Getting started with Facebook Promotion

[RiverRun]

My promotional efforts for my books have been very limited. And, voila! My books don't sell. They might not sell with promotional efforts either, but let's not consider that melancholy prospect:)

I realized recently that I'm just afraid of the whole thing. So, I'm just trying to educate myself now about how advertising opportunities work, and maybe then it will be less scary.

I read this article this morning about Facebook ads in which the author claims to be doing things differently than the recommended practices and is finding success with it. I'm not even ready to start advertising anything. But I'm curious if others are familiar with this approach. Does this seem like a trustworthy guide to those of you who have actually tried facebook ads?

https://janefriedman.com/an-unconventional-facebook-ads-strategy-for-authors/

[R. C.]

River - Thank you for the article.

The author confirms a theory I have been considering for a few months. In the digital world of "advanced heuristic algorithms," specific, narrow, detailed, or otherwise limiting AD targeting has become counterproductive.

The premise is simple and has been a tried-and-true marketing ethos for decades — more eyeballs equals more sales. Of course, the trick is time and a few metrics.

The telling component of the article is: "And over time, the performance of the ads just becomes better and better, as the algorithm starts learning who does and doesn't like the ad.

Time.

Why spend ducats to advertise books to people who refuse to read? Note that the budget outlined in the article is not small. Based on intuitive instinct, okay chicken bones and voodoo, I believe that the daily budget is a top-line factor in the algorithm selecting your Campaign/AD for presentation.

Spend.

I stopped all FB (Meta) ADs because I recognized their algorithm(s) had changed and became ineffective. Maybe it is time to restart the FB campaigns. I have time, but am I willing to put a sizeable daily budget into the hope of a positive ROI?

R.C.

[Bill Hiatt]

Has the FB algorithm changed since August 9? That would be my first question.

I dropped FB ads long ago, finding good for promoting FB-type things (such as getting people to like a page), but not much good for actually selling books. However,  I was using detailed targeting. The logic in the presentation appeals to me.

I'll also ad a flaw in the targeting that wasn't mentioned in the article but that was one of my primary sources of frustration. A lot of things I wanted to target just weren't in the FB system. I could easily find broad targets like fantasy. Sub-genres were tougher. Specific authors were tougher, as FB had a limited selection. I often found the targets I had to settle for to be rough approximations at best for what I really wanted.

When I'm feeling adventurous (or desperate, whichever comes first), I'll have to try the system and see what happens.

[R. C.]

Has the FB algorithm changed since August 9? That would be my first question. [RC] I believe the late summer/early fall is when I started to think the algorythms were changing.

I dropped FB ads long ago, finding good for promoting FB-type things (such as getting people to like a page), but not much good for actually selling books. However,  I was using detailed targeting. The logic in the presentation appeals to me.

I'll also ad a flaw in the targeting that wasn't mentioned in the article but that was one of my primary sources of frustration. A lot of things I wanted to target just weren't in the FB system. I could easily find broad targets like fantasy. Sub-genres were tougher. Specific authors were tougher, as FB had a limited selection. I often found the targets I had to settle for to be rough approximations at best for what I really wanted. [RC] I have spoken to FB AD support several times on the topic of targeting and market focus. Their tool cannot narrow the AD presentation pool relative to "fans of detective mysteries." The level of support is too low for a straight answer about how the new algorithms are being modified to accommodate (find) the correct consumer.

When I'm feeling adventurous (or desperate, whichever comes first), I'll have to try the system and see what happens. [RC] I’m going back in. I'll let you know how it goes.

[idontknowyet]

Yes, fb ads have changed recently. I created a profitable, (my first ever) then black friday hit. If you're wanting to experiment with fb ads i'd wait until after xmas and after zoebub.