Promoting via Facebook Paid Ad Campaigns

By Clarissa Johal

Promotion is always a hot topic amongst authors. My take on the subject is that no one, publisher or author, knows the magic formula of what makes a book successful. I’ve seen awful books sell millions of copies, and wonderful books sink into obscurity. So…what works? I’ve been writing for fifteen years and promoting “seriously” for the past five and I’m still trying to find the magic formula. This past weekend, I decided to go out on a limb and give Facebook’s Paid Ad Campaign a try.

Facebook is my favorite social media hang out.  I like to interact with people and find this platform allows the most freedom. However, I hate that Facebook filters your posts to whomever they decide. I have a modest 325 Friends whom, sadly enough, don’t see 90% of my posts. And it works both ways. This not only makes me feel like a bad Facebook friend, but isn’t conducive to getting the word out when I have a new release.  On a good day, my posts reach about 30 people. Shame on you, Facebook. You suck.

Recently, Facebook moved to a “pay for more visibility” model. For a fee, you can “boost” your post to reach a wider audience. It seems unfair, but raging against it is pointless because Facebook will do what it does. My paranormal novel VOICES went up for Pre-Order on April 17th, so I decided to “boost” my post announcement and see what came of it.  I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of this method/scope of advertising, so keep that in mind.

My post (with cover art attached):

VOICES - Sometimes the ghosts from your past...are real.  Available for Pre-Order!
http://tinyurl.com/ppozard ‪#‎paranormal

Cost and Duration: The minimum of $5.00 for two days—in this case, the weekend.

People Reached: 870--which is a considerable boost from 30. You can pull up a full detailed report of the campaign but once too many facts and figures are involved, my attention starts to wander. Here are the basic facts that I found helpful:

Demographics. Age and gender told me thatVOICES mostly interested women in the 35-44 age range.  

Users who actually “engaged” with the post: Out of the 870 people, 42 clicked on the link.

Books sold: Unfortunately, too early to tell. I will say that my author rank went up and VOICES hit #57 in Amazon’s Top 100 Ghost Suspense novels right next to Dean Koontz. It was fleeting but I’ll take it.  

Facebook has other options to promote your page and website and I may experiment with those in the future. The promotion quest continues…

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Clarissa Johal has worked as a veterinary assistant, zoo-keeper aide and vegetarian chef. Writing has always been her passion. When she’s not listening to the ghosts in her head, she’s dancing or taking photographs of gargoyles. She shares her life with her husband, two daughters and every stray animal that darkens the doorstep. One day, she expects that a wayward troll will wander into her yard, but that hasn’t happened yet. Clarissa Online: Author Website: http://clarissajohal.com/ Blog: http://clarissajohal.blogspot.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarissa.johal.9 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarissaJohal Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4502113.Clarissa_Johal Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Clarissa-Johal/e/B003KVTMPK/ Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarissajohal/