The original body of this article came out in 2018. I’ve since wanted to add the rest of the story.
FACEBOOK ADS
Back in the day, I had a very successful book signing. As part of the buildup and marketing campaign to that book signing, I turned to Facebook to try their advertising.
Before this, I’d posted the article, Reaching Readers On Facebook, telling you about the experience. Once the book signing was over, I went over the actual results of the advertising campaign. Though I’m dread to use foretelling in novels, in this article I did. The results weren’t pretty.
IN THE BEGINNING
As a quick reminder, for those that are new to this site, when Lusitania Gold first came out, I spent a lot of money on Facebook publicity around the book launch. At the same time, I also plugged my previous published novel, Treasure Of The Umbrunna. The total outlay was over $100 and included my ad to first the West Coast, then the entire You Ess And A, then finally the western half of Europe.
The result? Plenty of hits (several hundred), a few engagements, three or four comments, one of them nasty (stop sending me ****ing spam), and zero sales.
LUSITANIA GOLD
In my previous article, Reaching Readers On Facebook, I only blasted the local Las Vegas area and a fifty mile radius that included Henderson, Boulder City, Pahrump, Indian Springs, etc.
I spent a total of $21. According to their statistics, I reached 322 people.
- I got 39 likes, 3 from people I know, 1 from a friend in Holland.
- 0 feedback.
- 2 shares.
- When I personally commented on the promo, THAT generated a few separate comments and likes from friends that already subscribe to my site. However, that was on the separate pages that those comments created (go figure).
The final result?
When I did my book signing at Barnes & Noble, not a single person that bought a book or showed up and talked to me were ones that found me from the Facebook advert.
My $21 resulted in a big fat ZERO.
Let me be clear. I had a very successful book signing. I personally sold nine books and that same day, someone bought three other copies but somehow missed having me sign them. To me, that’s a killer day! However, unless one of those three that slipped in and bought without contacting me were Facebook people, I still have to mark my campaign off as a big fat ZERO.
My book signing was a success, it just didn’t have anything to do with Facebook or my $21.
FAIR WARNING
If you’re contemplating using Facebook advertising, all I can say is buyer beware. It may work for some people, but so far, I’ve batted a solid zero after using it twice.
WHAT FACEBOOK IS REALLY GOOD FOR
I can put it all into one word: NETWORKING.
The real value in Facebook is keeping in touch with your fans and maybe on occasion, pick up someone new.
Nowadays, I don’t do any ad campaigns, boost any posts, or anything else Facebook throws at me that costs money.
How many of you pay attention to spam when you get on Facebook?
I’m not holding my breath for an answer.
That leaves keeping up with friends and fans, which is precisely what this social media platform was originally designed for (at least I hope so).
Once in a while I’ll advertise one or more of my books. However, I NEVER pay for it. When I advertise without pay, the audience is more limited, but the way I target, they’re a lot more receptive than throwing the ad at the wall to see what sticks.
I am right now exploring other ways to advertise my books that do cost, but seen to have better results.
SUMMARY
Facebook is a great communicator for letting people know what’s going on. In that respect, it works well to get immediate info to fans. I love using it for that and more.
However, to draw in new readers, it leaves a lot to be desired.
I’m just saying.
Once they know you and like you is one thing…
Drawing them in is still an issue.
A BIG issue.
When it comes to Facebook, I’ll stick with the free networking idea and giving news to my readers.
Happy writing!
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 