The First Goodreads Ad Experiment Update

Here is the first report in my series on the $55 Goodreads Ad Experiment.

I did a little math. According to Goodreads, they have a click-through rate of 0.05%. That means one user per 2000 who view the ad clicks on it. As far as these things go, that is pretty much an industry standard. I have only ever intentionally clicked on an ad 2 or 3 times since I started using the Internet in 1995. My experience on Twitter is similar, statistically speaking. About one in 2000 "followers" actually buys my book (I've probably come into contact with between 2500 and 3000 followers over the past few years considering changing following/unfollowing patters).

My per-click bid of 11 cents meant that the ad for Love From Planet Wine Cooler was being viewed about 100 times per day. That means I could expect a single click-through after about 20 days. At that rate, the $55 experiment would last about 3 years. As interested as I am in experiments, if I had that kind of attention span, I would have a Phd.

A few days, I increased my bid to 12 cents and the number of views increased to 140-150 per day. Today, I increased it to 13 cents to see if the general click-through rate translates directly to my campaign.

What is more interesting is whether or not a click-through translates into a sale.