Does anyone know how long a profitable FB Ad can run?

[The Bass Bagwhan]

I'm curious ... one of my FB ads is working. With a target audience of two million, and so far about 10,000 impressions, does it mean I should keep it running until I reach 2,000,000 impressions and thus exhaust the audience reach? Is it that simple?

Cheers. BB.

[writeway]

I don't claim to be an ad expert but 10,000 impressions out of 2 million targets seems low to me for that many targets. How long has the ad been running? If not long then it's too early to judge but if running for a few weeks or a month then those impressions are low. It means not even close to half of the audience has seen the ad. So you might need to increase bids to get more eyes or redo your ad because FB suppresses certain ads. For example, best to have no text or as little as possible. FB algorithms and people respond better to ad images so the image needs to be powerful and convey your message. The key to a successful ad is making sure you are targeting those most likely who will click on your work and buy which means narrowing it down by interests, etc. A target of 2 million seems too large to be successful. Now I haven't used FB ads in years so, take that for what you will. As for how long can you run an ad? You can run it as long as you want if you can afford to but I wouldn't look at it in terms of how long to run it but whether or not it works. Is this ad working because impressions are a lot different from sales? Are you getting clicks and even better, sales from this ad? That's what should determine how long you run an ad. And no one knows how many impressions you'll get but just because you have a target range of 2 million doesn't mean 2 million will actually see the ad.

Are you a newbie to ads? Have you taken any courses or read any books about them? If not I would suggest looking into things that will be of more help to you.

A book I'd recommend is: https://www.amazon.com/Help-My-Facebook-Ads-Suck-ebook/dp/B07YN78GC4/
There are also other good guides for FB ads.

If you are on Facebook I highly recommend the following group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/393917614473395

That group is THE place to be for authors running any kind of ad.

Good luck!

[The Bass Bagwhan]

I don't claim to be an ad expert but 10,000 impressions out of 2 million targets seems low to me for that many targets. How long has the ad been running? If not long then it's too early to judge but if running for a few weeks or a month then those impressions are low. It means not even close to half of the audience has seen the ad. So you might need to increase bids to get more eyes or redo your ad because FB suppresses certain ads. For example, best to have no text or as little as possible. FB algorithms and people respond better to ad images so the image needs to be powerful and convey your message. The key to a successful ad is making sure you are targeting those most likely who will click on your work and buy which means narrowing it down by interests, etc. A target of 2 million seems too large to be successful. Now I haven't used FB ads in years so, take that for what you will. As for how long can you run an ad? You can run it as long as you want if you can afford to but I wouldn't look at it in terms of how long to run it but whether or not it works. Is this ad working because impressions are a lot different from sales? Are you getting clicks and even better, sales from this ad? That's what should determine how long you run an ad. And no one knows how many impressions you'll get but just because you have a target range of 2 million doesn't mean 2 million will actually see the ad.

Are you a newbie to ads? Have you taken any courses or read any books about them? If not I would suggest looking into things that will be of more help to you.

A book I'd recommend is: https://www.amazon.com/Help-My-Facebook-Ads-Suck-ebook/dp/B07YN78GC4/
There are also other good guides for FB ads.

If you are on Facebook I highly recommend the following group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/393917614473395

That group is THE place to be for authors running any kind of ad.

Good luck!

Thanks Writeway, I'm currently doubling my small budget in sales - meaning for every $5 I spend, I'm getting $10 in sales and KENP reads - so this post was a kind of "this is too good to last" sort of question. I've learned the importance of targeting, but more than anything it's the image sourced from a good cover design that is probably making the most difference. At the moment, I'm adopting an "If it ain't broker, don't fix it" attitude and leaving well alone. And hoping to apply the lessons learned to the next book.
I've joined that group. Thanks again.

[writeway]

You're welcome! Yeah, right now just ride it out and see how it is going and if you see any reason to tweak some things then you can always do that. But if you are seeing sales and reads, that's great!

[alhawke]

I don't do FB ads, but Hidden Gems (a romance promo company) just posted this really informative article today:
https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/learned-after-spending-100k-with-facebook-ads/

The only caution I'd throw out there is that the article makes it sound like all you need do is throw more money at your advertising to start making money. Every time I've went down that road, I've lost lots of money.

Good article, anyway, especially I figured for someone working with Facebook ads.

[writeway]

I don't do FB ads, but Hidden Gems (a romance promo company) just posted this really informative article today:
https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/learned-after-spending-100k-with-facebook-ads/

The only caution I'd throw out there is that the article makes it sound like all you need do is throw more money at your advertising to start making money. Every time I've went down that road, I've lost lots of money.

Good article, anyway, especially I figured for someone working with Facebook ads.

I get the ML mailing list and I read this too. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't just throw money at ads and hope it sticks. Horrible idea but many people do it anyway. If your ad stinks or if you don't know how to run an ad successfully no amount of money is going to help you. I also think that if HG wanted to post a more helpful article they could show it from the POV of someone who might not be some rich businessman like the dude in the article. Many authors don't have $100 to throw at ads, let alone $100,000. When giving advice if we are coming from financial privilege we need to be mindful of the advice we give others. I think it would've helped to have a regular writer without 6 figures to spend share some practical advice on what might work for the masses.

[alhawke]

Well, the ad did inspire me to up the ante for a new BookBub ad. And it worked! Sort of. I put an ad up and went through $10 in four hours. Total was 28 clicks with CTR of 3.99%. All US market. That's actually a very good CTR for a three year old book. Basically, I took a successful ad and only added in three authors that my book was selling to from the other ad. Then I saw a correlation of sale (it could be from my other ad, but I'm thinking not due the timing within hours). But that's one sale at 3.99 with royalties of $3, not $10. So, I'll see. It's hopeful because I can play with the ad and try to bring down the cpc

The problem is, every time I put up a new ad up, I have to wait for it to perform. That costs money. So, yeah, Writeway, you're exactly right. You can't just throw $100 per day. At least, I can't. So I might never know if throwing barrels of dollars would work. 

Anyway, not FB, BookBub ad, but I think the idea of working with ads is still the same.

(edit} one more caveat. My books are selling more since January arrived. So there's a bloated sale effect after a long slump this summer).

[Bill Hiatt]

What extremely little data I have suggests that increasing ad spends does sell more books--but the increase in sales doesn't necessarily compensate for the increase in costs. That's the catch.

Someone with a big enough barrel of money to spend (and a decent ad) will probably do well. But most of us don't have a big enough barrel.

[alhawke]

What extremely little data I have suggests that increasing ad spends does sell more books--but the increase in sales doesn't necessarily compensate for the increase in costs. That's the catch.

This has been my experience too. But... my new ad is cooking. Got another sale with CTR of 3.90 in the US market for my brand new BB $10 ad. Since the other ads hadn't gotten a click yet today, I can guess it's that one. That's very promising. If I can tweak the ad to either make money, or even break even, I'll have no problem advancing the money to $100. Again, that's if I can break even or make more. Otherwise the argument doesn't hold.

The only exception is if you can track that it leads to sales in the rest of a series. I operate at a daily loss when advertising one of my boxed sets, for example. Because a final sale is worth a heck more.

If advancing the money works, the ranking will improve. This will then cascade into more sales. I'll let you guys know. If it works, I'll also bash my head against the wall because I could have done this two years ago. But I'll still be happy doing it--if it works.

[Bill Hiatt]

We're all keeping our fingers crossed for you.

[Rod Little]

They say an ad gets stale after 6 months (it has to do with time more than how much of your audience you've shown to). However, I have an ad that's been working for more than a year (14 months) and I hate to stop it and start a new one. Each ad has social proof (in this case 32K likes and 700 comments) which helps the ad. However, I think I have no choice but to close the ad soon and start a new one. FB doesn't like old ads, they like fresh new ones every few months. They'll start to show it less. For now, it's fine ... so I roll on. But Feb 1st I must close it and start new.

For your situation, you're far from stale. Keep running it as long as it works. However, be wary of "throwing more money at it." That doesn't always work. FB will be happy to take your money, but they'll start to show it to a wider audience that may not be optimal. It's better to reach 100 interested readers than 10,000 people who don't give a crud.

note: I am not an expert. This is based on my experience, but I have been using FB ads for 8 years.

btw: what is your bid cap on the ad? and genre?

[idontknowyet]

I've heard of ads running successfully for several years. The rule of thumb I've heard is don't stop an ad that's working.

[Bill Hiatt]

While I have noticed that ads tend to decline over time, yeah, I wouldn't stop one until it actually started to falter.

[alhawke]

Each ad has social proof (in this case 32K likes and 700 comments) which helps the ad.

That's interesting. I'm very Facebook ad ignorant (use BookBub as above). I didn't know the Facebook ad itself could get likes and comments. I think that'd help its effectiveness too ??

[Greg Dragon]

Each ad has social proof (in this case 32K likes and 700 comments) which helps the ad.

That's interesting. I'm very Facebook ad ignorant (use BookBub as above). I didn't know the Facebook ad itself could get likes and comments. I think that'd help its effectiveness too ??

I had a successful one for a minute, and it only got better with time because of the social proof. A lot of it will be people posting nonsense (or arguing), but it encourages people to interact, so it works. I'm guilty myself of clicking through a seemingly popular ad just to see what the hype is about.

[Bill Hiatt]

Each ad has social proof (in this case 32K likes and 700 comments) which helps the ad.

That's interesting. I'm very Facebook ad ignorant (use BookBub as above). I didn't know the Facebook ad itself could get likes and comments. I think that'd help its effectiveness too ??

The kind of ad in which you promote a post definitely will. I wasn't aware ads unconnected to a post could do that.

That's probably also a reason that the ad in question is still doing well. I can believe FB looks new and shiny, but some of its algorithms reward things that get interacted with, particularly in the form of comments.

[Rod Little]

Each ad has social proof (in this case 32K likes and 700 comments) which helps the ad.

That's interesting. I'm very Facebook ad ignorant ... I didn't know the Facebook ad itself could get likes and comments. I think that'd help its effectiveness too ??

Yes, FB rewards ads with lots of click, provided they continue to get more clicks. FB likes interaction, so if both your ad and another bid the same amount but yours has many likes and the other doesn't, yours will be shown first. You can further promote this by answering the questions asked in the comments. Some of the questions seem silly (like: is this in paperback too; or: where can I get this?) when the link clearly answers both. If you answer their question though, it's yet another comment and helps. And as mentioned by another, many of the comments don't make any sense or are unrelated, but they still help your algo. People will say things like: Oh, I don't read anymore, is this ever going to be a movie? Or:
Ooh, I don't like crime fiction, too scary. Or:
I read that James Patterson has a new book coming out. haha. These are not relevant but do help.

Thus, I like to run an ad for as long as I can to take advantage of all those comments and Likes. And yes, it may nudge a few buyers wondering why it has so many likes. That undecided reader might click your ad to see why.

Anyway, good luck on your ads. If you have a winner, keep it going.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Sorry, I missed some of the later replies until now ... good info from everyone (thanks Rod). Like I said earlier, I'm running two ads for the same book  one in the US market and the other UK. Genre is historical fiction/WW2 with a strong love story ( not romance, really). I have $5.oo daily limit.
ROI is still double my costs, so I'm not touching a thing. Because both ads are neck-and-neck it's tempting to bundle the target audience into one ad and double the budget, but they're working, so...

It's opened my eyes to potential KENP income with 100k pages read per month.

Meanwhile, a third "test" ad for a different book/genre/market is getting clicks but no sales. Makes for an interesting conundrum, because I'm allowed to have belief in my writing given the success of other titles, so it's something else I've got wrong.

Oh, and I agree with answering comments completely. I often wonder about the mantra of not reacting or commenting on reviews. We're always looking for reader engagement, yet reacting to reviews is frowned upon.

[Rod Little]

ROI is still double my costs, so I'm not touching a thing. Because both ads are neck-and-neck it's tempting to bundle the target audience into one ad and double the budget, but they're working, so...

Hi Bass Bagwhan, I agree you should not touch it at all (any tiny change might throw it off) and I also would not bundle the two. FB loves to try to convince you to bundle ads, but I've never seen evidence of that working better.  I've also done well with ads in Canada and Australia (which must be done separately.

Out of curiosity, what is your bid cap? Mine is .28 in the US and .11 in the UK (.15 in Canada and .09 in Australia). This may depend on how broad your audience is.

As for the 3rd ad that isn't working: keep playing with creatives (the ad graphic itself) and different targets.

Glad your ads are working. Keep it rolling.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Hi Bass Bagwhan, I agree you should not touch it at all (any tiny change might throw it off) and I also would not bundle the two. FB loves to try to convince you to bundle ads, but I've never seen evidence of that working better.  I've also done well with ads in Canada and Australia (which must be done separately.

Out of curiosity, what is your bid cap? Mine is .28 in the US and .11 in the UK (.15 in Canada and .09 in Australia). This may depend on how broad your audience is.

As for the 3rd ad that isn't working: keep playing with creatives (the ad graphic itself) and different targets.

Glad your ads are working. Keep it rolling.

I dont think I even set a bid cap ... I just put the $5.00 AUS per day limit. I'm averaging 0.08-0.11 per bid on both. It's interesting you mention Canada and Australia - I'm in Oz and I've always believed that KDP/KU doesn't have a strong presence. And just last week I checked that Canada has a population of 40 million and I wondered if that might present similar issues. Now I'm intrigued to perhaps use a third ad to target Canada. Probably can't harm to run it for a week...
Cheers for your help. I'll keep everyone posted.

BB.

[Rod Little]

Ah, yes, if you are exclusive to KDP (in KU and not wide), you won't do as well in Oz or CA.  I am wide (not in KU), and sales do well in both countries via Kobo, Google, iBooks etc. and also adequate in KDP sales (but non-KU). 

btw .08 to .11 cpc is excellent. That's hard to achieve.

[alhawke]

btw .08 to .11 cpc is excellent. That's hard to achieve.

Second that. Congrats! Best I've been able to achieve with results is $.23 (my most successful ad). I find most ads have to average around $.40 CPC (my books).