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| FALLING IN LOVE SERIES |
When I was offered the opportunity to write this blog for
Romancing the Genres about taking my writing to the next level, it came just as
I was investing some real time into marketing my books on Facebook (FB).
I have limited fiction writing time because I’m also a
freelance photojournalist/editor. I write at least three articles a month and
edit three different magazines, so I’m not an author who can write three or
four books a year. Two is the best I can do.
I seriously considered hiring someone to do FB ads for me,
but one thing kept stopping me. No one knows and loves my books as much as I
do, so who better than me to write the ad copy? And if I can do that, I’ll have
much better success with my ads, and improve my writing.
So, I’ve decided to give up some fiction writing time for
the next 30 days to buckle down and learn how to market the books that are
already published. To that end, I’ve committed myself to learning the ins and
outs of FB ads. I have set aside time to work on my ads every day, which not
only includes writing ads, but searching for new and better audiences, learning
the jargon and the different ways to determine if my ads are successful. I feel
this is critically important to moving my career to the next level.
There are several steps to FB ads from learning how to
maneuver in business ads manager to becoming comfortable with all the steps in
creating an ad. My first ad took two days to put together! The second ten
minutes, so huge progress there.
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| THE CROOKED HALO CHRONICLES |
To date, I have managed to put seven ads together, I’ve paused
the first three, and I currently have four others running, but I will be
pausing another one soon. While the cost per click is in a good range, and I’m
getting lots of clicks, I’m worried the photo may misrepresent my book. Here is the link to the ad. https://fb.me/27qrinMXi6GMOxW
This ad is doing pretty well for me, too.
I will be keeping it because this photo very closely
represents my story and my main character. I will be tweaking the photo on this
ad as I want to change the look of the book cover on it.
Here are the two new ads I have out.
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| SHE'S OUT OF HIS LEAGUE |
It’s still too early to tell if these ads are successful,
but early indications have shown they are at least doing okay. I will keep
developing new ads, so that when these aren’t successful, they will be replaced.If you’re like me you’re probably saying, yeah, yeah, I
agree with you, but I just don’t want to take time away from my writing, or
it’s just too hard and I can’t figure it out.
I used those excuses for the last two years, but it occurred
to me that if I want to be a successful, independently published author, I have
to learn how to market my books or I will be doomed to write more and more
books, faster and faster until I burn myself out.
I don’t want to lose the pleasure of writing my books so I’m
determined to learn this. I also believe that just like I had to learn about
POV and telling versus showing, that seemed oh so complicated all those years
ago, I will learn how to do these ads. I have to.
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| LEAVE ME BREATHLESS |
I also have She’s Out of His League that is a stand alone at the moment, but I have two more books in the series that will be released shortly.
Leave Me Breathless is a romantic mystery, and I will have more books to follow in that series, too.
I also have a short story series, The Crooked Halo Chronicles, that I will be developing into a full series that has love, romance, and guardian angels.
You can get Angels R Us for free just for subscribing to my newsletter.
Thank you all. It was lovely spending time with you. I look
forward to meeting up with you on FB, TW, and kathycoatney.com.
16 comments:
Good luck with your ads, Kathy! There's so much to learn in the writing world.
Thank you for sharing links to your ads, Kathy. I'm curious as to why you don't show couples in your ads and only one has the cover. And when you say "doing well" are you referring to clicks or actual downloads? I do admire your commitment to learning about FB ads. And what about images? That is one thing that stresses me out more than any other aspect of creating ads is finding images beyond using my book covers. It's overwhelming in a painful/stressful/makes me sick way to even think about sorting through a bazillion images to find something that may or may not work.
I hope you'll keep us posted on how your ads go. I've taken several classes in FB ads. It seems so overwhelming to me. But devoting a certain amount of time, without doing anything else, seems like a logical way to go. Good lick. I'll check out your newsletter soon :-)
Kathy, I have read your books and they are good!! It sounds like you are determined to conquer Facebook Ads and your plan sounds like a good one.
Please let us know how the ads do. Great Blog post!
Thanks Lynn. I agree there is a ton to learn beyond writing.
Judith I feel your pain. It is daunting to try and learn these. I tried a couple in my first ads and it didn't do well. I've found closeups of men to be the best so far. But it takes a lot of testing to find out what works. I'll admit it takes time to find the photos. I look through deposit photos constantly looking for new images. I write romances so I feel like the men are a good pic. My latest ads are using my covers and I started using a carousal. My internet is really slow right now, but I will post links of it as soon as I have better internet.
Deb I will update you all as I go along. I actually have quite a bit of new information since I wrote the blog and I will post it here as soon as I can get enough internet to show you the links.
Thanks Diana. I wish I could say they're profitable, but so far not. I'm not giving up. Will update you all very soon.
Thanks for this terrific post, Kathy, which just may be the 'kick in the pants' I need to buckle down and learn FB ads. It's been on my to-do list for months! I've heard it's quite complicated and that is what's been holding me back - I don't do well with multiple-step technology things. But you're absolutely spot on - I need to treat my writing business like a business, put on my big girl panties, and learn how to advertise. *quivers in fear
Luanna so many times for me it's a mindset and it is challenging figuring out how to do the ads at first but once you do it a few times it gets easier. And I'm happy to answer questions for anyone by email or messenger me on FB. Here is a link to my latest ad. I had an opportunity to speak with a FB representative who offered several suggestions for my ads including a carousal ad and I'm happy to share that info too. Here is the link to this new ad.https://fb.me/20aCyJQKnVmjnWt
If it lets you click the arrows so you can see the different formats.
I applaud you for taking the time to fully commit to learning about FB ads. I've been just throwing things up and hoping they get impressions. I hope this is the thing that helps you propel your career!
Thanks Paty. While I can get ads up pretty easily now I'm getting a decent amount of impressions and my sales are going up but still not at the break even. Still work to do to get to that point. Hope your ads do well for you.
Kathy
You are the FB master, Kathy! And I wanted to let you know how much I love the cover for Leave Me Breathless. When does that release?
Thanks Marie, but I'm sure not feeling like a master. Leave Me Breathless is out and has been for awhile.
It is a long learning process, so congrats for taking up that learning and being willing to invest in testing. Every ad platform is different and serves a different need. I see all of the ads you put up are for a FREE book. For ebooks, that is the best use of FB ads--list building and or read-through after first in series. It is VERY hard to get positive ROI on FB for ebooks if you are doing stand-alone novels or series of fewer than three to four books.
You are so right that getting the headline, the short blurb and the call-to-action are key to good ad copy. And so is the image. In my experience, the jury is out regarding having your cover on the ad or not. If your book cover is amazing, and your ad image is engaging then I think that having your book cover within an e-reader image works in a small format in the corner of the image. It is still the primary image which needs to bring people in.
There are many amazing classes you can take on doing FB Ads. I personally recommend Mark Dawson's "Ads for Authors Course." However, it is quite expensive. For those who are not ready for that expense or have at least four or more books in series already out there, a great book I recommend to people is: Help! My FB Ads Suck. by Michael Cooper. Easy to read and understand.
Maggie Lynch I'm to the point I feel comfortable putting up ads, but I still have a lot to learn and I'm not convinced what photos work and what don't including book covers. If I get one that's successful maybe I'll have a clue then. And thanks for the reminder on the book. I read this too and it's very helpful. I highly recommend it. The think I've noticed is these books are getting dated because FB has changed their business ads manager page so things don't match up right. But you can still make it work, it just takes longer.
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