Every author knows that, while writing your book is hard, getting your book in the hands of readers is even harder. To find readers for Agatha Annotated, we are now advertising on Facebook and learning all about this kind of marketing.

The book was published in June, so all summer I worked on organic marketing such as social media, news releases, an email newsletter, author fairs, and so on, but the plan was always to make a big push with paid advertising for the holiday season.

My reasoning is based on my own experience. As an Agatha Christie fan, people like to give me Agatha Christie-related gifts. I have mugs, T-shirts, tea bags, and many books about the author and her characters. I am delighted to be the recipient of these and it’s an easy choice for the gift-giver. So, for the person who already has everything Agatha, I figure my new book would make a great gift, right?

All I would have to do is tell holiday shoppers, and that brings us to Facebook ads.

We played with Facebook ads in the past when working with a not-for-profit, but they were not planned-out campaigns as much as last-minute pushes. This time, we took the time to do it thoroughly, reading lots of tips online, and even taking a class. Here are a few of the most important things we learned:

• The algorithms work, so launching some experimental ad variations and analyzing the statistics is more efficient than making assumptions about demographics, etc., beforehand.
• You must be patient while the ad algorithm goes through its “learning phase.” Facebook serves your ad up in different ways to different audiences to find the winning mix, and that takes time.
• It also takes a while for the algorithms to record data enough to analyze, so plan to spend money without expecting a return in the beginning during this period.
• In order to get enough data for analyzing, you can spend more per day over fewer days or spend less per day over more days. It’s kind of a wash, but since we made a few mistakes in the set-up, spending less per day meant we didn’t waste as much while we made corrections.
• Setting up Facebook ads is not rocket science, but there are a lot of moving parts if it’s new to you. Read as much as you can, watch videos, and then check back often to see that you set it up right and that the ad is working the way you expected.

Wondering how our ads are performing?

We started in mid-October to give the algorithm time to decide the right message and find the right audience. We created several ad images and several text messages for Facebook to mix and match and then report back with results. One combination definitely did better than the others, so we turned the other ads off and put the entire budget toward just that one. We also restricted the audience to women over 45 years old since that’s who was clicking. No surprise there, but we thought we might as well confirm our suspicions.

That was for the U.S. market. In November, we tweaked the ad a bit, changing “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Christmas,” and launched a campaign in the U.K. So far, the big differences between the two campaigns are that the Cost Per Click is less expensive in the U.K. than in the U.S., and there are almost as many men clicking as women.

I am thrilled to report that we have earned more money in sales than we have spent in advertising, which is a big win in my eyes! And with December still ahead of us, I’m hoping sales will continue to increase. While we won’t be leaving our day jobs any time soon, I have never before sold this many books in such a short time, so I’m all kinds of excited!

Next, we need to decide if ads should continue after the holidays and what those ads might look like. But for now, I’m just so happy that people are buying the book, and reading it, and even writing to tell me they liked it! For an author, there is no better gift than that!

Photo by Kindel Media