What are Facebook Ads?
Facebook is the largest social network. Facebook has advertising you can purchase. Those ads which you can purchase on Facebook, to show to Facebook using people, are ‘Facebook Ads’
Basically, you can show ads to all the Facebook users when they come to check what style eggs everyone had for breakfast, what new photos everyone is taking to gather Likes, etc
As Facebook gathers a lot of data about its users, and as there are Facebook ‘Like’ buttons all over the Internet, which Facebook uses to gather even more data about its users, it allows you to micro target Facebook users
You can narrow down to the exact set of people who are likely to be interested in your books
What are Facebook Ads for Authors?
If you’re an author, you just set up Facebook Ads that target ‘readers’. Those are Facebook Ads for Authors
You can choose from an incredible amount of criteria, including location, interests, and readers that are similar to readers you have on your email list (hopefully, you already have an email list for readers)
What makes Facebook Ads a good advertising choice for authors
Well, all the things that make Facebook terrible for privacy, make it great for Authors who want to advertise
While Facebook users might not like that they are constantly tracked as they travel all over the Internet, and that their data is gathered, and profiles are made showing what user is interested in what things
For Authors (or anyone else advertising things), it’s very convenient as you can target EXACTLY the set of people you want to advertise to
Imagine if there was a drone following every person in real life. If it could tell you what they bought and what mall they went to, and what physical stores they bought from, and what items they bought
Facebook is like that, for the Internet
Facebook Ads let you find the people who are interested in books, who buy books, who share book quotes, etc. and advertise specifically to them
What makes Facebook bad for privacy and for users, makes it great for Authors who want to advertise to Facebook users
While on the user side people generally don’t realize there is a virtual internet drone following and tracking every single thing they do
On the Advertiser side, it’s rather crazy how convenient it is
Let’s go back to the real world example
If there was a tracking drone monitoring every single person in the world
And if this drone network allowed you to
- Identify those people who go into bookstores and buy books
- Identify those people who read on their tablets
- Identify those people who bought ereaders
- Identify those people who talk about loving books
- Identify those people who read books by authors similar to you
- AND THEN
- It let you advertise JUST TO THOSE PEOPLE
Then that drone network would be a super powerful advertising engine
That is what Facebook is, albeit for online behavior
Important Note on Bidding Systems and, in particular, Facebook Advertising
A fool and his money are soon parted
Bidding Systems are built with that principle in mind
- There will always be some ‘fool’ who will be buying ads at prices so high, that no profit is ever possible
- You want to make sure you are not ‘that guy’
- You also want to make sure you are never competing with that guy
Bidding Systems should be ignored completely. Instead focus on
- What number of clicks to your book page you are getting for every $10 spent
- How many sales you are getting for every $10 spent
- Whether you are making back more than $10 or not. Ideally a good figure like $20 to $40 for every $10 spent
Once you hit a good level, such as $20 to $40 made for every $10 spent, slowly scale up while keeping that level of return on investment ($20 to $40 in earnings for every $10 spent on advertising)
Risks of Facebook Ads for Authors
There are a few risks
- The bidding system will eat you alive if you don’t understand that it is designed to eat more and more of your profit margin
- Facebook advertising will gradually get saturated (like Google Ads have gotten saturated) and will become ineffective
- So you cannot assume you can depend on Facebook Advertising for more than a few years
- Remember, most of the people talking about how well they did with Facebook Ads, either have 20+ books and make a lot more per click, or are selling courses on how to make money from Facebook Ads
- It takes a considerable amount of time to keep advertising going and monitor results
- You have to learn the Facebook Ads system, and the bidding system. You also have to keep up to date as and when there are changes
- Facebook in the past has had lots of ‘counting errors’. There have been over 10 counting errors in the Facebook Advertising system. All of them (every single one) was in the favor of Facebook and none were in favor of advertisers. So you have to keep a constant vigil
- For Facebook Ads you have to compete with EVERYONE. Facebook shows a certain number of ads in people’s Facebook Feeds. So it is not just your book ad. Ads for all kinds of products are competing against your ad, and saturation will probably be reached in 2 to 5 years. At that point low cost items like books will not be able to sustain Facebook Ad costs
- There is an advertising arms race. As more and more authors (and other people) advertise, the ads start competing more and more to ‘stand out’ and ‘be cool’ and ‘get clicks’
Unfortunately, Facebook Ads are a good solution with the flaw that it is an everchanging auction/bidding system and you have to stay up to date
Facebook Ads might be one the best advertising options for authors right now
Despite all its flaws
Despite the danger that in 2 to 5 years Facebook Ads might get saturated, or might become ineffective
At the moment, Facebook Ads are one of the best advertising options for Authors
For a significant percentage of authors, Facebook Ads are the best advertising option
If you’re an author, it is well worth investing into a small trial of Facebook Ads. If you can make $20 to $40 for every $10 spent on Facebook Ads, then stick with Facebook Ads