Category: Advertising

Amazon Ads: 1-9 September 2019

The Fantasy Writer

I’ve gotten 68 pre-orders from 1-9 September, averaging 7 books a day. My pre-order record in a single day is 11. In another lifetime that number was in triple digits but a fresh start requires humble expectations.

Why 11 when you can see 12 right there? Well, one pre-order was returned that same day taking the total down to 11.

I’ve referred to advertising as burning money in the past because it is the way I do it. However, I’ve come to a decision that I’m going to set this book up as a loss-leader in order to get the beginnings of a readership. There isn’t much money to be made when advertising a 99c book unless you get readers hooked and buying the next books in the series. I’m going to treat it as such. This book will be the launchpad of my publishing career and it’s worth spending money on that.

My launch strategy involves increasing the spend on Amazon Ads when the book is live and signing up for newsletter promotions. I think a lot of KU readers hunt for books that way so I believe it would be effective in getting more borrows.

Another method I’m going to use is free author promotions. I’ll discuss that in more detail in the next post.

I’ll share how much money was spent advertising the book if it recoups its losses. Until then, I’ll share how many pre-orders I’m achieving and if I beat the record of 11 per day.

Burning Money…

The Fantasy Writer

…also known as advertising.

One of my goals during this journey is to learn how to advertise without setting money on fire.

I’ve used 3 advertising strategies so far, Amazon ads, Bookbub ads, and newsletter promotions.

Results are as follows:

  • Amazon Ads – Oh look! My sales went up! It cost me how much?? I can get Amazon to spend my money and get results, not amazing results by any means, but I did see my sales increase.
  • Bookbub Ads – Well, that money disappeared into thin air. I can get Bookbub ads to spend my money and zilch. Zero effect.
  • Newsletter Promotions – Hmm, I guess people were right about them losing effectiveness. I used 3 newsletter promotions to rather lackluster results.

I’ve seen many authors advise not to start advertising until your third book is out.

I don’t agree with that.

I want readers to be waiting for my third book.

I want readers to be hovering over the preorder button and weep in joy when my book finally appears on their Kindles. Okay, maybe not weep. I’d settle for being happy that the book they’ve waited for is finally theirs to read.

The thing is, readers can’t be waiting for something if they don’t know it exists.

So I advertise…

Another reason advertising book 1 is important is that you learn what’s working and what’s not. My lessons cost me money. Don’t be like me.

I changed blurbs and advertising strategies with the following results:

  • Blurb 1 + medium-bid Amazon ads + newsletter promotions = 45 sales over 1 month
  • Blurb 2 + Bookbub ads + low-bid Amazon ads = zero sales over 21 days
  • Blurb 3 + high-bid Amazon ads = 34 sales over 12 days.

I’m not happy with Blurb 3 but it’s getting more sales than Blurb 1 or 2. I definitely need to work on my conversion rate and figure out what the issue is there. I had 521 clicks but only 34 converted into sales. That has to be improved.

Above are the results of the ads from Blurb 3. The numbers makes me cringe when I see how much I’ve spent versus how much I’ve made in sales. And I haven’t even shared what I spent on Blurb 1 and Blurb 2 ads. But I keep reminding myself that right now my objective is to capture readers. I want them to give my book a chance and hopefully they’ll enjoy it and move on to the next.

I’m starting from a position of zero readership. I’ve accepted that Book 1 will be a loss-leader and established how much money is allowed to be burned in the chase for readers. I’ve allowed myself a grace period in 2019 to spend in order to gain readers but I will have to be more fiscally responsible in 2020.

I need to fix the numbers above over the next three months so that I can launch into 2020 in a stronger position with advertising.

#2020Goal: Stop burning money on advertising.