Showing posts with label Facebook ads. Show all posts

Friday Speak Out!: The Story of My First Facebook Ad

Friday, October 07, 2016

by Elen Ghulam

Allow me to tell you a story. It’s kinda a sad story, but I hope it will give you a laugh.

A few weeks ago I saw a YouTube video of an author exalting the power of Facebook ads in helping him sell his book. I love the internet. Ideas travel across it at the speed of a virus. Immediately, I thought: “Aha! I can do that as well! How hard can it be?” Who needs to wait for the organic slow reach of word of mouth? Just throw some money on it and viola! ….. thousands …. Maybe millions of copies sold. Success is with in my reach. After all, I am an intelligent person. I can figure it out on my own. Move over Elizabeth Gilbert! The other E.G. is about to move into your best seller territory.

So I put my thinking hat on, drank extra coffee and set out designing my first foray into the world of advertising. I thought I was being very clever. I spent hours putting the graphic together. Agonized over the blurb. Wrote it and rewrote it until it was just so. I thought: "Yes!" this is it. I am ready to be a business woman, take matters into my own hands, be in control of my own success. Unknown indie author no more. I am ready to announce myself to the whole world. I set my targeting for women, aged 21 - 65+ who live in Texas, Florida or Washington DC who are fans of Chuck Palahniuk and have expressed interest in Amazon Kindle. To be displayed in the desktop news feed only. I set the budget for 5 dollars per day to run for three days.

In my head I imagined Palahniuk fans flocking over to buy my creation. The world was about to become my oyster.

Right! ....... Wrong! Cue in the violin please. One person clicked on the ad. You are reading that right. Over 300 people saw the ad and only one person had the courage to click on it. A lone brave soul. Perhaps somebody who felt sorry for me. Usually, I sell one or two copies of my novel per week. That week, I sold none. It is as if the ad had a repellent effect on potential buyers. Oh! failure so spectacular. I have no idea what I did wrong, or what I should have done differently. At the very least this can serve as a case study of what not to do. Now excuse me while I eat a giant humble pie.

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Elen Ghulam worked as a computer programmer for 18 years. Telling stories to silicon chips proved to be easy, and so she graduated to amusing humans. She is an Iraqi-Canadian living in Vancouver, BC. You can visit her at www.ihath.com
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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5 comments book marketing, Elen Ghulam, Facebook ads, Friday Speak Out

Are You Really Reaching A Wide Audience On Facebook

Sunday, June 22, 2014

If you have an author fan page on Facebook, you should consider this gem of wisdom:

More proof that you can't put all your eggs in the online basket: Unless you PAY to boost your Facebook posts, only six out of 100 fans will see updates.

And here you believed you were reaching the thousands (or maybe millions?) of fans who liked your page.

Think again.
You're reaching only 4.5 percent of your "like" base.
Yikes!
It's impossible to understand the algorithm that calculates who does and does not see your post. Experts at bufferapp note that post types (photo versus text), posts hidden or reported as spam by users, interaction with Facebook ads, and device and speed of connection all play into it.
How can you increase your Facebook footprint?
I'm not sure there's any one tried and true piece of advice, but the following tips may help you notice an increase in interaction.

Post at non-peak times. Think 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. These posts have a better chance of showing up first thing in the morning.
Post original photos. And maybe take it a step further by posting photos of YOU, the writer, at work.
Post questions. Questions are a natural way to engage readers...and Facebook fans.
Quit worrying about it. Is your Facebook reach the only measure if you're engaging fans? If you answer yes, you may want to reconsider your marketing strategy.

I'll be honest. I hadn't given much consideration to the Facebook page for the newspaper I work for as managing editor. Sure, I'd check out the numbers and see how many people saw posts and interact with fans/customers who left comments.

In the last two months, though, we've looked at other ways to engage readers on Facebook. Links (with pictures) to our online stories get a decent look, but the most popular posts feature photos for #TBT - Throwback Thursday, #FF - Flashback Friday and our weekly Facebook Feedbook question.

Sometimes, it takes time to "train" readers and fans to interact, but once they start, the audience participation seems to build.

We also utilize Twitter and readers can comment on articles online.

Still, you can't put all your marketing eggs into one social media strategy basket.

What's your experience with fans on Facebook?

by LuAnn Schindler

1 comment Author Pages, author pages on facebook, Facebook ads, facebook analytics, facebook statistics, LuAnn Schindler, posting on facebook

Advertising on Facebook

Monday, June 18, 2012

by bsperan (flickr)

You've probably heard on the news that Facebook has made Mark Zuckerberg a ton of money. I used to always wonder HOW? I mean it was free to sign up for an account--for personal and business reasons--free to play a lot of the games and chat with friends. SO, how did he make money?

I soon learned about Facebook ads. And now, Facebook is even going so far as to allow pages to pay to promote their status updates to reach more of their fans. So, as an author trying to promote a book or a freelancer selling copywriting or editing services, what does this mean for you? What do you need to know about Facebook ads?

1. You can spend as much or as little on Facebook ads as you want each month. Most of them are pay-per-click. This means that if people see your ad on the sidebar and they click on it, you will be charged. This could be scary for some budgets! However, Facebook allows you to put a cap on how much you want to spend. If you have a budget of $25 for this type of ad, then you put that limit on your Facebook account. Once you hit $25, your ad will not show up. This is a pretty safe way to try out if a Facebook ad brings you any more book sales or any clients without spending a lot of money.

2. What does Facebook mean that you have to pay to promote your status updates? If you have a business page, you will notice that when you type in a status or a link or even post a photo, Facebook will let you know how many of your fans that information has reached. It's usually a pretty low percentage like 15% of your fans had your status update turn up in their News Feed. (As much as we would like to believe that every single person who has LIKED our page sees everything we post, that's just not realistic.) Next to this low and sometimes sad percentage will be the word PROMOTE. If you click on the arrow next to PROMOTE, you will be able to set a limit for how much you want to spend and how long you want your status to be promoted. If you are paying to promote your status, then you should expect a higher percentage of your fans to see it.

With any advertising dollars, it's often good to start out small and observe what other authors and/or writing services companies are doing. If you set a budget of $20 a month and you notice your sales are increasing or you have two new clients, then great--your ad is probably working. If not, then re-think the ad you created OR the budget you set.

How do you know what to say in your ad? Look on the sidebar when you are logged in to your Facebook page and observe the ads. Which ones make you want to click on them? Use those strategies to create your ad.

It's super easy to create an ad, too. When you are on your business page, look at the sidebar, and you will see where Facebook has already created a mock ad for you and a caption that says something like, "Get more likes." Click on this to get started on your ad.

Now what do you do on that Facebook page once you get people there. . .that's for another day.

If you find that you want to learn more about social networking and how you can use it to promote your career, then consider taking my beginning social networking class, which starts on July 16, or the advanced social networking course, which begins on August 13. To view both syllabus, go to the classroom page.