A quick rundown on Facebook ads.
Targeting
You can target Facebook ads to a very precise audience.
For example, if your book is aimed at adult women interested in romance novels living in English speaking countries, you can target:
Age: 18+
Language: English
Interested in: Men/Women/Both
Likes: Mills and Boon, Jackie Collins, Meg Cabot [continue with associated authors]
Further, if you're selling an ebook you can target:
Likes: Kindle, E-books
Paying for your adverts:
Facebook has two methods of charging for adverts.
You can either:
Pay for each 1,000 impressions (the CPM method)
Each "impression" is a showing of your ad on a page, regardless of whether the person seeing that ad actually clicks on it or not.
or
Pay per "click"
A "click" is when someone actually "clicks" on your advert to visit your webpage.
Which is best for you?
To sell a physical product, it's probably better to choose the "Per click" option, because that way you'll only be charged for the number of people who actually click on your advert, as opposed to being charged for all the ones who see your ad but don't click.
Will it get me sales?
Your conversion rate will depend upon the effectiveness of the webpage you send your visitors to when they click. Having a strong "call to action" will help (for example using a "buy now" button)
Be aware that you won't sell to every person who clicks on your ad, so you'll have to factor in the cost of your advertising in your overall profit margin
What's a "bid"?
Advertising slots are auctioned off to the highest bidder. The more you are prepared to pay for a click, the more likely your advert is to get a prominent position in the user's sidebar.
The amount you'll have to 'bid' per click will vary depending upon how many advertisers are after your target audience and how deep their pockets are.
Facebook will suggest a bid range when you create your advert and select your targeting options.
Things to remember:
- Set your daily budget at a realistic level - Your ads will continue to run until your budget is exhausted. If your budget is too low, you won't get many clicks. If it's too high, the cost of the advertising will eat up all of your profits
- Make your advertising copy count. You only have a few words, make sure they're enticing
- Use an effective picture that will look good in a small format. If your picture is crap, nobody will click
- Test different ads to see which one gets the most clicks
The biggest caveat?
Many Facebook users block ads altogether using browser plugins, or simply "fade them out" psychologically.
Like Google Adwords, it can be an expensive exercise if not done right, so make your advert really stand out!
Placement will have been different for every user.
I'm sorry to hear you lost money but Facebook ads don't work for everyone.
Trial and error is part of the marketing game I'm afraid.
