A buyer via Facebook ads - the cost?

[Lerria321]

I talked to a person who made ads for a few series (fantasy) on Facebook. She said, it cost her something like 20$ to bring a buying reader to Amazon. As a result only very long series were profitable.
What is your experience with Facebook ads? Can such a price (20$ per a buyer) be considered normal? Or did that author pay too much?
 

[alhawke]

I can't give advice for Facebook ads. I've never ran one. Have you ran AMS or BookBub?

I've done plenty of AMS and BookBub ads. My fair ads range around 15-20% sales per dollar. These are average for me. So for most of our books averaging $2.99 to $4.99, that equates to about one sale every $20, which matches exactly with your friend's experience. For a series or boxset, this can work well. Like your friend said, for a single book, it doesn't.

So you have to experiment to get a better paying ad. Some better ads will approach 1:1. In other words, you put a dollar in and you get a dollar back. Or you pay $20 and get $20 in sales. But it takes a lot of trial and error to get those--one would argue, like with betting, you have to lose a lot of money in the front end to eventually win. Of course, the optimum ad yields more sales than you pay. I have one ad that's been very successful out of many many failures. It yields around 1:1.

[R. C.]

I have a lot of experience with FB ADs.  Here are a few my thoughts. Past performance is not indicative of future results. 

One: Wait. The FB AD tool is undergoing massive change. ADs that worked are now dead. Impressions are hard to get. Time will tell how to adapt to the changes.

Two: Use 20-30 second video ADs. Static ADs are faster, and possibly cheaper, but today's audience requires more. A video AD that "grabs" is key.

Three: Expect to work hard a audience refinement.  It is difficult to "find" a receptive audience via the FB AD tool.

R.C.

[Lu Kudzoza]

My experience with FB ads is it costs about $6 to sell a $5.99 book via FB ads (this includes page reads in Kindle Unlimited).

I have a theory that no matter the price point from Free to $5.99 you'll lose about $2 on FB ads to sell the first book and get people to read it. From my experience and from what others have told me about their experience it looks something like this.

Price    Royalty     CPC   Conversion    Profit   
               Rate              Rate / 1 in
5.99         0.7       0.2               31     -2.01   
4.99         0.7       0.2               27     -1.91   
3.99         0.7       0.2               24     -2.01   
2.99         0.7       0.2               21     -2.11   
0.99         0.3       0.2               10     -1.70* Less people will actually read it, so -2
Free            0     0.18                 5      0.90* Probably only half actually read it so -1.8

[Lerria321]

My experience with FB ads is it costs about $6 to sell a $5.99 book via FB ads (this includes page reads in Kindle Unlimited).

I have a theory that no matter the price point from Free to $5.99 you'll lose about $2 on FB ads to sell the first book and get people to read it. From my experience and from what others have told me about their experience it looks something like this.

Price    Royalty     CPC   Conversion    Profit   
               Rate              Rate / 1 in
5.99         0.7       0.2               31     -2.01   
4.99         0.7       0.2               27     -1.91   
3.99         0.7       0.2               24     -2.01   
2.99         0.7       0.2               21     -2.11   
0.99         0.3       0.2               10     -1.70* Less people will actually read it, so -2
Free            0     0.18                 5      0.90* Probably only half actually read it so -1.8

This is actually a very good result and very encouraging. I've never tried FB ads myself, but now I think it's worth a shot. With a good sell-through it will make even a short series profitable.

[Lerria321]

I can't give advice for Facebook ads. I've never ran one. Have you ran AMS or BookBub?

I have ran AMS ads while they were less expensive. My main series consists of 5 books, which is not enough to make profit with 20$ expense per sale. The sell-through is not 100%, unfortunately 

[Lerria321]

I have a lot of experience with FB ADs.  Here are a few my thoughts. Past performance is not indicative of future results. 

One: Wait. The FB AD tool is undergoing massive change. ADs that worked are now dead. Impressions are hard to get. Time will tell how to adapt to the changes.

Two: Use 20-30 second video ADs. Static ADs are faster, and possibly cheaper, but today's audience requires more. A video AD that "grabs" is key.

Three: Expect to work hard a audience refinement.  It is difficult to "find" a receptive audience via the FB AD tool.

R.C.

Thank you, I will definitely wait until everything at FB calms down.  As for video, it's an interesting idea, but I wonder - do you have any statistics to prove that video ads are better for reading audience?

For example, I'm an avid reader and I never watch video podcasts unless they are terribly important for my job. And even then I always feel cheated out of my time.

[Rod Little]

I spend a lot on FB ads, and have spent 6 years learning its minutia/peculiarities, and I can tell you it's profitable but difficult. Series can surely be more profitable, but my bestseller is a standalone book that I think simply grabs readers better in the blurb. I make about $1.30 back for every $1 spent.  This took years of loss and break-even to reach this level. Start with $100/month, but that will not be profitable - it will be a learning experience. It takes at least $1000/campaign to really get results. It's not for the faint of heart.

BUT: Do start small to learn the system.

You should definitely wait until Jan, as now Christmas ads (big deep-pocket retailers) are pushing everyone aside. Start after the holidays.

Good luck in your marketing!

[JRTomlin]

I suppose most know this but if you haven't received the email, Written Word Media has recently started running Facebook ads for authors.

I haven't run a FB ad for years because I refuse to have a FB account. Please just take that as a given without political arguments. However since it is a big source of sales, or used to be, I decided to give this a try on a promotion that is coming up on the 14th timed for the release of my new novel. I'm advertising in other places, so it may be hard to tell what results come from that but I am interested in finding out if it is worthwhile. The cost was quite reasonable.

[R. C.]

... but I wonder - do you have any statistics to prove that video ads are better for reading audience?

For example, I'm an avid reader and I never watch video podcasts unless they are terribly important for my job. And even then I always feel cheated out of my time.

Video ADs and Video Podcasts are not synonymous.  A video AD, 15-30 seconds, is meant to grab attention. A podcast is designed, in theory, to inform.

Little as it is, I watched traffic to my site closely. When it worked, FB Video ADs consistently drove click-through to my site. Sales, on the other hand...

R.C.

[Lerria321]

... but I wonder - do you have any statistics to prove that video ads are better for reading audience?

For example, I'm an avid reader and I never watch video podcasts unless they are terribly important for my job. And even then I always feel cheated out of my time.

Video ADs and Video Podcasts are not synonymous.  A video AD, 15-30 seconds, is meant to grab attention. A podcast is designed, in theory, to inform.

Little as it is, I watched traffic to my site closely. When it worked, FB Video ADs consistently drove click-through to my site. Sales, on the other hand...

R.C.

Sales are the most interesting part of the equation  .

It would be great to compare sales after usual ads and Video ads. My gut feeling tells me usual ads should work better, but I could be wrong.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I suppose most know this but if you haven't received the email, Written Word Media has recently started running Facebook ads for authors.

I haven't run a FB ad for years because I refuse to have a FB account. Please just take that as a given without political arguments. However since it is a big source of sales, or used to be, I decided to give this a try on a promotion that is coming up on the 14th timed for the release of my new novel. I'm advertising in other places, so it may be hard to tell what results come from that but I am interested in finding out if it is worthwhile. The cost was quite reasonable.

In for the results.  Good luck!

[LilyBLily]

Good luck!