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| Tulip time at our house Photo by JQ Rose |
Figuring Out How to Create a Facebook Ad
Last week I tried something new and failed. But it was a good learning experience.I decided to advertise on Facebook. My updated e-book for girls, Girls Succeed! is on sale for 99 cents through Wednesday. So I tried to "boost" a post on my J.Q. Rose Author page about the sale. I sweated over every detail--gender, age group, dollar amount to spend on the ad. Then I used my new book cover for the image.
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| Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women Inspiring and empowering girls. |
FB has a "grid tool" to check to see if the image is too wordy, so I uploaded the file and discovered I had 64% text on the page--way beyond the maximum of 20% text.
I opened my trusty canva.com to design a less wordy image for the ad. I tried five times before I finally caught on.
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| After the book cover, I pared down the words, but it didn't pass because too much text covered the space. |
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| So I decided to make the font smaller. But still too much coverage. |
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I finally decided to just put the words at the top instead of using space at the bottom. And it worked! I have to keep the words, Girls Succeed, so close to the top because I can't lower the second line or it will be in another box on the grid and put me over the 20% text allowed.
$$$$
My next hurdle was to decide how much to spend on the ad. FB is recommended for advertising because it has the ability to make choices on the targets or audience for the ad's message. One day costs $5.00, so I decided to be wild and crazy and spend $10. for two days, but when I put that amount in, it said I could get 3 days for $3.33 a day. Hmmm, does that mean I get fewer ads for $3.33 a day, but more days for my $10.? I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm sure somewhere in their support information I could find the answer. But at that point I was just too frustrated to continue or even think about wrestling with the process again.
Have you noticed how they are paring down views on your author page when mentioning your books or blog posts? Yes, they want you to boost the post. And honestly, $5. is very reasonable. It just strikes me as odd how a picture of my tulips will get hundreds of views!
Have you tried using Facebook to advertise? Please share your experience with FB.
Feel free to include your FB page link in your comment so we can like it. Here's my link to my J.Q. Rose page http://facebook.com/jqroseauthor
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9 comments:
Hi JQ, congratulations on trying out FB ads. I've tried this a couple of times, without much success, and yet theoretically it should be one of the most successful ways to promote your book. You can target readers who you know would be interested, and yet I just can't seem to get a decent result. There's a guy in the UK who runs courses on running FB ads successfully. He's had massive results from it. His courses are here: http://learn.selfpublishingformula.com
I'm planning to give it another go soon. I'll let you know how I get on!
Thanks, Helena. I've watched seminars by experts on how to do it, but I haven't signed up for their course. I love the idea of being able to target the audience. Sorry to hear you're not getting much of a response. I guess we just keep trying. Thanks for your input.
Ha Ha that is who I was going to suggest. Same as the first commenter. Mark Dawson is his name. He has a free FB page group you can join when you grab his free course. I did. I am not ready yet, but trying to learn all I can.
Bryan Cohen is another who talks about it in Sell More Books webinar.
Juneta @ Writer's Gambit
Thank you, J.Q. for always posting helpful information for authors.
I have never attempted a FB promotion. And after reading this post and being technically challenged, I'm not sure that I would.
I have noticed that FB doesn't allow many of my followers on my author page to see my posts. I didn't realize it was because of the link to my book on Amazon. I'll try doing a promotion without a link and see what happens. Thank you for the info on that.
Are you busy writing another great mystery?
Susan
Very interesting! I'm glad you're boldly venturing forth into these new lands and leaving a trail for the rest of us!
Thanks, Juneta and Helena for the links. I signed up for Mark's free course.
You're very welcome, Susan. yes, see what happens. And don't put "sale" in it either!! LOL. I'm not writing a mystery right now. I'm working on a memoir, but it is going to take a lot longer than a mystery and I'm only writing about one year out of my life. I'm finding this harder to write than fiction.
Tess--leaving a trail for you to hustle into this brave new world!!
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well.. Facebook ads accounts buy
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