A few tips and tricks for using Facebook Ads #WriterWednesday #AuthorToolboxBlogHop #Author Marketing
I’ve tried Facebook ads on and off for years. Several authors absolutely rave about Facebook ads. I couldn’t crack the code, however. Using Facebook ads was like burning money. Money I wasn’t willing to spend. So, I gave up and told everyone I knew that Facebook ads were a waste of money and moved on. But then I decided I would make money from this writing thing and took a course to help me with Facebook ads.
While the course helped a lot (A LOT), it didn’t help me crack the code. That’s when I realized you can’t crack the code! Let me repeat that – You Can Not Crack The Code. Nope. BUT there are certain ‘tricks’ you can use that my help make your Facebook ad work. Here are some things I’ve learned that work (or at least make me waste less money).
Bid cap. Unlike with Amazon ads, Facebook ads will use all of your money. That’s right – all of your money. If you set a daily limit of $5, Facebook is using $5 (and sometimes even more than that). This can lead to a very expensive cost per click rate. Yikes! If you want to ensure you get more than a handful of bids per day, but don’t want to mortgage your house to ‘pay’ for your writing career, bid caps are a good idea. You’ll need to play around with the amounts. I find a bid cap of 20 cents works well whereas anything lower leads to Facebook throwing its hands in the air and screaming “I can’t work with this person!”
Book covers are a no-no. You need to have a snappy image to capture the attention of Facebook scrollers. You may love your book cover. I know I love all of mine! But a book cover, in my experience, does not capture the audience’s attention as well as other images. With my novel, Finders, Not Keepers, I thought an edited picture of the cover would work. The book is all about a woman discovering a necklace and the cover has a woman hiding a necklace behind her back. Sounds good, I thought. Wrong. This picture works much better.
Make it snappy. I have a tendency to want to tell potential readers all about the book. This happens, but then this happens, and then – oh! – this happens. *Cringes* Facebook ads need to be short and snappy. Facebook users are scrolling and scrolling. Attention spans are incredibly short. You’ve got seconds – if not milliseconds! – to get a potential reader’s attention. Here’s an ad that has worked well for me:
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This blog post is part of the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop. This is a monthly blog hop hosted by @raimeygallant. Make sure to stop by the other author blog posts in this month’s blog hop to fill up your author toolbox!
Great tips, and thanks for sharing your experience 🙂 Researching Facebook Ads, and whether or not they’re worth it, is going to be part of my massive marketing assignment for university, so this’ll come in handy!
Glad it helped 😁
This is really great advice, especially the part about keeping it snappy. I haven’t posted a Facebook ad for years, and it was never about books, so I’m no expert. 🙂
I’ve had bad results with facebook ads so thank you for sharing these tips. I always see courses with claims that you’ll learn to master facebook ads and although I’m curious I’ve learned my lesson about taking any courses. I always appreciate authors who are willing to help others without charging a large fee. Thank you!
I did learn a lot from Mark Dawson’s Ads for Authors course, but it costs a lot of money. A LOT.
Thank you for this!!! I’ve tried FB ads like twice and got nothing from them. I feel like you can’t really crack the code on much related to marketing, but tips certainly help.
If you really want to succeed, I suggest taking Mark Dawson’s course Ads for Authors. It’s very helpful, but also very expensive.
Very interesting – I’ve seens scads of book covers posted on FB and always wondered if it helped sell books. I love the two alternative examples you provided – they both create interest in learning more about the book.
BTW, great taste in graphics for Finders, Not Keepers! I use it for my avatar – but she definitely needs the knife.
Ha! Ha! The book is about a necklace no one wants and whether she should keep it or not. I do like the knife graphic as well. It just doesn’t fit my story.
If I stop, it’s only long enough to read a caption. I’ll pop in if I’m intrigued. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
Making the caption intriguing is the key. But it’s not easy. Not at all.
I know authors who swear by FB ads but most agree with you. It can be a real money pit. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for sharing. I wasn’t sure how effective Facebook ads would be, especially since I have better luck interacting with readers on Facebook and Instagram. Definitely something to consider.
Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this post with a few tips and tricks for using Facebook ads from D.E. Haggerty’s blog.
Thanks for the reblog!
You’re welcome.
I love your examples. I see why your favorite one works. Thank you for your great post 🙂
Thanks. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that ad works. The book is my favorite and was not selling at all until FB ads started working.
I’ve tried Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon ads. They all have their quirks and learning curve. I settled on using Facebook because I could understand it better, and I felt I was able to establish a “cause and effect” with my ads. I watched Mark Dawson’s free videos, but stopped short of paying for his course. I also called Facebook Marketing for a free one-on-one to better understand the leverage points and what the data/stats actually mean. If you haven’t done this, I recommend it… and have a couple of your ads ready to discuss.
All of your points are spot on. You’re right. It is nearly impossible to crack the code, but you can avoid wasting money. You need to watch your costs and the effectiveness of ads, or before you know it, you’ve financed Zuckerberg’s next car. It’s difficult, but you can sell books on Facebook.
I totally agree! I see almost exclusively through FB now. I find Amazon ads more difficult to crack. I still haven’t finished Dawson’s Ads for Authors which discusses Amazon ads.
Great tips. Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t yet ventured into FB ads, but thanks for the tips 🙂
It sounds like playing the lottery 🤑. Thank for all the good advice.