Paid Promotions - A Case Study of Experience

[Graeme]

Thanks Marie, Starting to adopt your process, I'll have to see whether a free promo at BookBub gets accepted.

[Graeme]

2nd rating derived from the GR giveaway came in REF Above

Starting to look like I gave GR $120 of my hard earned so that they could send my book to people who would never have read it if it wasn't a free giveaway, and for whom it's an obvious poor match to their tastes, so that when they are naturally disappointed they can mark the book down and drag my overall rating numbers down.

And to think that $120 would buy 3x BargainBooksy fantasy promos and 50+ sales to people who were willing to spend money to buy the book, and consequently would care enough to spend sometime selecting a book with a fair match to their preferences.

[Leonie]

So frustrating, Graeme!

[Graeme]

Hi Leonie, - thanks but no "crying into my beer over here." Yes - it's a bit of a painful lesson to learn.

But a lesson non the less. A mistake not to make again.

[Nik]

Regret to hear, Graeme. Not the end of the world, but still disappointing..

[Graeme]

Hi Nik, yes sure. (Shrugs...)

I have four new promos in the works for April.

[1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 9th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 10th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[3] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for TDD at $0.99 on Wednesday the 11th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[4] (Cost $90) BooksButterfly (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 from Tuesday the 10th to Friday the 13th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)

So all three books run at $0.99 for 6-7 (7th-8th to 14th) days, as I bracket the actual promos.

I've also picked up a BargainBooksy Fantasy Book of the Day on the 14th May, and Book Barbarian and Robin Reads for the 15th May, but I'll detail those once these April promos are run.

[Graeme]

Further analysis of the impact of the Goodreads giveaway.

It blew away the "Also Bought," list around A Subtle Agency, and its still not recovered.

So it's having a negative impact on discovery.

Lesson learned: Only use genre targeted promotions.

[Quantum]

Bummer but thanks for sharing your learning experiences--both what to do and what not to do.

[Graeme]

I'm hoping April will recover ASA.

I'm looking into AMS adverts as a long term process.

[Graeme]

Started my first foray into the world of AMAZON AMS advertising with a Sponsored Product placement for A Subtle Agency.

Advert Copy is, "What if the rules of reality could be changed, and vampires vs heroes were fighting a secret war for control? Would you like to find out what happens?"

Only 30 keywords at the moment, I'll see if this advert gets accepted and run.

$2/day budget. 0.30 bid cost on each key word.

[Nik]

Hope this advert works well!

[Graeme]

Apparently the idea is to have lots of them. This is just a toe in the water to test the temperature....

[Graeme]

I figure I have a lot of learning in front of me.

[Marie Silk]

Good luck with the AMS :). Just putting this out there in case you weren't aware: you can use book titles and authors as keywords in those ads if you want.

[Graeme]

Thanks Marie, started doing that. I'll expand the list of keywords as I build a library of words based on other similar books that are also successful.

[Graeme]

WRT: the Readers Favorite site

Book Reviews: https://readersfavorite.com/book-revi...
International Contest: https://readersfavorite.com/annual-bo...

Just entered ASA into the 2018 contest under the following genres, Fiction-Fantasy-General, Fiction-Fantasy-Urban, and Fiction-New-Adult.

Just put myself in for 5x Reviews + Critiques + 5 months advertising on their site.

Total cost $290 USD (91 on the contest, 199 on the review/critique/advert package).

[Graeme]

BargainBooksy have a new Fantasy Book of the Day that reaches nearly 300K subscribers. Picked it up today for the May promo cycle.

[Marie Silk]

That's a lot of subscribers! Hope you see some nice results with it :).

[Graeme]

They pitch their Book of the Day to both their FreeBooksy and BargainBooksy markets.

[Graeme]

Running 3x AMS adverts at the moment.

My top advert is

"What if the rules of reality could be changed, and vampires vs heroes were fighting a secret war for control? Would you like to find out what happens?"

Which has generated 6 clicks off 2855 impressions at an avg cost of $0.17 per click - no sales yet, but number of clicks per impression is <1000, which seems good.

[Graeme]

I've become very interested in AMS adverts and I'm trying to find out all I can about them.

[Graeme]

Just set all books to $0.99 for the upcoming April promos, and also to see what happens with the AMS adverts at a lower price, now I have a first week baseline.

[Graeme]

April promo is kicking off this week.

[1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 9th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 10th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[3] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for TDD at $0.99 on Wednesday the 11th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[4] (Cost $90) BooksButterfly (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 from Tuesday the 10th to Friday the 13th April (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)

Pausing my AMS advertising while the promo is on, as that could get expensive for no extra gain.

All books are $0.99 during the promo, and I'm seriously considering leaving them there as $4.99 has proven to be too high a price for an unknown author.

I've also redescribed my books, and recategorised them into fantasy/superheroes and technothrillers which are more competitive and still a match on content.

[Ian]

Hope these new promotions go well for you, Graeme. After reading this thread and a few others like it, I'm finally dipping my toes into the murky waters of paid promotions. Giving Bargain Booksy and ENT a try this month.

Sad to hear about the GR giveaway, though I'm (equally sadly) not surprised. I ran giveaways for my first 2 books without problems, but the moment they started charging authors I had a feeling that would be the end of their usefulness.

[Graeme]

Thanks for that Ian, I aim to do one major promo each month. I expect this one to generate between 50 and 100 sales across all three books.

I'm not worried about revenues, I'm just accumulating readers, but I don't want to go FREE.

The giveaways have been shotguns, and my decision about stopping paperback giveaways was that I could get a markedly better return by doing paid book promotions instead. (My cost structure wasn't good having to mail books from the US, to Australia (for signing), then to somewhere else in the world).

The GR giveaway has been a net loss so far. I'd need 8 to 10 good positive 4 and 5 star reviews to come in to make it worth while - I currently have 1.

[Graeme]

Bargainbooksy is a great start point.

ENT is excellent, but you will likely get a knock back or two before you get accepted.

[Graeme]

April Promo: Day 1: Initial results (Amazon reporting only).

5x ASA, 5x ATW, and 7x TDD. So, looks like some pent up demand for ATW and TDD materialized once the prices came down.

[Quantum]

Graeme wrote: "April Promo: Day 1: Initial results (Amazon reporting only).

5x ASA, 5x ATW, and 7x TDD. So, looks like some pent up demand for ATW and TDD materialized once the prices came down."

Cool. Btw, Mark Coker, Smashwords CEO, has solid data that supports making the first book in the series free. I just finished reading all of his podcasts last night.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

[Graeme]

April Promo complete.

Results over the four days.

09th: ASA x5, ATW x5, and TDD x6 (Amazon report for TDD down by 1 from 7 - without a return either... no explanation for that).
10th: ASA x3, ATW x7, and TDD x4
11th: ASA x5, ATW x6, and TDD x13
12th: ASA x3, ATW x2, and TDD x2

Given that three BargainBooksy adverts were run over the three days, and BooksButterfly was started on the 10th for ASA only, I'm concluding the following.

B-Booksy stimulated cross sales across all three books with each advert.
B-Butterfly was a bust with less than a handful of attributable sales. There is no Guarantee with B-Butterfly, as ASA has been given for FREE in the past.

[Graeme]

I have switched my AMS adverts back on.

They should be improved as sales promote the books within the algorithm. Also got a 5 star verified review on TDD on Amazon which will also assist with the adverts placements.

[Graeme]

Upcoming promos in May.


[0] (Cost $35) eReaderNewsToday (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 14th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[1] (Cost $80) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 14th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo) - This is "Book of the Day," and will be sent to all their freebooksy subscribers as well.
[2] (Cost $55) RobinReads (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, & B&N only)
[3] (Cost $60) BookBarbarian Double Feature (Fantasy) for ASA and ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[4] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[5] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for TDD at $0.99 on Wednesday the 16th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)

Picked up the eRNT which are quite hard to get.

[Nik]

So, you put around 200$ monthly on promos? As I understand, the returns are still lower than expenditure, but hopefully you gain readers' base, recognition, branding and following...

[Graeme]

Correct Nik. As I see it, I'm building an audience over time.

[Graeme]

BTW everyone; My BooksButterfly promotion sucked big time - big failure.

[Quantum]

Too bad.

How're the AMS ads going? Are they the ones that say the "sponsored"? Is there supposed to be a tag line/hook that goes along with the cover and title?

[Graeme]

Hi Alex, AMS is bogged down. I've started a thread.

[Graeme]

Using four proven properties to promote all my books in May.

[0] (Cost $35) eReaderNewsToday (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 14th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[1] (Cost $80) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 14th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo) - This is "Book of the Day," and will be sent to all their freebooksy subscribers as well.
[2] (Cost $55) RobinReads (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, & B&N only)
[3] (Cost $60) BookBarbarian Double Feature (Fantasy) for ASA and ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[4] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[5] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for TDD at $0.99 on Wednesday the 16th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)

As Alex had noted previously on other threads, authors can expect to invest more in paid advertising in 2018 to get results.

[Graeme]

Dropped my prices to $0.99 for the upcoming promos (starts on the 14th) and picked up 4 sales immediately.

This adds to the 15 books sold at full price (without promotions) from the 26th of April, although 4 of those have been attributed to AMS adverts.

[Marie Silk]

Graeme wrote: "BTW everyone; My BooksButterfly promotion sucked big time - big failure."

Books Butterfly has a pretty bad reputation for running a scam. I believe they were busted for click farm activity in the past (which got authors a lot of downloads), but now they just take your money and that's pretty much it. I would dispute that charge if I were you.

[Marie Silk]

Graeme wrote: "
This adds to the 15 books sold at full price (without promotions)
from the 26th of April,..."

Nice! I was a little surprised to see in a review that someone read my first book a full year ago but waited until now when the sequel was 99 cents to find out what happens next :D. Some series readers are out there are patiently awaiting the deals, and I say we give 'em ♥!

[Graeme]

I'm not gonna fuss about BooksButterfly, but I will describe the result I got to anyone who asks.

[Graeme]

AMS Advert sales just went from 4 to 6 books off 5 adverts. They seem to be working.

[Lena]

Graeme you’re a Mod now too! That’s awesome! I have no idea what to do here without a BOM but I’ll look around and see how I can contribute.

[Graeme]

Hi Lena,

Anything you do here will be welcome.

[Graeme]

Sales so far for May. 7x ASA, 4x ATW, 5x TDD. Puts my books in a great position just prior to a major promo week.

[Nik]

Good luck with the upcoming promo, Graeme!

[Graeme]

Thanks Nik. Much appreciated. Cheers Graeme

[Graeme]

May Book Promotion: Day 1.

[0] (Cost $35) eReaderNewsToday (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 14th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[1] (Cost $80) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Monday the 14th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo) - This is "Book of the Day," and will be sent to all their freebooksy subscribers as well.

AMAZON. 28x ASA, 7x ATW, 7x TDD. 42 total books.
WIDE: 3x ASA, 1x ATW, 1xTDD, mostly on Apple.
TOTAL: 47 books sold across all channels.

Cost Effectiveness: (After Royalties): Cost of $2.07 per book sold.

[Graeme]

May Book Promotion: Day 2

[2] (Cost $55) RobinReads (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, & B&N only)
[3] (Cost $60) BookBarbarian Double Feature (Fantasy) for ASA and ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[4] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $0.99 on Tuesday the 15th May (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)

AMAZON. 35x ASA, 32x ATW, 15x TDD. 82 total books.
WIDE: 1x ASA, 1x ATW.
TOTAL: 84 books sold across all channels.

Cost Effectiveness: (After Royalties): Cost of $1.49 per book sold.

[Graeme]

Got both ASA and ATW in the sub 100 list for Superheroes Science Fiction today. ASA was in the category yesterday, so is sub 100 two days in a row.

Best rank was achieved by ASA at 7841 paid in the Kindle store and rank 56 in the SF&F - Fantasy - Superheroes category.