I'm trying again with Facebook Ads

[JRTomlin]

Many of the novels that have battles are fictional biographies, Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series is a series of biographies of Genghis Khan and his descendants through Kubla Khan. Of course, there are politically focused fictional biographical novels such as Wolf Hall about Thomas Cromwell.

I suppose that is another division in HF, fictional biographies and novels about fictional characters such as Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series (not my personal cup of tea). It is very historically accurate about battles though.

There is some crossover, but not as much in my experience as one might think. I found that advertising to novels such as Ann Boleyn novels may get clicks but rarely sales. If they are crossing over, they'll see the ad on that type of novel when they are in the mood for my particular type of writing.

But I think that the degree segmentation in HF is not typical of all genres.

[Paul Gr]

I am closest to Bernard Cornwell.

I have a title that is close to him, but only to one of his series, the Starbuck series, set in the American civil war.
As I understand it (I'm a newbie advertiser,) I shouldn't target him because he has written several different series, all set in different periods of history.
I should just target the ASINs for this one series.

[LilyBLily]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday duplicating my Facebook ad from May-June, editing it, and creating a new one for the second book in the series. Each will run a week, one after the other. I'm quite curious to see what happens this time. The third book in the trilogy debuts at the end of this week, too. Maybe something will come of this particular tactic.   

[Marti Talbott]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday duplicating my Facebook ad from May-June, editing it, and creating a new one for the second book in the series. Each will run a week, one after the other. I'm quite curious to see what happens this time. The third book in the trilogy debuts at the end of this week, too. Maybe something will come of this particular tactic.

I'll be watching to see how it goes. I don't know which are your books, or I'd watch for it I seem to be on a lot of lists for book promos. Now sure why.

[LilyBLily]

Niche, niche, niche. Mashup niche, even worse. How dare I?

There was a good reason for the first book and I was compelled to write a series because of current wisdom, but until and unless Hollywood comes calling, this is the last. At least no one can complain that the series remains unfinished. (Actually, people can complain about anything and frequently do.) 

[Simon Haynes]

The problem I have with FB ads is that none of the authors I want to target are available in the filtering system. Big names like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett... not a problem. But other, recent, authors which are a better fit simply don't exist.

I usually end up targeting TV shows like Stargate or similar, plus Kindle readers/owners. (Not the category which estimates whether people might own a kindle, btw.)

[LilyBLily]

I finally came up with a mere two names. Slightly better than nothing. When it comes to the romance genre, it's even worse. No, I do not write like Nora Roberts. 

[Simon Haynes]

It's one reason I go back to BB featured ads now and then. Much better targeting. But my last campaign on BB had a CPM of $3 in the US (0.63 cpc) and $5.31 elsewhere (0.48 cpc).  FB is usually 1/5 that price. Also, that BB ad was for a freebie, which is a much easier sell.

[Marti Talbott]

I finally came up with a mere two names. Slightly better than nothing. When it comes to the romance genre, it's even worse. No, I do not write like Nora Roberts.

Do you mean you target the ad at authors with books similar to yours hoping their readers will buy your books? I'm confused about that.

[LilyBLily]

By listing authors or other things you narrow your targeting. Virtuosos with FB ads do things like targeting "Have children in school" and "Works in an office" and "Loves country music." The concept is to end up with a fairly large potential ad audience of 100k to 2 million who might actually be the kinds of people who will like your books. This, according to a FB ads guru. The recommendation is for 5 to 7 author names. No way can I find those.

[Simon Haynes]

I finally came up with a mere two names. Slightly better than nothing. When it comes to the romance genre, it's even worse. No, I do not write like Nora Roberts.

Do you mean you target the ad at authors with books similar to yours hoping their readers will buy your books? I'm confused about that.

You target fans of certain authors. (People who have liked those authors, or joined/created groups re those authors or their works.) Not the authors themselves.