My first (and less than 12 hour experiment) with Google Ads.

[notthatamanda]

I started an ad this morning.  Interface was easy enough to figure out.  They do not give you a lot of options for copy.  Three different fields, not enough space in any of them really, but I came up with something I thought would be okay.  Got my book cover on there, put the amazon page for the book for it to send people who click on the ad.  I set a budget of ten dollars a day, three hundred plus for the month.

Checked it just now, up to 94 impressions, 6 clicks.  Want to guess how much money I spent?  Go head, guess.  Got your number?
Almost fourteen dollars.  For six clicks.  I turned the ad off immediately.  They asked me to complete a survey, the first choice I could select on question one was "Ads are too expensive".  Another question I selected "Allow you to set a maximum per click."

So lesson learned, learn from my lesson and don't waste your money.  I really wanted to get google ads going for me, but I can't justify that kind of cost per click.  I said they could contact me if they wanted.  I'm guessing the monthly budget is what stops the spend, which I didn't pick up on.

[123mlh]

There's a setting to control your bids.

[notthatamanda]

That would be good but I didn't see it.  Can you explain where to find it?  I only see the place to set your daily budget, which controls your monthly budget.  The only explanation on per click cost is this:

How much it costs
Costs vary for each click, but you won't spend more than your monthly budget.

[PJ Post]

Click ads are a scam. I fully expect them to become illegal at some point down the road; mainly because they interfere with free access to markets. The internet has upended traditional market places, and, as a result, has created a haven for predatory commercialism, especially at the sole (I wanna get rich on the internet) proprietor level. The ability to successfully leverage this system does not in any way legitimize it.

[dgcasey]

Okay, here's your first lesson. STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE ADS! They are worthless and will do nothing for your bank account, other than drain it. Spend your time and money figuring out Amazon Ads, BookBub ads and even Facebook ads.

If I had $750, I'd be signing up for Mark Dawson's Ad for Authors course. But, right now I can't even afford the $75 a month option. Hoping that changes by the times he reopens the course sometime this winter.

[notthatamanda]

Okay, here's your first lesson. STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE ADS! They are worthless and will do nothing for your bank account, other than drain it. Spend your time and money figuring out Amazon Ads, BookBub ads and even Facebook ads.

If I had $750, I'd be signing up for Mark Dawson's Ad for Authors course. But, right now I can't even afford the $75 a month option. Hoping that changes by the times he reopens the course sometime this winter.

Yep, thanks.  I lost $15 bucks.  Could have been much worse.

[LilyBLily]

Mark is a cool guy. But please do not think that spending $750 on a course will make a huge difference unless you are willing to put the arcane details of Facebook ads he teaches minutely into practice AND you write in just one genre AND you have plenty of books to hand out as freebies AND you will follow through on every single stricture in every single module of the course. It's a lot of work, and doing all those ads isn't cheap, either. I signed up last year and quickly realized that I couldn't do it; I couldn't follow through. There were personal reasons, and I had mistakenly bought hope rather than a plan of action I was willing or able to carry out. Mark gave me a refund. As I said, a cool guy.

Everybody says do lots of tests. notthatamanda has done a test and wisely stopped before it set her bank account on fire. I wisely don't do lots of tests because I know it would set my brain on fire.

 

[Simon Haynes]

8 years ago I set my first novel to perma-free, and I still believe it's the most effective way to advertise a series. (I reverted it to 2.99 late last year, as an experiment, then switched it back to free several weeks ago.)

It's cheaper and easier to promote a freebie, and inside you can put reader magnets, links to other works, etc - it's like your own private billboard.

[VanessaC]

Mark is a cool guy. But please do not think that spending $750 on a course will make a huge difference unless you are willing to put the arcane details of Facebook ads he teaches minutely into practice AND you write in just one genre AND you have plenty of books to hand out as freebies AND you will follow through on every single stricture in every single module of the course. It's a lot of work, and doing all those ads isn't cheap, either. I signed up last year and quickly realized that I couldn't do it; I couldn't follow through. There were personal reasons, and I had mistakenly bought hope rather than a plan of action I was willing or able to carry out. Mark gave me a refund. As I said, a cool guy.

Everybody says do lots of tests. notthatamanda has done a test and wisely stopped before it set her bank account on fire. I wisely don't do lots of tests because I know it would set my brain on fire.

I'm sure there were comments on another thread about the Ads for Authors course that, to get the best out of it, not only did you need the course price, you also needed the time - as LilyBLily says above - AND money to spend on experimenting with ads to see what works. This is money you're prepared to never see again, to see what works - but if you find ads that work, the results seem great.

That's next level for me - probably a good six months away, perhaps longer.

I'm currently working (slowly) through Mark Dawson's 101 Course to make sure I've got the basics right.  The course is great - lots of really useful, actionable info for newbies and newer authors like me, and I really appreciate that I can work at my own pace.  Even though I had some of the basics set up, the course is inspiring me to revisit a lot of it (website, mailing list, automation sequence).  It's a time investment at this point.  It's quite a lot of work behind the scenes, particularly when I'm working a day job and trying to write the next book. (And I know I'm not as busy as a lot of other people on here!)

Always interested in hearing about others' experiments and experiences - thank you, notthatamanda.

[notthatamanda]

8 years ago I set my first novel to perma-free, and I still believe it's the most effective way to advertise a series. (I reverted it to 2.99 late last year, as an experiment, then switched it back to free several weeks ago.)

It's cheaper and easier to promote a freebie, and inside you can put reader magnets, links to other works, etc - it's like your own private billboard.

My two first in trilogies have been permafree for a year.  I've never had a bookbub on either of them.  (Published one in 2015, one in 2017, I've applied lots when I was in KU)  I'm wondering if having them at full price for a while, then applying, probably for 99 cents, would increase my chances.  Thoughts?

[notthatamanda]

Always interested in hearing about others' experiments and experiences - thank you, notthatamanda.

I've been wanting to try Google ads for a while, but you had to have a website.  In all my years of lurking I don't remember anybody posting about it, of course they could have but I just missed it.  I've read lots on AMS, Bookbub ads and some about Facebook ads.  If Google adds a maximum bid and daily maximum I would try it again.  One thing you can do on Google is pick the country you want to advertise in.  That is something I can't do on AMS, the UK won't take me.  I'd like to advertise in Australia and Canada too.  If you have your books in other languages (I don't) I think it would be great to advertise those in the appropriate countries.

[Denise]

I've used Google ads before—not for books, and it was very good.

You can adjust the cost per click and your budget. I'm sorry this happened to you, but it shouldn't happen. That said, they recently changed Google ads and it's a bit harder to navigate. Maybe it's an automatic (or easy) setting.

I don't know why it doesn't usually work for books. It may be just that you reach print and trad book readers? I don't know.

I think I might give it a shot when I have something a bit more commercial.

[notthatamanda]

I've used Google ads before—not for books, and it was very good.

You can adjust the cost per click and your budget. I'm sorry this happened to you, but it shouldn't happen. That said, they recently changed Google ads and it's a bit harder to navigate. Maybe it's an automatic (or easy) setting.

I guess I will ask them.  Thanks.

Edit:  It says you can do it, but actually doing it?  Holy maboley.  I can't find it anywhere.   Something about editing your whole ad group, or your individual keywords.  They have two versions of help but neither one makes sense to me.  It could just be me.  I'll let support earn their salary when they open up in an hour.   Thanks Denise.

[Denise]

I guess I will ask them.  Thanks.

Edit:  It says you can do it, but actually doing it?  Holy maboley.  I can't find it anywhere.   Something about editing your whole ad group, or your individual keywords.  They have two versions of help but neither one makes sense to me.  It could just be me.  I'll let support earn their salary when they open up in an hour.   Thanks Denise.

Yeah, I used the old interface. They changed it to Google ads, and frankly, even with experience I got confused.
Let support do their work, for sure, and they should make it easier.

[notthatamanda]

It's in the expert mode.  I had a support guy talk me through it.  He was great.  Default is the "smart" mode.  It's not very smart though.  There are tons of options in the expert mode, it looks really cool.  But to use images you need at minimum a square image and a landscape one and all I have is the portrait book cover, so I may be done with this before I start.

[Denise]

It's in the expert mode.  I had a support guy talk me through it.  He was great.  Default is the "smart" mode.  It's not very smart though.  There are tons of options in the expert mode, it looks really cool.  But to use images you need at minimum a square image and a landscape one and all I have is the portrait book cover, so I may be done with this before I start.

You could try creating an image on Canva.

Yeah, even before, I had to toggle to a different mode for ads. They have a "simple" setting that's terrible, because they want to choose it all for you.

[notthatamanda]

Thank you, I will add it to my, very long list, to check out Canva.  But I'm going to give myself a little more time to recover 100% from the emotional grind that was getting my wordpress website up and running first.

[notthatamanda]

Thanks Denise, for the Canva tip.  I was able to resize to exactly what I needed.

[Paul Gr]

Wonder where the ads appeared, relevance etc.

[notthatamanda]

I want to give it another try, the expert dashboard has a lot of options, but last time around the only thing I could figure out was to set the bids at a max of 35 cents.  It wouldn't let me go higher, and I got no clicks.  On the list for this month, hopefully, we are still adjusting to the school routine and the new, earlier high school schedule, which is zzzzzzzz

Oh and your actual question,

Wonder where the ads appeared, relevance etc.

There may be some info on that, but I didn't know how to check it at the time.

[Paul Gr]

Ok thanks.