Written Word Media launches Reader Reach ads

[Maggie Ann]

Day Two

91 Freeloads
2   Book 2
1   Book 3

Nothing through D2D. No Audiobooks

[idontknowyet]

Zero sales almost the end of day 3.

Thank you for trying. And without any feedback, it is hard to say the reason why.

Did you at least get a preview of what the ad looked like?

I should ask.

[Maggie Ann]

Zero sales almost the end of day 3.

Thank you for trying. And without any feedback, it is hard to say the reason why.

Did you at least get a preview of what the ad looked like?

I should ask.

IMO my ad was nothing special for $150. Cover, Amazon link, brief quote from ***** review. I suppose we were paying for WWM's expertise in marketing to the proper groups. I'll see what the future brings in sell-thru.

[idontknowyet]

almost end of night report ZERO. seriously zero sales this is ridiculous. they should put a caveat that full price books dont sell.

[notthatamanda]

Written word media has always been great to work with so at the end of the campaign I would suggest sending an email nicely voicing your disappointment and see what they say.

[LilyBLily]

Yes, do express your dismay. They must have some stats, too, which you'll want to know, such as how many views and clicks and the bid price.

[R. C.]

Written word media has always been great to work with so at the end of the campaign I would suggest sending an email nicely voicing your disappointment and see what they say.

FWIW - In the past, WWM sent a survey email after AD run completed. I've answered the survey in the negative and received a response.

R.C.

[alhawke]

Okay, I started the thread so I'm gonna give you guys stats to mull over if it'll help. My results are skewed. I added the service at the tail of a big launch promotion. I can tell you guys that, for my books anyway, this launch and the numbers I'm seeing are pretty brutal. In other words, I'm getting lower numbers on all promotions for my launch. I've sold over 100 books. Great, but I usually sell around 200 to 400 based on my prior books with the marketing I did. Could be the book, but I'm not so sure. My book currently has 4.4 stars with 12 reviews and is brand new. All the reviews are legit ARCs. And all of my books aren't selling well this week. So, not a good week.

But back to Reader Reach, here's my 2 cents. I was going to wait but I have a moment so, unless things changed, I'm pouring it all out now.

I've had 29 sales for a 99c book over the past four days. Add an expected 5-10 or so based on daily sales but we'll see. One of those days included Fantasy Deals promotion, the day I had the most sales, and I usually get 5-10 sales from that promo. So dock off 5-10 sales. I'm also running my own BB adds shelling out maybe $10 per day or so. The BB ads btw are not doing well either this week.

The negative. Numbers are obvious. But most of you who run ads know that the problem with ads is that usually you have to let it marinate to become effective. Written Word Media's 5 days may not be enough.

The positive. I've had an uptick in International sales and, the greatest positive, I've sold more paperbacks--more paperbacks sold than ever. The weird thing is that some are my other books. My theory is that I never advertised on Facebook before and new readers took a look at my stuff. One of the sales was an omnibus for $38 USD. That helped. I sold seven paperbacks during the ad run (I usually sell one during a launch week).

There you are. I do think the service is workable depending on your goals, but, like I mentioned at the start, it's quite pricey. It could be effective as another weapon in our arsenal to try to push a bestseller or during a series launch. My book was not a series and this also made revenue suffer. I will consider it in the future for books on sale or free. And I'd think the service will improve.

Nothing ventured...  Life is one long learning curve.

.
Yes. Ah, if only my pocket book didn't suffer trying new things.

[idontknowyet]

Still zero sales.

I sent an email day three. The feel i got from the letter was they didn't care my book was getting clicks.

[R. C.]

Approaching day four... not so much.

R.C.

[Maggie Ann]

Day Three

117 Freeloads
2     Book 2 -1 refunded 1 net
2     Book 3 -1 refunded 1 net

Nothing through D2D

As of Day Four 306 Freeloads

[Maggie Ann]

Day Four

94 Freeloads
1   Book 2
1   Book 3

Day five is showing some numbers, so I guess WWM is running the ad for the full five days.

[R. C.]

Woohoo!  Two whole sales yesterday!  Four day total: Three.

R.C.

[LilyBLily]

 

Sorry your results are so disappointing. Obviously WWM does not have the lock on how to ace FB ads after all.

[Maggie Ann]

Sorry your results are so disappointing. Obviously WWM does not have the lock on how to ace FB ads after all.

No, but they have the lock on how to maximize their profit. I give in and try them about every year or two but no more, no matter how tempting the package they put together.

[R. C.]

Sorry your results are so disappointing. Obviously WWM does not have the lock on how to ace FB ads after all.

No, but they have the lock on how to maximize their profit. I give in and try them about every year or two but no more, no matter how tempting the package they put together.

This new AD format is disappointing. I have had success with the "regular" AD services with WWM.

R.C.

[idontknowyet]

Just wanted to update you all.

I did the survey and as you can guess I mentioned that the promo resulted in no sales. There might have been 1 possible but we'll call it a wash.
They promptly got back to me saying your ad preformed as expected. 318clicks for $150 that's seems like a effective ad. Not.

And that was that.

Would I try it again? For full price absolutely not.
Maybe and I mean doubtfully for a free or .99cent books. I think I'd prefer to give fb the $150 myself. At least I know spending that much money I'll get a few sales.

[LilyBLily]

Wow, not only is that disappointing, it's also nervy of them. Thanks again for being the guinea pig.

[Maggie Ann]

Just wanted to update you all.

I did the survey and as you can guess I mentioned that the promo resulted in no sales. There might have been 1 possible but we'll call it a wash.
They promptly got back to me saying your ad preformed as expected. 318clicks for $150 that's seems like a effective ad. Not.

And that was that.

Would I try it again? For full price absolutely not.
Maybe and I mean doubtfully for a free or .99cent books. I think I'd prefer to give fb the $150 myself. At least I know spending that much money I'll get a few sales.

I got a similar letter.

"This is surprising to hear as your book performed in line with the usual ranges we see on our end. According to Facebook, your book received 896 clicks and 6302 impressions over the 5-day ad period."

[idontknowyet]

That makes me scratch my head.

How is 900 clicks even comparable to my 300. You literally got triple the amount. I mean they both resulted in almost nothing, but what is their definition of an acceptable range. Because 1/3 doesn't seem that way to me!

[Maggie Ann]

That makes me scratch my head.

How is 900 clicks even comparable to my 300. You literally got triple the amount. I mean they both resulted in almost nothing, but what is their definition of an acceptable range. Because 1/3 doesn't seem that way to me!

Mine was a freebie.

I don't think I've ever turned a profit with Freebooksy/Bargainbooksy. If I wanted to advertise, I'd go with Fussy Librarian. I always made  money with them but that was before Zon interfered with my audiobook sales. Also, Fussy has priced themselves out of my range. They raise their prices whenever there is a jump in subscribers and justifiably so.

[Marti Talbott]

I wonder whar they were thinking. Maybe it had to do with blurbd, thinking they could write better ones than we could. I think it's an all around market problem. As I've said before, we now have to compete with streaming movies.

Even Bookbub doesn't seem to be selling our books the way they once did, although they keep raising their prices - perhaps to compensate for their losing bottom line.

I've hadn't promoted in several Goodreads groups until a couple of weeks ago and sales are starting to pick up a little. Wish I could find more groups like that. Again, for me it's the problem of saturating the market. There has to be a way to find new markets without paying an arm and a leg.

I just made the first book in my MT Romance Series free, so hopefully it will sell the other books in the series. Hopefully! All we can do is keep trying new things and new places.

[oganalp]

https://kindlepreneur.com/facebook-ads-for-books/

Here is a really useful guide for FB ads that work.

I am running $1.25/day ads, and I am still getting around 1000 to 2000 page reads per day for most days.

A free book and a $9/day ad with good targeting and copy should generate good results, at least in the clicks department. FB ads can be daunting at first, but they will be automatic once you create a set or two. One word of advice: make sure you calculate your ad budget good. Unlike Amazon, FB takes your money almost daily.

EDIT: The hardest part of FB ads is finding interest groups as indie authors (and most trads) are not targetable.

Before following this guide, I had 0 results.

Actually, most of the stuff on the Kindlepreneur website is good.

[R. C.]

With the disaster that was last week, I forgot to give an update.

WWM - Not so much. I have had success in the past with their Reader Reach, this time it was a bust.

On the other hand, Fussy Librarian's ADs hit it out of the park. Over 3700 downloads. I have not yet recouped costs but sales are up and follow-on sales continue to trend positively.

R.C.

[notthatamanda]

Congratulations!