Tips on Running a Facebook Ad

Okay so yesterday I managed to upload my blog posts and glance through my emails, send a few replies. But that was pretty much it. My internet decide to be stupid for most of the day, so I wasn't online nearly as much as I usually am on Tuesday. Didn't see many Top Ten Lists  :( and I wasn't on Twitter or FB as much either.

By the time my internet was finished with its meltdown, I had other stuff to do.

My point is that I didn't have any time to do blog posts for today. So, I just decided to drop a line about something I recently tried out and was very impressed with. (This is same post is on both my blogs today, FYI.)

So, I'm here to tell you that Facebook ads totally work!

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I know this is something that a lot of people are wary about. I get it! I was too. Then, after one of my fan pages reached 200 likes, Facebook sent me a coupon for $50 in free Facebook advertising. Even then it took me awhile to get around to checking it out. I figured it would be something like $50 off as long as you bought $100 dollars worth of advertising or something. But eventually I figured it was worth checking out. The worst that could happen is that it wouldn't be worth doing and so I wouldn't do it, right?

So I went through the process and guess what? I had a $50 coupon, and I could only spend $50 if I wanted. Amazing!

So here's how it works. If you're advertising an outside product or website, you generally pay per click. Like Goodreads' ads, you also always get to set your money limit. So for me, I only wanted to spend $50 and I decided I wanted the ad to run for 10 days. That meant that my daily spending limit was set for $5. Once enough people have clicked to use $5 for the day, the ad will cease to run until the next day, so you never use more than the limit you set.

Now, if you aren't advertising an outside product or website (that is, if you're advertising something that's already part of Facebook like your own fan page) then you pay per impression, rather than paying per click. How this is figured is a bit more complicated, but the concept is the same.

Originally I was going to advertise my publisher's website, which is the only site my book is currently being sold at (until January 29th when it will be released on Amazon and other nation wide retailers. Just sayin'. :D) But then I decided maybe that wasn't the best use of my coupon. Despite wanting to sell books, the publisher's website sells them for 100% of retail value, and most people will probably want to wait until they can get a slightly better deal, especially if they're part of Amazon Prime or some such.

On the other hand, I just started a fan page for my Interchron Series. I have an author fan page, but my publisher suggested I start one for the series, given that this is just book 1. So, I had a bran new fan page with no likes. I asked all my friends to like it, but that only produced seventeen likes. Bottom line, at the beginning of this Facebook ad campaign, I had less than 20 likes for my Interchron Series fan page. It still has two more days to run and I have over one hundred likes!

Facebook ads target the types of people who might like my series, based on the tags I put in the ad campaign information (I went with "book series" and "dystopian"). The people targeted are exactly the kind that will probably like my fan page, and apparently many of them do. :D

As I said, this works phenomenally. I am very impressed and definitely open to actually paying for another Facebook ad campaign in the future.

TIPS:

1) Tag your ad well. As I said, I went with the genre of my book. This is similar to expressing genre in query letters and the like. The more specific you are, the more likely your are to find your target audience.

2) Set realistic goals. It asks you to set a goal, such as getting more likes for your fan page. Set your target goal knowing that it's much easier for people to do that than to plunk down money for a product they're just now hearing about. Not that it's a bad thing to pay per click for an outside product. In fact, it's great exposure. But again, people are less likely to pay for a product until they've seen it multiple times.

3) Don't be afraid to tailor it to your situation. Like me, you can have phenomenal success on a very small budget, as well as a larger one. Don't be intimidated by the process. Just go through the steps and do exactly what suits you. While it may take a few minutes to set up, it isn't hard.

How about you? Have you had any experience with Facebook Ad Campaigns?

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