# BARGAIN BOOKSY AD: Does it really works?



## RonnSays (Sep 27, 2015)

I used the Bargain Booksy promo 25$ on 29th Sep, i did a research earlier before purchasing their promo, but it seems the promo bombed badly. I sold only 1 book on the promo day. Is it a joke? Does Bargain Booksy really Work?

My Book is a YA Romance Genre.


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## James R Wells (May 21, 2015)

Worked reasonably well for me in July, spent $35 and got 38 sales @$0.99. That's just over the basic respectable metric of $1 per sale. Other promoters were more effective in sales/$, so Bargain Booksy is on my list to include again as part of a lineup but not a must-have.

[My genre is SciFi]


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

I've used them three times and recovered my money with respectable sell-through to my other books. Not a home run, but not a dud.


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

RonnSays said:


> I used the Bargain Booksy promo 25$ on 29th Sep, i did a research earlier before purchasing their promo, but it seems the promo bombed badly. I sold only 1 book on the promo day. Is it a joke? Does Bargain Booksy really Work?
> 
> My Book is a YA Romance Genre.


Those are very low results for a Bargain Booksy ad, however we have noticed that our Amazon sales haven't updated yet today (for yesterday's sales) so reports might be behind. Shoot us an email - we'll absolutely refund you if you only saw one sale from our promo.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

James R Wells said:


> Worked reasonably well for me in July, spent $35 and got 38 sales @$0.99. That's just over the basic respectable metric of $1 per sale. Other promoters were more effective in sales/$, so Bargain Booksy is on my list to include again as part of a lineup but not a must-have.
> 
> [My genre is SciFi]


My genre is mystery and I did 37 sales at .99. I also ran a bknights ad the same day as bargainbooksy so I don't know where the sales came from. I also got quite a few KU reads for the rest of the series.

Since I did over 1k freeloads the week before with only a bknights ad, 37 sales looked kind of flimsy but I really can't compare the two. .99 never does as well as free.


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## rshane (Aug 8, 2015)

I ran one yesterday that cost $70 and only resulted in 25 sales, which seems like low ROI to me? Thoughts?


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## tvnopenope (Sep 14, 2015)

rshane said:


> I ran one yesterday that cost $70 and only resulted in 25 sales, which seems like low ROI to me? Thoughts?


I had an ad too and it resulted in 4 sales, but my book wasn't discounted.


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## KGGiarratano (Aug 14, 2013)

My BB sale is next week. I'm also promoting YA. Wish me luck.


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## Lisa Blackwood (Feb 1, 2015)

I've used them before--I don't remember numbers, and am too lazy to look them up. lol. But Bargain Booksey is on my to use again list, so they did well enough for me. I write fantasy romance.


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

They didn't work for me. I think I had less than 8 sales from them.


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## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

I had about 20-30 sales at .99. Not very good for the $70 price (romance), but I'm still using them again because they allow you to book ads for forthcoming books & accept books at 2.99 and I want all the kick I can get during release week (without dropping to .99).


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## Dhayaa Anbajagane (Feb 23, 2014)

RonnSays said:


> I used the Bargain Booksy promo 25$ on 29th Sep, i did a research earlier before purchasing their promo, but it seems the promo bombed badly. I sold only 1 book on the promo day. Is it a joke? Does Bargain Booksy really Work?
> 
> My Book is a YA Romance Genre.


I've had a similar result for my new release book as well.
I believe this is purely because the book was a new release and had only six reviews three days after release. The best results with Bargainbooksy seem to be from those books that have been out for a few weeks already, or those that have significant social proof i.e reviews.


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

Dhayaa Anbajagane said:


> I've had a similar result for my new release book as well.
> I believe this is purely because the book was a new release and had only six reviews three days after release. The best results with Bargainbooksy seem to be from those books that have been out for a few weeks already, or those that have significant social proof i.e reviews.


That's true of any marketing you do in the infancy of a book (or any product). It's tough at first to convince readers that something is worth their time and money without a bank of unbiased people that have already voiced support for the product. Cost per reader acquired is more expensive, because fewer people are willing to take a chance on that product. So yes - more reviews will sell more books with Bargain Booksy and every other marketing channel.

We don't turn away books that don't have any / many reviews, however, because it's a catch-22. You need reviews and you need marketing channels in order to get them. Sometimes the primary goal of a discount promo is to get reviews in the first place. We decided years ago that we wanted to accommodate that goal in our products and not solely cater to authors who want to run a promotion for sales and only sales.


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## Dhayaa Anbajagane (Feb 23, 2014)

Freebooksy_Taylor said:


> That's true of any marketing you do in the infancy of a book (or any product). It's tough at first to convince readers that something is worth their time and money without a bank of unbiased people that have already voiced support for the product. Cost per reader acquired is more expensive, because fewer people are willing to take a chance on that product. So yes - more reviews will sell more books with Bargain Booksy and every other marketing channel.
> 
> We don't turn away books that don't have any / many reviews, however, because it's a catch-22. You need reviews and you need marketing channels in order to get them. Sometimes the primary goal of a discount promo is to get reviews in the first place. We decided years ago that we wanted to accommodate that goal in our products and not solely cater to authors who want to run a promotion for sales and only sales.


Perfectly understand what you're saying. I was just stating that the lack of results was probably due to a lack of social proof for the new release


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Despite bargain booksy not working well for me, whenever I use freebooksy the results are always good. It's my go to one for free books.


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## TRB (Mar 7, 2013)

The last time I used them I didn't recover my cost, though that's not the only thing I look for. It's been a while. I might give them another try.


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## R.U. Writing (Jul 18, 2015)

I've had pretty good luck with them. My first round, with only three reviews, I had 14 sales at full price (3.99) in August. My second round was with a countdown deal a month later and it did even better (I can't offer numbers because it ran at the same time as another promo--overall sales were good though). They're definitely still on my promo list.


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## Jerri Kay Lincoln (Jun 18, 2011)

I had GREAT results with them!


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## Sara Whitford (Aug 18, 2015)

I'm really grateful for this post. 


I have several promotions staggered over the next few days that have begun today while my books are on a Kindle Countdown for 99¢ through the 7th. One of them is with Bargain Booksy, which I have never used before. I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of results I get for The Smuggler's Gambit.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

I'm going from memory, but I used them at $40 for my second book during a KCD and had only a few reviews (still only has 5 despite selling over 1k copies) and I had like 38 downloads IIRC.  I just used them for my new release with only 2 or 3 reviews I think and I had a few other sites that day and ended up with 60 sales.

I'd say the biggest advantage for using Bargainbooksy is that you can count on them to run your book.  Low reviews, new release, higher price point, it doesn't matter and for me, that is key to us newer authors getting some sort of visibility.  Sure, I'd prefer they priced closer to ENT, LOL, but with limited sites out there that can deliver I have them on my list of 'go to' promo sites when I need to move a few dozen copies so for me, they are worth the ROI.  I can feel for anyone who didn't have good results, but I've seen someone complain about a Bookbub promo, so manage your expectations.

FWIW, that is why I like to see promo threads and why I try to post my promos so others can see the ROI by various sites, plus stacking strategies etc.  I wish we had more promo posts so we could crunch more data.  Finally, I have no connection to them other than being an author and I've found them to be very responsive to my emails.

Ok, not final, but to the OP and any others who didn't have good numbers, was your price point competitive?  There is a deluge of FREE and 99 cent books, so it's hard to stick out at any price point other than those two unless you have a good angle (boxed set, etc.).


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## RonnSays (Sep 27, 2015)

Freebooksy_Taylor said:


> Those are very low results for a Bargain Booksy ad, however we have noticed that our Amazon sales haven't updated yet today (for yesterday's sales) so reports might be behind. Shoot us an email - we'll absolutely refund you if you only saw one sale from our promo.


Thank you for the reply, Yes I have written a mail back to you guys for a refund or another promo on a different book may be. The results were shocking as i did use the same book with other promoters and they did pretty well. And about Bargain Booksy i heard good stuff. There must be some glitch. Anyways looking forward to re run a promo. Awaiting a reply for the mail.


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## Eileen (Sep 24, 2010)

I had an ad with Bargain Booksy on 9/19/15 for a 99 cents promo and sold 15 books. I was happy with the results and will use them again.


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## Zackery Arbela (Jan 31, 2011)

I'm running an ad today for one of my books. Only 8 sales so far, but that's more then I had for the last six months. I'll see how it goes over the next few days...


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## Crime fighters (Nov 27, 2013)

ROI is terrible, but I've now begun to use promo as an added release strategy to push my books up the rankings for better visibility. All my previous books were NA romance, so I've used MyRomanceReads as a launch strategy to good-enough results. I'm usually able to book a few ads because I usually have at least 50 Goodreads reviews, and at least 15-20 Amazon reviews before release day. 

That being said, I'm looking at alternative ads for the launch of my next book, because it's NA Comedy/Horror, and I plan on submitting to Booksends and BargainBooksy. I'm convinced it's a terrible run for ROI, but in addition to my newsletter, it should be enough to push KENP numbers high enough to cover the costs of production within the first week. 

Ads work for some people, and not for others. One of the biggest reasons some people say it works, while others don't, is expectations and what a particular author is hoping to get out of an ad. If you're looking to break even, most of the promo sites aren't a good wager. If you're looking for visibility and increased readership, then shoot for the moon. 

Otherwise stick to Bookbub, ENT.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

K.B. said:


> Otherwise stick to Bookbub, ENT.


That is part of the problem, been denied at Bookbub every time I've applied and ENT was good to me my first two submissions but then I went 0 for 3 after that.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Bargain Booksy is part of my big end-of-October push. I'm hoping it works out well for me - but there isn't any guarantee in this game.


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## Crime fighters (Nov 27, 2013)

Salvador Mercer said:


> That is part of the problem, been denied at Bookbub every time I've applied and ENT was good to me my first two submissions but then I went 0 for 3 after that.


Keep your chin up! I've been denied at least seven times.


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## Zackery Arbela (Jan 31, 2011)

So far I got nine sales in all, so it looks to be a wash. But it still nine more than I had before, so there is a somewhat bright side. When all's said I done, I may be able to buy a cup of coffee...


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## Jarmitagetheauthor (Sep 30, 2015)

I've got mine on Friday this week - Hopefully it will work better than all the other ads I've done this week. Time will tell


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