Breakdown of potential ROI on Goodreads Premium Book Launch Package

[Diane]

Okay, so I'm debating about whether or not to do the flashy display advertising that comes with the premium book launch package on this site. Has anyone else done this? With what results? Here's the blog post I wrote with the breakdown and potential results.

http://thebookmarketingblog.com/goodr...

[Reena]

How long does the ad run? Is it a matter of using up the $2.5k in clicks? Or are you paying for something like 3 months worth of advertising?

I'm rather doubtful with the numbers you have for ROI. I'm not surprised that 50% of individuals who click on the ad would add the book to their to-read list. However, I'm skeptical about 50% of those individuals actually making the purchase.

On the other hand, having a beautiful ad in the prime spot may encourage folks to purchase right off the top rather than just adding it to their to-read list. I know I tend to ignore the little text ads but tend to investigate the interesting animated ads.

[K.]

Great blog post, Diane! My book will be released on March 1st and I'm reading anything I can on marketing/advertising. I heard Goodreads has some cheap ads so I think I'll look into those instead.

[Diane]

Hey Reena! Yes, the numbers on the ROI are iffy. I am an internet marketer/web designer in my day job, and I've decided that if I run the ad, what I'm going to do is create a custom landing page for the ad, instead of just linking the ad to my Goodreads author page or my Amazon buy page.

The custom landing page will advertise a limited time sale, and will also have links to buy for all available platforms.

For other products I've marketed in this way, I've been able to get conversion ratios as high as 15-25%. So I may re-run those numbers with a lower conversion ratio and see what they say.

Tori--congratulations on your book release! Stay tuned to my blog. I'll be doing a series on search engine optimization and will also be reporting about results of various other ad campaigns. Do post back to this thread with a link to your book when it's out! I'd love to have a look!

[Diane]

Oh, ps--I forgot to say that the campaign is based on impressions, not clicks. When your impressions run out, that's when your ad stops running. I still need to find out whether they are unique impressions or not.

And you're right. The little text ads are not visible and really almost completely worthless. I do tend to notice the rich media ads, though.