Paid Promotions - A Case Study of Experience

[Nik]

Hope you'll get that feature deal one day. Can be the next level

[Papaphilly]

Graeme wrote: "Currently experimenting a lot with Bookbub advertising for ASA at $0.99. Spending a fair bit of money $100-$250 per month, but it's translating into book sales... especially in the UK/Canadian mark..."

Turning a profit yet?

[Graeme]

Not yet.

My advertising is not yet sufficiently efficient. However I'm seeing some encouraging on sales of the latter books of my series - which are where the most royalties are.

[Graeme]

Graeme wrote: "I have a submission in with eReaderNewsToday (submitted 16th May) for a June promo at $0.99 for ASA, and of course I've submitted ASA-O again at BookBub for a Feature Deal. We'll see how we go for both deals...."

This evaporated without cost or response. A bit of a mystery at the moment.

[Graeme]

Running another one of these in June.

[1] (Cost $45 ($62 AUD)) BargainBooksy (Fantasy/Paranormal Promotion) for ASA at $0.99 on the 13th June 2021

[Graeme]

Attempting an eReaderNewsToday BoTD fo Q3 2021. Applied today.

[Papaphilly]

Graeme wrote: "Attempting an eReaderNewsToday BoTD fo Q3 2021. Applied today."

How do they choose? Good luck

[Graeme]

I have no idea, and thanks, Papaphilly.

[Papaphilly]

Graeme wrote: "I have no idea, and thanks, Papaphilly."

I would be nice if you new the parameters. I doubt they read every book and story.

[Graeme]

Pulling this thread to a close.

After nearly five years and 1000s of dollars, I'm still spending $10 to sell each $1 book. While some readers will go on to buy the other books, I'm just not seeing enough on sales to warrant ongoing investment.

I will continue to ping BookBub once a month for a feature deal, and I'll see how I go with that.

[Graeme]

Reviving this...

Perhaps I spoke too soon above - I seem to have a flurry of sales at the backend of the series suggesting readers who have finished the omnibus are taking the series on.

Currently running adverts on Bookbub.

[Nik]

Congrats on the flurry! Sounds promising

[Papaphilly]

Go make lots of money

[Graeme]

Thanks, Nik and Papaphilly.

[Marie Silk]

Hope you continue to see the sales and KU reads, Graeme!

[Graeme]

Thanks Marie.

Much appreciated.

Regarding KU, I've gone wide in an effort to [1] meet the Bookbub Feature deal requirements, and [2] Just to swap things up and see how it goes...

Hence no more KU reads.

[Marie Silk]

Okay, gotcha. FWIW, my book has been accepted for many BB featured deals while being exclusive with Amazon/KU. I tried going wide for a few months but sales took such a hit even with constant advertising that I couldn't justify the loss of KU and other KDP perks.

Graeme wrote: "Thanks Marie.

Much appreciated.

Regarding KU, I've gone wide in an effort to [1] meet the Bookbub Feature deal requirements, and [2] Just to swap things up and see how it goes...

Hence no more K..."

[Graeme]

Marie Silk wrote: "Okay, gotcha. FWIW, my book has been accepted for many BB featured deals while being exclusive with Amazon/KU. I tried going wide for a few months but sales took such a hit even with constant adver..."

Yeah, I know that you can get BB featured deals while in KU. I'm just trying to maximise my fit to their requirements. Noting that I only put my Omnibus (first 3 books) up for a featured deal.

Yep. I've dropped 40% of my revenue dropping out of KU. However, I wasn't making much to start with and I was suffering diminishing returns with promotions of ASA and ASA-Omnibus (series entry books) as free ... I.e. getting fewer and fewer downloads.

[Graeme]

My next book will publish in Q4 2021, so that will help make a difference by having a longer shelf.

[Scout]

Happy to hear you're sticking with it!

[Graeme]

Thanks, Scout.

Encouragement is always appreciated.

[Graeme]

Regarding Bookbub Adverts (as opposed to Feature Deals), they are an equal opportunity employer...

I run this advert every month...



What I'm doing at the moment is pausing it when I wake up, and restarting it when I finish work at my day job. I'm in Melbourne, Australia and that part of the day is typically late at night/early morning in the northern hemisphere where my primary markets are.

What I found was that the 'Click Through Rate (CTR),' falls during that timeframe, while 'Impressions,' are still being bought and paid for, lowering the overall cost-effectiveness of the adverts. So I chop that time frame out to lift the CTR and keep it useful.

What I'm finding is that the clicks are dying at the product page, as the majority are not buying the book once they land at the page in question. Suggesting I need to improve the alignment between [1] advert, and [2] product page.

An action to go.

Noting that I've sold approx. 50 books so far this month.

[J.J.]

Have you noticed any movement in other stores? If I'm not mistaken, the Apple store is horrible for discovery, but I seem to give away a lot of copies of the free first part of Dione's War on Apple with the occasional sale of the full book, so people find the books.

[Graeme]

J.J. wrote: "Have you noticed any movement in other stores? If I'm not mistaken, the Apple store is horrible for discovery, but I seem to give away a lot of copies of the free first part of Dione's War on Apple..."

Hi J.J. Since I went wide at the end of March, I've achieved the following sales.

Amazon = 169.

Barnes & Noble = 25 units.
Apple = 14
Google = 12
Kobo = 6
Overdrive = 3

Primarily off the Bookbub adverts.

[Papaphilly]

I have to say I feel for all of you authors. This must be just awful. First you have to find someone that finds your work good, but first you have to find someone to even read your work. All I can say is keep writing.

[Graeme]

Papaphilly wrote: "I have to say I feel for all of you authors. This must be just awful. First you have to find someone that finds your work good, but first you have to find someone to even read your work. All I can ..."

I love the process of story telling, and I'm obsessed with my own story ideas - so kinda stuck with it.

I liken marketing to placing a shiny stone on a sea shore and waiting for someone to notice it amongst the millions of other stones...

[Papaphilly]

If it is any consolation, I do photography and have the same feeling of trying to be seen. Yet, I am constantly stopping and looking for the shot. I cannot help myself, it is what I do. The hard part is trying to get the camera to do what I see. It is also hard to not fall in love with my pictures. Being critical is the utmost importance as well as trying to find a true "critic". That is one of the reasons I am always willing to read and review independent authors books because they need true input.

[Graeme]

Indeed, well said, Papaphilly.

[Graeme]

Next scheduled promotion with Bargain Booksy. It has two elements

[1] Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal Deal of the Day
Site: BargainBooksy & FreeBooksy
Date of Promotion: Saturday, October 16th, 2021
Book: A Subtle Agency (The Metaframe War Book 1) by Graeme Rodaughan
$150 USD

[2] [The fancy extra] Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal Ads Boost
Site: Facebook Ads
Date of Promotion: Saturday, October 16th, 2021 (ongoing for a number of days)
Book: A Subtle Agency (The Metaframe War Book 1) by Graeme Rodaughan
$100 USD

Total: $250 USD.

We'll see how this plays out. The [2] element runs for a number of days while budget lasts.

[Philip]

Graeme wrote: "Next scheduled promotion with Bargain Booksy. It has two elements

[1] Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal Deal of the Day
Site: Bargain Booksy
Date of Promotion: Saturday, October 16th, 2021
Book: A Subtl..."

Will be interesting to see. Heavily into writing next book, my preferred mode, rather than promoting current books. Sale returns are the proof or is there some other measure e.g. reader engagement and followers

[Graeme]

Hi Philip, I think sales are the primary metric.

[Graeme]

I'll switch this back on once I can afford to promote a bit more.

In the intervening period, I had two BookBub feature deals and shifted about 21K books for a small profit.

[Nik]

Graeme wrote: "I'll switch this back on once I can afford to promote a bit more.

In the intervening period, I had two BookBub feature deals and shifted about 21K books for a small profit."

That's very well done! Congrats

[Graeme]

Thanks, Nik.