I like free. But if I can’t have something for free then I want it cheap. I’ve been exploring lots of the free ways to promote the Kindle eBooks and they have I believe they have been successful. I believe that if we had just published the ebooks and done nothing else we would have occasionally sold a book but that’s it. At this point, since March 2012 we have published 4 ebooks. The last two books were published in June 2012. For the months of April, May, and the majority of June we had only 2 ebooks available.
Cumulatively those 2 ebooks sold at the rate of 1 book per day. In other words, by the end of each month we had sold about 30 of the above mentioned ebooks.
Now it’s July and we have 4 ebooks available. We done all of our established free ebook promotions. Now we are ready to expand. I’m beginning to explore some inexpensive options for advertising. Facebook has served as a free tool to build a platform. Many authors utilize it in this way. But did you know that anyone can use Facbook Ads to advertise and it can be customized to fit just about any budget. You can even target who sees your advertisement. If you go to your Facbook page and look the column on the right you may see some advertisements entitled Sponsored. These are the types of advertisements I am experimenting with. **Mine is pictured above.
I have set a budget of $35. You have two options for your ad. You can pay per click or per thousand impressions (times your ad appears on FB pages). I prefer to pay by the click. My link leads directly to the amazon.com page for the eBook I’m advertising for. You can spend as much or as little as you like for your ad. You will also place a bid for the price you pay per click. The Create an Ad page will guide you through your options. Since I chose a lifetime budget of $35 for my current ad once I reach $35 worth of clicks Facebook will stop running my Ad. I’ve set my ad to run for 30 days. If I don’t use all $35 by then my ad will stop. I can always set up another one.
I can also target my audience. For the most recent Nano-Canning ebook I have chosen to target people who like Amazon.com, like Kindle Fire, like Recipes, and like Canning and Preserving. I can even set an age range for my audience. I chose people who are 20 or older. This gives me a greater chance of reaching people who will actually be interested in buying the book. I could have marketed specifically to men or women but I chose not to do this. I also had the option of marketing to people in specific locations, right down to zip codes. But that was not appropriate for my needs. It might be for yours, though.
I believe that my investment is paying off. Not everyone clicks on these ads. How many have you clicked on? But plenty of people see them. It’s possible that some people will see the ad but rather than click on the book they will go to amazon.com on their own and look up the book if they are interested. But I only pay if they actually click on my ad. I like that.
I think it’s worth a try and I believe that some ads will be more successful than others. Check it out and remember, you control your own budget. Spend as little or as much as your budget allows. When you feel more comfortable try some of their other ad options.
Good Luck!