Last week, I talked about how I set up the Facebook ad for THE SHADOW READER. This week, I’m talking about the results.
Prior to running the ad, my facebook author page had 76 likes. Yep. Most of them were from friends and family. Not from strangers. So, to get more Strangers! to visit, I started the ad at 9pm central time on a Sunday. I used the FB recommend click price of $1.43 and set my daily limit at $25, thinking I most likely wouldn’t get anywhere close to that. I was wrong. When I woke up Monday morning, the ad had 29,074 impressions, 38 clicks, and resulted in 15 new likes, and I reached my $25 limit.
What are impressions? Theoretically, this is how many times a person has been exposed to your ad. But do I think 29k people looked at THE SHADOW READER’s ad? No. How many ads on Facebook do you notice? I tend to block them out, which is why I was surprised that I reached the $25 daily limit I set. Still, maybe a hundred or so people saw the ad, and since I’m not paying per impression, it doesn’t hurt me at all.
I ran the ad for two full days, but since I started it on a Sunday evening and didn’t turn the ad off until Wednesday morning, I’m including the stats for those days in the table below.
| Day | Impressions | Click-throughs | New Likes | Avg CPC | Daily Cost |
| Sunday | 29,074 | 38 | 15 | $0.66 | $25 |
| Monday | 54,220 | 87 | 24 | $0.29 | $25 |
| Tuesday | 75,297 | 86 | 22 | $0.29 | $25 |
| Wednesday | 3,829 | 6 | 1 | $0.28 | $1.66 |
So, what do I think of Facebook Ads? The nerd in me loves them. I love having control of the demographics and being able to see the statistics. Plus, you can spend as little or as much as you want. I also like this form of advertising because it doesn’t feel intrusive to me or spammy. People can and do simply ignore the ads, and I’m not forcing them to like me. It’s totally up to them whether they do or not.
On the other hand, when you add everything up, I spent $76.66 to gain a total of 62 new likes. I’m not so good at math, but I think that comes out to around $1.24 for each new follower. I have no idea if that’s a good return on investment or not. I’m okay with it, though, because honestly, I just want to meet other readers who love urban fantasy.
Will I run another Facebook Ad in the future? I’m pretty sure the answer is yes.
So, what about you guys? Have you ever run a Facebook Ad? Have you ever clicked on a FB ad to learn about a new author or book? If you have a FB author page, leave a link in the comments – I’d love to check it out! And if you have any questions about FB ads, just ask!
ETA: Another author, Arthur Slade, posted about his FB Ads experience here. Looks like we have similar results. He’s also posted about another pay-per-click advertising site, Project Wonderful. I haven’t heard of this site before. I’ll have to poke around.
July 4th, 2011 - 7:22 am
I also use Facebook ads and have a £5 daily limit (approx $10). Up to starting the ads my page for The Descent (www.facebook.com/descentnovel) had around 45 Likes. Within a month of running the ads the page had 400 Likes and it currently stands at 961, just 2 months after starting the ads. I would call that a success.
Of course how many of those Likes will convert to sales once the book is released is another matter entirely….
July 4th, 2011 - 7:46 am
Great post, Sandy! I’ve wondered about FB ads and if they’re worth getting, but they sound like a great deal. I didn’t know about setting your own daily limit; I assumed they were flat-fee ads like in a magazine. I’m sure I’ll be getting them too when it’s closer to book release time!
July 4th, 2011 - 7:48 am
Wow, those are great results! Are you running the ad continously or did you only do it for a month or two?
I’m planning to re-run the ad in the future; I just need to check my promo budget to see what and how long I can afford it.
Thanks for stopping by!
July 4th, 2011 - 8:00 am
@Sandy: The ad runs continuously and like you say no-one is forced to look or click but it has proven to be successful.
One thing that has astonished me is the comments I’ve had from a number of people about the basic idea behind the book and the role that disability plays in it – a lot of people have left comments along the lines of “about time too”.
I was pointed to this item by a lady on Twitter and I’m glad to see it, shows I’m not alone in using FB ads and pretty much echoes my own experience so far.
All the best for the future.
July 4th, 2011 - 8:20 am
Thank you for this. I’ve heard so often that things like this don’t work/waste of money etc.
It sounds like it’s a good idea with potential to be a huge help. I am in a similar situation on my facebook author page. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephany-Simmons/204354502914535)
I’m sitting at 26 likes, mostly friends and family.
The good thing is that I’m pretty sure they’ll all buy the book when it’s released, but exposure is always a good thing. Even if all of the new people you get through the ad don’t buy.
July 4th, 2011 - 9:19 am
Facebook ads are great! I’ve set a $5/day spending limit on my ads and I’ve had steady results. I love Facebook, and it’s my favorite way to network, so it’s totally worth the money for me. I know readers who have facebook accounts not so they can keep up with friends or family, but so they’re up on their favorite authors’ news! Yay, facebook!!!
July 5th, 2011 - 3:42 pm
@Stephany That’s how I started off, too, but 25 likes is a milestone. Facebook should allow you to choose your URL now, so you could be facebook.com/stephany-simmons instead of facebook.com/stephany-simmons/allthosenumbers. And once you get a conversation going on your page, I’ve found that some other random likes start coming in because your friends’ friends see them liking and interacting with you. That’s what my goal was with the ads. I don’t mind if people don’t want to buy my book (it isn’t even on the shelves yet); I just want to have good conversation with people who love reading as much as I do.
@Amanda I think you might be on to something with that $5/day thing. I might try that number when I start up an ad again.
July 6th, 2011 - 7:25 am
Just wanted to let you know that is how I found this blog. I believe I saw your add as well as an add for Shaedes of Gray and it landed me here. I know I will be buying the books from the authors on this blog, and I post on a couple of forums on Urban Fantasy where we keep each other informed on what books we are reading as well as our thoughts on them. So for what it’s worth when I buy the books there will be several mentions on forums.
And I thought I would mention that this morning, before I even read this blog entry, I was on Facebook and saw another book ad, and I thought to myself “this is awesome”. I buy around 5 books on average a week, (although my birthday was last month so the average has gone way up do to gift cards), and I am running out of authors I like to read. So I love that I am seeing so many ads for books, almost all of them have ended up on my to buy list.
Just thought I would give you some feedback from a reader.
July 6th, 2011 - 6:37 pm
Hi Kate! Thanks for stopping by and commenting! It’s awesome to hear from readers. And can I just say I’m so jealous you’re able to read so many books! I’m such a slow reader, and writing book two is taking up a lot of my time, so I’m reading less than a book a week. Total bummer.
Also, Happy Belated Birthday!
August 7th, 2011 - 1:43 am
Thanks for the breakdown Sandy. I’m not promoting a book, yet. Just hoping to get enough likes on my page to have some target market data for when i am ready to try and publish something. Your stats are really helpful cause I don’t think I’m quite ready to pay $1+/like. I guess for now I’ll just keep doing the slow and steady “pound the pavement” type of work to build up my fanbase. If I do try Facebook ads anytime soon, I’ll stop by and share my experience.
Thanks again!
http://www.facebook.com/moorecrazy
August 18th, 2011 - 10:56 am
Wow. Great info. I’ve been toying with the idea of running an ad and was wondering if it’d be worth it. I think I’ll give it a try to promote my facebook fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/Author.MandyHarbin
July 23rd, 2012 - 9:04 am
[...] I wrote out my thoughts in two blog posts: Do Facebook Ads Work for Authors, Part 1: Set Up and Do Facebook Ads Work for Authors, Part 2: Results. Since I’m a huge fan of Goodreads, I decided to try out their pay-per-click ads* since it [...]
August 29th, 2012 - 2:35 pm
Hi Sandy,
Did you or anyone else out there see any effect on sales and/or Amazon rankings when you ran the add? I was thinking about running an ad targeted to Amazon kindle owners with the link going to my book’s Amazon page.
August 29th, 2012 - 7:48 pm
Hi Andrew,
I ran my ad before my book was published, so I didn’t see a direct effect on sales. I’ve been wanting to run another ad soon. I’ll give it a go and see if I can get any kind of bump in my sales. I kind of doubt it will be significant, but I view FB more as building a relationship with readers.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sandy