber can sign up with a tap (no forms). Facebook do that too, of course, but Twitter is automated through integration with MailChimp, etc. Pinterest is interesting, and there are some cool features with YouTube ads that I am very keen to get my teeth into (you don't pay until the user has seen a certain amount of the ad).


Thanks Mark. Have you actually used Twitter to get mailing list signups? I have never heard anyone talk about this. I know you have a Facebook course that everyone talks about. Do you have any course for setting up Twitter ads to build a mailing list? That would be amazing! I would love to get into Twitter advertising if it works


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## Marc Johnson (Feb 25, 2011)

Because of my friend and his new job, I'm able to get free Facebook money for ads. We recently ran one. We have no idea what we're doing and didn't realize that Facebook ads can get super specific. You can literally break down everything. I'm curious to see what worked and what didn't when the month's over. Then either try to tweak it or go after a difference audience.

I'm glad I've found this thread. It's been helpful. Wish, I had seen it before we ran the ad.


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## Eric Z (Apr 28, 2015)

I will show you how to get at least 8 subscribers per day for 5$. 
Refining the Facebook Ads For Authors Crash Course, and you can get the webinar for FREE.
The replay of the webinar is here:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/events/cqgjm489ue8f2g5q3sm6u6185n8

The course is based on my interview with Mike -but- in the webinar I also show you how to do retargeting (a lot of viewers were asking for that):
http://www.zbooks.co/2015/08/zbooks-dives-deep-with-mike-shreeve.html

The biggest takeaways:
1- Canva.com rocks! Great way to make an ad -quick- they even have a template just for facebook ads
2- Make a look alike audience to do all the "profiling" for you - this way you don't have to adjust anything in FB ad manager
3- Make a facebook page just for your book in FB, sponsor your ad with this page (not your profile!) and add all the call to actions on this page too.
4- Try targeting interests first, you can input "kindle" in the field and awesome things will show up!
5- Also input an author's name in the interest field - works!


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## TrishaGrace (May 28, 2014)

Wow, this thread is awesome. I'm glad I stumbled onto it. Do everyone have individual Facebook pages for each of your books/series? What do you post on it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

TrishaGrace said:


> Wow, this thread is awesome. I'm glad I stumbled onto it. Do everyone have individual Facebook pages for each of your books/series? What do you post on it?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I only have my author page, but for my series I have a website, with a page and details for every character in the series. I also give away a short novella connected to the series for subscribers only.


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## TrishaGrace (May 28, 2014)

Doglover said:


> I only have my author page, but for my series I have a website, with a page and details for every character in the series. I also give away a short novella connected to the series for subscribers only.


I've been toying with that idea for a while! But may I ask why don't you just set an additional page on your author website?

Because I was thinking that it would allow the users to navigate to other areas on my site and let me see my other books.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SamuelStokes (Oct 11, 2015)

Eric Z said:


> I will show you how to get at least 8 subscribers per day for 5$.
> Refining the Facebook Ads For Authors Crash Course, and you can get the webinar for FREE.
> The replay of the webinar is here:
> https://plus.google.com/u/1/events/cqgjm489ue8f2g5q3sm6u6185n8
> ...


Thanks for that. Very helpful!


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

TrishaGrace said:


> I've been toying with that idea for a while! But may I ask why don't you just set an additional page on your author website?
> 
> Because I was thinking that it would allow the users to navigate to other areas on my site and let me see my other books.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


This website is about the people in the book, not about me, but each book has its own page on my website with a link to the series website. I made it specifically to go with the facebook ad for the boxed set and it did quite well, but I have taken the ad down now to concentrate my limited funds on getting more subscribers.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

portlandrocks said:


> > Quote from: S.W. Vaughn on August 13, 2015, 05:52:47 AM
> >
> > Maybe I'll try again someday after I read the crap out of everything out there on FB ads. Or maybe I will just remain very far from rich...
> 
> ...


Oh my gosh, you talked to me. 

Thank you. I actually feel so much better ... because ugh, I hate Facebook. I have a zillion family and friends on my real name page (because my family is HUGE) and I've got the casual interaction thing with them down... but being "an author" on FB is just beyond me. BookBub is never going to accept me again -- but I'm good with ENT and Robin Reads and Freebooksy and all that. So I'll stick with that and writing more books. 

And as one former copywriter of horrible Internet magnet copy and catchy web page content and conversion-driven emails to another... congratulations on escaping all of that!


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## TrishaGrace (May 28, 2014)

Doglover said:


> This website is about the people in the book, not about me, but each book has its own page on my website with a link to the series website. I made it specifically to go with the facebook ad for the boxed set and it did quite well, but I have taken the ad down now to concentrate my limited funds on getting more subscribers.


Ah...that's awesome. Thanks for the great advice!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

TrishaGrace said:


> Ah...that's awesome. Thanks for the great advice!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


It's in my signature now if you want to have a look. It was just an idea and my sales from FB did pick up when I attached it to the ad; could be coincidence, we shall see. I will put the ad back up next month but right now I need to save every penny I can for other things. I got another 11 new subscribers from FB lead generation overnight.


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## TrishaGrace (May 28, 2014)

Doglover said:


> It's in my signature now if you want to have a look. It was just an idea and my sales from FB did pick up when I attached it to the ad; could be coincidence, we shall see. I will put the ad back up next month but right now I need to save every penny I can for other things. I got another 11 new subscribers from FB lead generation overnight.


Yup. I've checked it out! I've also signed up for Mark Dawson's free facebook videos. Hope I'll be able to learn something from that as well!


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## Guest (Apr 4, 2016)

sstroble said:


> Thanks, Melody. What is most irritating is that there are those that fb ads did not work at all for and a few who claim huge mega success because of them. Then again, it's the same results for self-publishing as a whole.


I've leaned a lot from Mark Dawson too, but you have to keep in mind that he spends 1000 bucks a day on Facebook ads.


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## Mark Dawson (Mar 24, 2012)

drno said:


> I've leaned a lot from Mark Dawson too, but you have to keep in mind that he spends 1000 bucks a day on Facebook ads.


But it didn't start that way. I started with one ad, for ten bucks a day, and then reinvested. You do not need a big budget.


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## juliatheswede (Mar 26, 2014)

As someone who's about to start using Facebook ads today, I'm glad this thread has been revived. I'll be doing direct sales to my box set on Amazon as I need MONEY   and am hoping to revive my serial. Anyone else has experiences to share?


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## K.J. Garnet (Mar 24, 2016)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


A very good one too and some very useful tips down the thread. Thanks for sharing!


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## Eric Z (Apr 28, 2015)

thewitt said:


> Here's one of my very successful ads
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/1537363229839001/posts/1646412622267394


Good to see this thread is still a live.
@thewitt -- that is a DARNED good one! Care to share your targeting with us?


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## Eric Z (Apr 28, 2015)

Here is a MASSIVE resource to BENCHMARK your ads!
https://kindlepreneur.com/ab-testing-facebook-ads-for-authors/


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