Ask around and nearly every author will say that marketing their book is SO MUCH HARDER than writing it was. I’ve been diving deep into Artificial Intelligence and how it applies to marketing, and while exhausted, I do have some tips to pass along.

In January, I talked about using ChatGPT to write some advertising copy for Facebook ads. I even asked it to suggest some images to use in each ad. It was an interesting experiment. I will always assume AI-generated output needs editing, but it’s a good way to find inspiration, particularly if you don’t already spend a lot of time in the marketing world.

Facebook has been leaning more and more toward AI tools for creating and running ads, so I decided to do some research, as that is my thing. Let me tell you, researching England in the 1920s and 1930s is WAY more interesting than trying to understand how Facebook ads work.

I read many articles by marketing experts and watched a bunch of videos before I waded into Facebook’s Ad Manager to try out what I learned. Mainly what I learned is that there is still a lot to learn.

That said, I have pulled out a few important nuggets that any author ready to start Facebook ads will find helpful, and I will share links to the websites that I think are the best experts on Facebook ads.

What I Learned about Artificial Intelligence in Facebook Ads:

Facebook wants us to use all their AI tools, but we shouldn’t.
I wanted to like Creative Hub because it’s a sandbox for trying out ads and that sounded fun. Unfortunately, I don’t see how it applies to the average author marketing a book.
The “Get Inspired” section was more overwhelming than inspiring. My head still hurts from trying to figure out how to apply Ulta Beauty marketing techniques to Agatha Annotated.

The Almighty Algorithm thinks it knows everything, but it doesn’t.
Several experts pointed this out in various ways and I believe them. The advertising algorithm mirrors the Facebook motto of “move fast and break things,” although things seem to stay broken because it’s hard to tell what the algorithm is really learning.

It appears that, when serving up ads to different audience segments, the algorithm will make AI-quick decisions about where the action is, and then serve up more ads there. Theoretically, this must be the target market. But what if the number of clicks is increasing because the number of ads is increasing? Wouldn’t the percentage of clicks in that segment be a better indicator of a target market?

We should look askance at cheap clicks.
When we’re shelling out cash every time someone clicks on our ad’s link, we want those clicks to result in sales. Unfortunately, getting a whole bunch of clicks with your daily budget doesn’t necessarily translate into purchases.

One thing to look at when that happens is to make sure ads are showing up in the right places. The algorithm once ran an Agatha Annotated ad on gaming platforms. That is not where my target audience hangs out.

Facebook’s algorithm knows nothing about us and also quite a lot about us.
Does anyone put their movie preferences in their Facebook profile anymore? Most people are trying to protect their privacy these days, so they are careful not to fill out all the information once used to help advertisers create a targeted audience.

Even so, the Almighty Algorithm knows you very well because it follows every move you make, what you click on, what you like, and so on. If the author knows their book’s audience well, we can still influence Facebook’s algorithm to show our ads to the right people.

Data drives everything, so gather it and analyze it.
Never “set it and forget it” with your ads. Be prepared to let Facebook run for a while to collect enough data, but then check it. If you are selling books on Amazon and sending people there when they click on your ad, use Amazon’s Attribution Tag. It’s not perfect, but the more information you have, the better.

Facebook ads are still inexpensive, comparatively speaking, but this is real money out of your pocket. Maybe start with a $10 per day budget and run your ads for a week to see how evenings compare to daytime and how weekends compare to weekdays. For some authors, $70 is a big investment. Following all the free marketing options first as a foundation could be a good plan.

Don’t put all your eggs in one ad basket.
The best part of Facebook’s AI-run advertising is experimentation. Instead of agonizing over creating the very best ad and sticking to it, you should try out a bunch of ideas. Swap out the images, the text, the headline. See which one is getting the most clicks. Go ahead and dump the bad ones. This isn’t like the olden days when you had a box of pamphlets that were expensive to print, so gosh darn it! we have to keep handing them out.

In summary, I can report that have a headache but I’m still collecting data. In the meantime, below are a couple of the experts whose information I have found helpful. And, of course, you should also spend some time on Facebook Ads. I wish you the best of luck, and if you have great thoughts to share, please do!

Facebook Ad Experts:
https://kindlepreneur.com
https://www.matthewjholmes.com
https://davidgaughran.com/facebook-ads-for-authors/

Photo By: Kaboompics.com
Photo by Zachary DeBottis