Advertising through Lulls

[alhawke]

I notice major lulls in sales around vacation times (like now--Spring break in the US). Also on weekends. I advertise mostly through BookBub ads and I've become relatively successful. I've learned to only advertise my books that sell (the hard way$$).

Anyway, my question is, do you stop advertising during lulls in sales? This past summer was particularly bad where I'd go nearly a week at times without sales. I experimented with shutting down all ads, because no sales costs me money in ads, but I found that that seemed to mess up the algos with ads more and create a longer lag for sales to recover when the market got better. But I could shut down ads during weekends and holidays? Am I supposed to shut them down during slower seasons? Ratchet them up? 

What do you do? I get that a lot of this is trial and error, but I'm just looking into anybody else's experience here. After all, I'm a writer not a marketer . I rather experiment more wisely.

[writeway]

Oh, heck no. My experience is if you stop advertising through the slower times then things will get even worse. I know some authors do this and save their advertising but to me, that makes no sense. The lull period is when you SHOULD advertise. When things are easily selling then that's when you can slack off. I'm even going back to releasing books in the summer months now. Summer was always slow so I stopped releasing the last few summers but sales would be horrible and it would take time to rebound so I figure having some releases would be good. I'm gonna spit out some erotica shorts to put on preorder for the summer and I will also have a romantic suspense book and book 5 in my historical romance coming out in the summer. So hopefully the releases will do well. I also was reading that the summer is (surprisingly) when a lot of people do the most reading. We shall see. It's been about 3 years since I released anything in the summer. I usually take June-Sept. off and just promote my backlist but last summer was brutal and I think money would've been much better had I released. I don't use ads anymore BTW.

[Bill Hiatt]

Voracious readers probably read more during vacation times, not less. I'm living proof. Before I retired from teaching, the vast bulk of my reading was done during summer.

(I expected Easter to be a slow time, but sales didn't completely die, and it was pretty good for KU reads (best day so far this month).

Something I noticed from the time I started publishing--not everyone's cycle is the same. I haven't seen that many threads like that recently, but I used to see threads all time time on various forums about why month X was a slow time, If one put them all together, it would seem that every single month was a slow time. And there was always people joining the discussion to say that month X was their best month.

It used to be fairly consistent that December wasn't great for ebooks because you couldn't put them under the tree, but January was good because of all the new kindles. As the kindle market became more saturated, the January bump lessened a bit. But aside from that, I don't remember seeing any consistent trend. Months with new releases in them tended to be better, regardless of the season. And my worst month for advertising effectiveness during this last year was November, for no particular reason. (November last year was decent.)

I'm with writeway on this issue--slow times don't mean that advertising will be less effective. But less advertising may mean lower sales when times would otherwise have been better.

[alhawke]

Oh, heck no. My experience is if you stop advertising through the slower times then things will get even worse.

You're helpful as always, Writeway. I'm always experimenting, but I'll go with your advice. I'm riding on a very successful ad through BB right now. It's moving both my witch series and a bit of my new audio. It's tempting to stop the ads because it costs a lot when I don't get sales. But I think you both are right.

For my books, I do see major lulls on weekends and holidays. But then sales pick up Sunday night and weekdays. But this could be my books which could be very different than others.

[idontknowyet]

i dont bother with major holidays but like after xmas is amazing!
did a promo before and after easter with no issues except for sat and sunday

[Crystal]

It all depends on your strategy.

If you want to maximize ROI, you should advertise when you get the best ROI. That might be during lulls or it might be during peaks. It depends on so many other factors.

I keep my ads pretty consistent, except for sales and new releases. I find that works the best for both my personality and my ROI. I will step ads back if my ROI is dropping to much and up them if my ROI is good.

[PJ Post]

Advertising, for most industries, is constant as a rule. People buy the familiar, things they've incorporated into their worldview. It's why we have the expression, "I got a guy for that." The more potential buyers see your brand, the more familiar it becomes. Promotion has a cumulative effect (including social media). Eventually they may become a customer, but it's probably not the result of a single ad. It's more likely that when they chose to click on that mailer post it was because they were already aware of your brand, usually a lot.

[Bill Hiatt]

Advertising, for most industries, is constant as a rule. People buy the familiar, things they've incorporated into their worldview. It's why we have the expression, "I got a guy for that." The more potential buyers see your brand, the more familiar it becomes. Promotion has a cumulative effect (including social media). Eventually they may become a customer, but it's probably not the result of a single ad. It's more likely that when they chose to click on that mailer post it was because they were already aware of your brand, usually a lot.

Yes, I've heard much the same from numerous sources, and it's logical. It's also consistent with my own practice. I don't usually run to buy something after one ad unless it's something I'm already familiar with. But as I see more ads, I give more thought to the product.

I've also seen social media fans become buyers. It takes a long time.