Why is Advertising so Hard?

PART 1: BookBub. It takes money, perseverance and the ability to admit you know nothing…

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For the last couple of months, I've experimented with BookBub ads. This article aims to lay out what I've learned, so you can save time, money, and headaches. I offer no money back guarantee or free bottle of aspirin. Ha!

Most of you have heard of BookBub. If you haven't, you definitely want to consider at least applying for a Featured Deal. It is not an easy thing to get selected. You have to have enough positive reviews, and be forewarned the people at BookBub read them carefully. You also need to publish wide. Authors that are exclusive to KDP Select seldom get chosen. You also have to be able to discount your book. It only makes financial sense if you have a series and can offer the first book for .99 or half price, or something like this. If you are lucky enough to get selected, you also have to pay for the ad, which does not come cheap. However, most authors tell you they earn back the ad cost and more are able to sell the unadvertised second book too, at no discount. However, placing your own display ad on the BookBub platform does not require any application process. This means you’ll gain access to some of these voracious readers too. You can get started with a small budget, spending as little as $5.00. You can advertise both books and audiobooks and target your advertising to your genre and authors that write similar to you.

When I started running ads on the platform, I assumed many wrong things. This is what I learned:

1. I thought CPC (cost per click) paying for cost per click would be a better approach than paying for CPM (cost per mille, which charges per 1000 ad impressions.) This turned out not always to be true. I ended up paying too much and making ads that didn't convert instead of learning how to make a better-performing ad that would garner attention.

2. Bidding and paying for 1,000 impressions is likely to end up giving you a better CPC in the end. Initially, the best thing you can do for yourself is to learn how to make an ad that will bring you thousands of impressions. Once you know it gets impressions you can switch over to CPC if you wish.

3. When I first started advertising, my thinking was bringing attention to my books, and my name was enough. This may be true the first week you are new to publishing but change your thinking. Consider what the ad costs and how much you make. Eventually, you need to sell enough books to cover the cost of your ads and make a profit, or why bother?

4. Having something to sell, even one book is good enough. I don't believe this anymore. Yes, you can sell one book. But having more, three—a series will serve you better. You are giving your reader somewhere to go without spending more money.

5. It doesn't really matter how much the book costs. There's a buyer for every book. This may be true when selling on other platforms like Amazon, but books that are too costly are a problem on BookBub. The best books to sell on BookBub are $2.99 or less. The truth is people like .99 books and free books best. People love to buy books they think they are getting a deal on, which appear discounted and on sale. Therefore, if your book is $5.99, cut the price in half when selling it on BookBub. That will at least make buyers happy, knowing they are getting a deal.

6. You are not making fine art with your ad. Some of the best ads are not very good-looking on the site. This was the hardest one for me to accept. The best-producing ad for me on BookBub had an ugly, bright yellow typeface against a black background. Remember, your job is to bring the reader's attention to your book any way you can, and that may not make the most aesthetically pleasing ad. Still, it may be effective, nonetheless. You may be different and can do both, create something aesthetically pleasing and effective, but I could not.

7. David Gaughan, a sales guru ( watch his Youtube to learn more ), suggests you should spend time running ten-dollar campaigns with one author at a time with different ads with the Amazon US button only before running a larger campaign. Although, in theory, this is a great idea, you can burn through a ton of money fast, and BookBub already lays out the CPC of most authors for you, so testing authors doesn't seem relevant unless you find someone unknown. Testing your ads, on the other hand, is essential, but you can do this while grouping a few authors with your ad and testing for impressions. Doing this will assist you in testing an ad while grouping your authors. You will probably end up selling a book or two in the process.

8. David Gaughan suggests testing your ad on BookBub by only flagging the Amazon US button (first) because it's a very tough platform. If it works on there, it will likely do better everywhere else. I agree with him but don't be too disappointed with the results on Amazon US when you do your test ads. I was thrilled if I got a 1.5% CTR, which meant someone was clicking on my ads. I don't think it ever happened on any of my Amazon test ads, but it did happen on my ad campaigns. Perhaps you'll have better luck than I did.

9. When I finally ran a campaign, I still ran inexpensive ones, $10-15.00 daily. Never more than $20. 00. I could save money by not running my ad in the United Kingdom and Australia, where I wasn't generating much interest. I was getting sales from Canada, so I kept that one open, and since I sell wide, I ran two separate campaigns, one where I listed Amazon links (US and Canada) and one wide (Kobo, Apple, B & N, etc.)

Next week I’ll discuss what makes a good ad, what worked for me and my final takeaways on BookBub, in Part 2.

On another note, I did an interview about book recommendations for Shepherd.com. They have a sign in area, especially for authors, in case you might be interested. Please check out my interview and thank you, Ben Fox, for the invite, it was a delight!