1: Step-by-Step Ad Creation (Walkthrough)

NOTE: this is the same content / video as in the Quick Start section.

If you have already watched the video there, you can continue to the next lesson.

Facebook generally has the lowest CPCs out of the three main platforms (sub-$0.15 CPCs are realistically achievable in some, but not all, genres). It also typically has the lowest conversion (0 – 5% for full price books) since it’s a social site first. 2 billion plus users means that your audience and readerbase is here. Thus you can advertise practically any genre. However, since many other products besides books are advertised, making it clear with your creative that you are selling books is paramount to maintaining decent conversion. Otherwise your ads can literally convert at 0%, even when the clicks are relatively inexpensive.

The main advantages of Facebook are scale, speed, and targeting options. The large user base not only means your targeting options are the most advanced and detailed of the three platforms, but it also enables you to scale winning ads/campaigns to higher spends than either BookBub or Amazon. Most ads start serving with four to six hours, which makes Facebook an excellent candidate for time-sensitive launches and promos. Aside from the vast array of normal targeting options, features like custom audiences allow you to easily retarget your fans as well as people who have interacted with your ads.

Disadvantages include a complex user interface, the aforementioned poor conversion, and cost. With so many different features for not just ad creation but analysis, Facebook has the highest learning curve of the three. It’s easy to wade off into complex options and select things that are not only confusing, but actively work against your ads’ effectiveness. I would recommend sticking with the best practices in almost all circumstances to both simplify and save money. The purpose of the marketing game is moving books, which Facebook can be both remarkably good or bad at. Aside from your ad creative needing to clearly indicate that you are indeed selling a book, the branding elements (blurb, cover, and price) on your Amazon page play a key role in your ads’ conversion. If these are even marginally off, sales of your book from Facebook Ads can be extremely slow. Troubleshooting these may entail testing these elements to optimize them over time.

Finally, while Facebook ads, when well targeted with effective creative, will usually be the cheapest on a CPC-basis, it’s possible for the platform to actually produce outrageously high CPCs. This typically happens when you get overly complex with your targeting, but can also occur when your creative is a mismatch to your audience, or if the creative is unappealing in general. Such scenarios can result in the worst of both worlds: the worst conversion and worst CPCs of all three platforms.

Best Practices Step-by-Step

  1. OBJECTIVE: Traffic
  2. NAMING CONVENTION: useful for search and also identifying what you’re running. Putting your target in the ad set name is critical for testing; it saves a ton of time and allows you to easily compare audience performance at a glance.
    1. CAMPAIGNS: T/US: TS1 > Objective (Traffic) / Region (US) : Book Series / # (Tess Skye Book 1)
    2. AD SETS: I: Ilona Andrews > Type of Audience (Interest): Target (Ilona Andrews)
  3. BIDDING: Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO)
  4. PLACEMENT: News Feed only (others convert lower). If you want to target Instagram, do so in a separate ad set (and make sure your creative is square).
  5. REGION: one region per ad set. Start with US unless your book has a UK regional tie-in, in which case UK ads (on all three platforms – AMS/BB/FB) may perform better. I create separate campaigns for each region so I can better manage and track the spend. Can expand to Canada/Australia later, but these regions are small, so not necessary.
  6. TARGETING: target authors or genres to start; target them one at a time, in separate ad sets. Then you can aggregate the best performers later if you want. Note that in genres with a lot of author targets (romance/mystery/thrillers), you don’t need to test all the author audiences or even most; they will have significant overlap. Instead, you want to test the 5 – 15 largest authors individually (100k+ in size). You can aggregate all the smaller authors together and test them as one larger audience; this will mitigate essentially testing 20 – 30 additional audiences that are all very similar in composition to the 5 – 15 largest ones. And don’t narrow by a bunch of random demographics or other interests to start. I almost never do that; it tends to spike CPC. If necessary, I’ll play with more advanced targeting (TV shows, affinity audiences, Lookalikes)/narrowing options later, but only after I run through my “vanilla” options first. Only exception is for romance authors: since 99%+ of your audience will be women, you can narrow by women right out of the gate.
  7. CREATIVE: my go-to initial creative is almost always the book cover on the book background + the book blurb. This serves two purposes: one, because of congruence, it generally converts the best. Two, if my CPCs are terrible, it means that either my blurb or cover are problematic and need to be fixed. Thus, it’s not only simple and effective, but also functions as a troubleshooting method.
    1. IMAGE: put the book cover on the image to increase conversion. Alternative is to use Free in Kindle Unlimited or “Free Book” (if it’s permafree) in the headline. The principle here is make it absolutely clear at a 1-second glance that you’re advertising a book. Cover is your safest bet by far; very easy to use stock photos that generate great CPCs but convert at 0%. You can use Free in Kindle Unlimited in headline + the cover in the image, too. They work well together.
    2. COPY: book blurb. Alternative is a 1 – 2 sentence teaser with clear conflict, tension, and curiosity (cliffhangers work well), followed by a reader quote, and ending with a call to action (CTA) that links to Amazon.
    3. HEADLINE: Free in Kindle Unlimited, effusive reader quote, New [genre] series now available (can use variants of all these)
  8. LINK: direct to Amazon (i.e. don’t send them to a landing page on your site).
  9. MAIN METRIC: I focus primarily on unique outbound CPC to evaluate ad performance on the Facebook-side. Ultimately, however, I care most about conversion.

Troubleshooting: Biggest Impact on CPC (most to least important):

  • Audience
  • Image (use book cover to increase conversion)
  • Headline
  • Copy
  • CTA button (I usually omit this, but can use Shop Now for paid books and Download for free books)
  • Bottom Copy