Building a Facebook Ad
By Therese Walsh | December 15, 2009 |
I promised you a post on building Facebook ads, and this is it. I know, I know, you can barely contain your excitement!
So why Facebook ads? Facebook ads are something the marketing team at Shaye Areheart Books recommended I try, since I wanted to contribute to my book’s campaign. They were easy to set up, they said, not to mention customizable in order to target the right demographics. They could also be an uber inexpensive marketing option. While I contributed to my marketing campaign in other ways, this was one area that would be all me. I would need to set up the ads, establish my price points, monitor everything, etc…
Where to begin? I found this handy guide to setting up a Facebook ad on eHow, and decided to time myself. How quickly might I be able to do this?
Beginning time: 9:32 p.m.
The eHow guide says to click on the “advertising” link at the bottom of Facebook’s main page, and then to click the “Create an Ad” button. I do that, and am taken to a new page.
Advertise on Facebook
Get started in three easy steps.
1. Design Your Ad
The program asks for info, and I feed it in:
Enter destination URL (https://ThereseWalsh.com)
Enter title (The Last Will of Moira Leahy)
Enter body text of the ad in 135 characters
Erk — 135 enticing characters? I skirt the issue of genre, since LWML is like a carnivale with something for everyone, and choose a part of MJ Rose’s quote, which is one of my favorites: “If it were written by a seasoned novelist, Last Will would be a feat. That it is a debut makes it all the more amazing.” – M.J. Rose
But it won’t enter. The text cannot start without a punctuation mark, the system tells me. I argue with my computer, because I’ve already included a punctuation mark. I spend five minutes reentering the text until I realize the Facebook message said, “The text cannot start with a punctuation mark.” I make a mental note to never again attempt constructing a Facebook ad at 9:44 p.m. or after having a glass of wine.
I abandon eHow. Not only is the Facebook platform easy and intuitive but section 2–Targeting your audience–is engrossing. What do I think I know about my audience? I check a few key demographics:
US
people 18- ?
women
education – college grad
language – I type in “English.” It wants me to choose between English (US, UK or pirate). I choose US, though I am mighty irritated that I can’t also choose pirate. Arrr.
A whopping 2,900,000 people fit the profile I selected. I start inputting keywords to narrow the field, attempting to hone in on what my readers might look like–what their favorite things are, etc… These are literally taken from and developed through hundreds of thousands of Facebook profiles. Remember those lists of favorite things you inputted on your profile page (found under the Info tab)? This is what Facebook does with those lists. I enter “avid reader” and “twins” and “magical realism” and a few other plum phrases that Facebook has made available to me. I choose a few of my favorite authors, too — Audrey Niffenegger, Sue Monk Kidd, and look there’s Juliet Marillier as a Facebook choice! The new parameters mean I’ve honed in on 26k potential readers.
It’s 10:15. I had some fun with that last step, though.
Time to deal with money matters. Ads through Facebook aren’t purchased for a set fee. Rather, you decide how much you’d like to bid for either clicks–the action taken by a reader when they literally click on your ad and are transported to your website–or impressions–the number of ads shown throughout a given day. I’d learned that paying for clicks was a better bet for authors, since the number of impressions Facebook will put up to help you get those clicks is tremendous for the dollar. And those impressions can still work for you–meaning that even if someone doesn’t click through to your site, they may still notice your ad, remember your book when they see it in a store, or even go to their favorite book-buying site and look up your novel on their own. I bid 75 cents per click and cap expenses at $20/day. (The Facebook tutorial on money matters–was a great resource as I decided on numbers.)
I finish at 10:25 p.m., and submit the ad for Facebook approval.
Fast forward. Facebook approved the ad within a few days and held it until the start day I’d listed–October 13th, the release date for The Last Will of Moira Leahy. Over the course of a month, the length of my campaign, Facebook posted 1,636,530 impressions of my ad, and 650 people clicked through to my website (the click-through rate varied between .04% and .07%, which I think is decent). That was a busy month for me, so I didn’t toy with my ad during the campaign. But. I did notice that the majority of clicks seemed to occur in the evening, and next time I’ll find a way to use that to my advantage. I’d probably also develop more than one ad next time, see which is stronger, and fiddle with my demographics.
Next time. Yes. I would absolutely utilize Facebook ads again. Big exposure for a fair sum, and doable in under an hour.
Write on, all!
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
Therese,
This is a gold mine! And you had me laughing out loud, too. Bonus. :) Although, I don’t think I would have laughed quite as much at the pirate-speak if I hadn’t read your book. It just seemed so MAEVE.
Thanks for doing this!
~Lydia
.-= Lydia Sharp´s last blog ..Believable Relationships =-.
Thank you, Lydia! Maeve must’ve rubbed off on me.
Wow, over 1.5 million ad impressions? That’s nuts. And impressive.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Therese. I think we are all searching for ways to maximize promotion without consuming entire days. I always wonder about the promotional value of social networks, and this seems to suggest it’s worth doing. Great post.
Ditto what Kathleen said. I was never sure how FB ads fared, but it sounds like you did pretty well!
.-= Kristan´s last blog ..Bride and Bulgogi both start with B… =-.
Teri,
How would you like a second job, as publicist for my novel? I’m three months from launch, and paralyzed by fear. Do you make house calls? (Texas is lovely this time of year).
At any rate, I plan to bookmark this site and try to use it (being careful, of course, not to start an ad with a punctuation mark).
Great post! I didn’t even know you could do this! Putting in my future book marketing folder… thank you!
Thank you for taking us through the process step by step, and for telling us the results.
.-= Yat-Yee´s last blog ..Grab-A-Line Monday =-.
w00t! I’m so glad you shared these details. When the day comes, I’ll be ready. Ish. Thanks!
Terrific post – I’ve been curious about FB ads and you spelled it out so clearly. Thank you!
P.S. I adore your book!
Okay, that’s close to $500. How many books do you need to sell from those clicks to make it worthwhile? Or are you figuring that it’s the impressions that are worth the expenditure?
Also, you said that you “bid” .75–what happens if you name too low an amount? And how did you come up with .75?
Oh, and many thanks for the insights and tour through this new medium. I’ll be looking into it.
Having done pay-per-click advertising with Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing in a previous life, I look forward to hearing how your facebook campaign goes. Please tell me there will be a follow-up post. Please? Getting exposure to semi-qualified leads sure beats spending crazy dollars on print ads that run once. If you can do both, all the better. If not, God bless the internets.
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..Layers and Texture – Revising Your Writing =-.
Thanks for comments, everyone.
Richard, believe me, you can easily spend career-length hours working on your own promo and marketing. I’m here if you have any Qs as you walk the road; just holler. Can’t wait to interview you here at WU!
Sarah, I’m so glad you enjoyed LWML! Thanks for letting me know.
Ray, I’m not even close to a marketing expert, but I believe it really is about exposure. It would be great if every single person who clicked over to my site bought a book — and that would certainly have paid for the ads if they had — but the bigger picture is that over one million impressions were shown. It’s kind of like passing a billboard on the highway. Maybe you’re not going to veer off at Exit 51 and buy a new Blackberry, but the sign made you think about it, and it familiarized you with the product. And–and this I do know from research–familiarity is one of THE key factors in making a purchase at a store (e.g. “Hey, I recognize that book cover!”). As for the bids, the link to the tutorial on money matters is one you should follow for an in-depth explanation. Short story: Facebook suggests a range for bids, but ultimately you choose your bid. If, however, your bid is too low to be competitive, your ad simply will not be shown and you’ll spend far less than your budget per day. I managed to luck out; I nearly spent every cent of my budget daily.
Jonathan, I’ll share any new info I can down the road.
[…] Should You Advertise on Facebook?–Therese Walsh talks about her experiences advertising her writing on Facebook. If you’re thinking about ads, I’d recommend checking this out. Personally, I’m a bit skeptical (you only make about $1 in royalties every time you sell a novel, so your advertisements would have to bring in near-guaranteed sales to justify the expense). […]
Therese: thanks so much for taking the time to recount your experience and success. It’s a great idea I think I’ll try. I’ve got a new novel coming out in Sept. Quick question: does it make a difference how many friends you have on facebook before you run an ad? What would you recommend? Thanks again for your help, Colin
Hi Colin,
First, congrats on your novel!
No, it doesn’t matter how many connections you have on Facebook. I would recommend spending some time thinking deeply about your potential readers — specifically what they like, who they are, where they live. Are they married, single, female? Do they live primarily in a particular part of the country? All of these things will help you hone in on them when it comes time to submit your ad.
Best of luck. Come back to let us know how you’re doing.