Should I promote my book on Facebook?

Writing a book requires a lot of your time and effort, so it is understandable that, after publishing it, you want to get it in front of as many people as possible. With Facebook advertising, you can get your book the exposure that it deserves.

If you have a Facebook profile, advertisers will usually be able to target you by your likes, favorite movies or books, workplace, location, etc., and create ads that will capture your attention based on your preferences. 

When done in the right way, Facebook ads can be a great tool in your book marketing arsenal as an author allowing you to target readers for your book.

In this post, I will show how authors can take advantage of the power of Facebook marketing and eye-catching advertisements to sell more books and increase visibility and interest among readers.

Creating your Facebook Ad

THE OBJECTIVE

Facebook offers a number of “objective” options, so they can know your goal with the ad. It is very important that you know what you want to achieve because Facebook will optimize your campaign based on the goal you choose. 

For example, as an author, you want to get as many clicks as possible to your book page, so the goal we recommend is  “Traffic.”

Now, you will have to name your ad campaign and click the button CONTINUE.

BUDGETS

Once you’ve chosen a campaign name, select your campaign budget. You can choose a daily or a lifetime budget. Once the limit is reached, the ads will stop running.

We currently spend approximately $10 per day on new campaigns. You don’t want to increase your daily budget right away until you see if the ads are effective. If you notice that your campaign is delivering good results, you can always increase your budget as needed. Increase your ad campaign budget gradually, by 20-30% at a time.

AUDIENCE

It’s time to determine who will see your campaign. Go to the “Audience” section of the page and select the key demographics of your audience. Select the age and gender of the target audience according to the specifications of your story.

In addition to targeting by location, gender, and age, Facebook also offers an option called detailed targeting. Here you can enter Interests according to which you will narrow down the audience.

So, on Facebook, you can create a specific audience that is interested in books similar to yours. Let’s say you’re writing romantic books, in which case you want people interested in Jojo Moyes or Nicholas Sparks to see your ad.

The more information you can give, the better. More accurate targeting will generate better sales. If you can narrow the audience even further, do so.

For example, if you’re promoting a Kindle book and directing your audience to the Amazon page, include keywords like Kindle, Kindle Store, Amazon, etc.

Because here you want to reach people who read romantic books and usually buy them on Amazon. 

But beware here, if you use too many audience options at once, your audience may be too small and specific to be effective. With a broad audience, you’re going to rely more on Facebook to find the best people for your ads.

Once you’ve defined your audience, you’ll see the size of your audience in the ads manager. It indicates approximately how many people will see your campaign.

It would be best for you if the arrow points to the green area which would mean that your audience is large enough for the ads to perform effectively.

Once you’ve determined the objective, targeting, budgets, and more, here comes the fun part, it’s time to work on ad creative.

INCLUDE YOUR BOOK COVER

Before you decide to create a FB ad with a book cover, make sure you have it professionally made. If the cover is not good enough, you are guaranteed to lose sales.

Include your cover in the FB ads graphic with an eye-catching background that is related to the topic of your book. According to various studies, people can recall 65% of visual content up to three days later, while with written content that percentage is only 10%.

PICK STUNNING IMAGES

In some cases, generic images can also bring good results. Select stunning images that compel your story. You will achieve the best results with pictures of people.

There are numerous websites with stock images where you can download images for free. Just make sure you choose quality and eye-catching images that have a clear connection to your book.

If you decide to use a generic image, make sure to emphasize somewhere in the ad text that it is a book to avoid clicks from people who are not interested in books. In case the ad is not clear that you promote a book, you could end up paying for clicks that will not bring sales.

SHARE READERS’ REVIEWS

Nothing will motivate your readers to make a purchase better than readers’ reviews.

Choose your best reviews, such as emotional or dramatic ones, to convey the experience your book can offer.

You can include one long review, or a few shorter reviews in your ad text and see what will bring you better results.

USE A BOOK TRAILER

Facebook users love video. Adding a video to your Facebook ad will help to increase clicks, views, and sales.

Not only that video ads will deliver a lot of clicks, but they will give more creative freedom to show off a book and connect with an audience.

Just keep in mind that if you plan to use a book trailer, it must be done professionally. The video must grab the reader’s attention in the first few seconds. If the video is of poor quality the results won’t be good.

EVALUATING RESULTS

The best indicator of whether a campaign has been successful is the number of sales you made after the campaign ended. Estimate how many clicks your ad accrued while it was active and how much sales it brought to you.

If you haven’t had a lot of clicks, that would mean you have to work on your ad creative. Try testing more different images or headlines. A well-made book trailer can also help capture the reader’s attention.

If your ad generated a lot of clicks but there are not many sales, it would mean that something on your landing page is not particularly compelling and should be adjusted. Most often you need to work on the description, also make sure you have enough reviews, and that your book cover is modern and professionally made.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. It is unlikely that your first campaign will deliver the best results right away, but testing different options for a longer period of time will help you determine what works best for you. You’ll need to test different versions of your ad and book page until you find the right combination.

Why should you choose BooksGoSocial to run your Facebook Ads?

Advertising on social media can be challenging – especially if you have no experience with marketing and social media.

With our Facebook Ads “Done For You” service you won’t have to spend any more time wasted getting it all to work. We can create professional ad campaigns that target the right readers who are likely to have interests in your book.

1.   Our experts will review your Amazon book page and give you suggestions on what might be improved to increase the chances of sales.
2.   After your book is ready for advertising, we will analyze your book data and decide on targeting and campaign goals.
3.   When we decide who your audience is and how to approach them, we will create a stunning ad creative that will capture readers’ attention and lead them directly to your book page.
4.  You can request a detailed report on your campaign performances from your ads manager anytime. The report includes data such as the number of impressions, the number of clicks, click-through rate, demographics, locations, and all other relevant data that will help you understand your ad performance and audience better.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT OUR FACEBOOK ADS DONE FOR YOU SERVICE

Here’s what our clients say:

“Ever since I started working with you, you have always had my back. Great suggestions, good campaigns, and good ads have helped me increase my royalties. I hope every indie writer could have a campaign manager as good as you are. I sincerely hope to be working with you on this book and any other book which may materialize.” – Fran Steinberg, the author of Love You Holy, Wild Child

“FB ads do not work for just any author. Any book needs professional help to develop effective FB ads. Not every cover is a grabber; not every blurb catches the eye; not every backdrop will intrigue readers; not every target group will be interested in the ad. An experienced FB ad creator will be able to evaluate the data generated by the ad, compare the data to new sales and quickly make adjustments. Creating an effective FB ad is part art, part science. Of course, it helps to have a great book. For my FB ads, the Books Go Social team has been responsive and very effective in all aspects and in working with me.” – G.J. Berger, the author of Four Nails.