Hello!

So the good news from last week’s survey is that you guys don’t seem to really care what I cover, as long as it is about how to sell more books.

There was quite an even spread in the results. Somewhat amusingly, Facebook was the clear winner in the opening couple of days, so I dutifully planned an email on Facebook, and then it fell back as the week progressed. Even funnier was a late surge in people wanting more email tips... from people who are slower to open their emails! 

My brain is still figuring out what that means.

When the dust settled, more info on Launch/Promo plans was the clear winner, followed by all the rest bunched up together (Facebook, Email etc.) with only Branding/Graphics being one which could be called a clear loser. Probably something that’s better done visually anyway and perhaps something I’ll cover on YouTube instead. The results bunched up even more when digging into second preferences, with Email making it over the line first, followed by everything else hot on its heels.

When it comes to what you don’t want to hear more about, Facebook was the winner. Awkward! 

But, really, the percentages on any topic were extremely low and the overwhelming majority said, “I like it all,” which is nice to hear, especially because it gives me free rein.

WHAT WILL I DO WITH ALL THIS POWER?

Those results weren’t so startling, but what did surprise me a little is that 85% write mostly fiction, or exclusively fiction. And then out of those that write both, non-fiction punches a tiny bit above its weight in terms of income. I’m making a bit of a leap here, but that tallies with my impression that while non-fiction readers can be a little easier to find – in simple terms, you’re looking for people with the problem your book solves – there’s definitely a ceiling on most non-fiction books, whereas the sky is the limit with fiction. (Theoretically.)

But I did think there were a lot more people who at least dabble in non-fiction in the crowd! That is good to know.

Oh and thank you to everyone who volunteered to try out that new video review thingy I spoke about next week. I'll be getting in touch with volunteers in the next few days.

Okay, on to this week’s email on Facebook. This is PART TWELVE of a slow-burning series we have been doing on Facebook. Review the rest here.

But even if you aren’t interested in Facebook Ads, as such, you might be very interested in the problem outlined here, one I’ve given a ridiculously wonkish label…

The Series Marketing Escalation Paradox

If you have read Amazon Decoded you will know that it moves from a more theoretical book in the first half, to a very hands-on one in the second half, with all sorts of marketing plans etc. One thing it particularly focuses on is how to move all the books in a series at once.

This is a topic I only touched on briefly in my free course Starting From Zero, but I go into a lot more detail in Amazon Decoded on what tools I use to push an entire series at once. 

Today, I’d like to zoom in on one particular tool: Facebook Carousel Ads - because I don’t think many people are using them correctly, and are dismissing them too readily, when they can be very useful indeed if executed in a certain way.

First, let’s lay out the problem we are trying to solve here: it’s what I like to call the Series Marketing Escalation Paradox. (I’m mostly joking. Mostly…)

You might already be aware of what this is based on – where Captain Hero saves the country from Big Bad in Book 1, the whole planet from Even Bigger Bad in Book 2, and then, errr, the entire universe from Biggest Bad in Book 3. Where do you go with Book 4? This is the Series Escalation Problem.

In marketing, it becomes more of a paradox than a problem. Because we all know that its easier to sell a series than a standalone, and writing a longer series often helps more than a shorter one, especially if your marketing operation is quite dependent on ads. The cost of those clicks keeps rising, especially on Amazon, and leaning heavily on eventual readthrough is the only way that many people can make it work these days, it seems.

The problem is that we focus more and more dollars on shifting that Book 1, and then have more and more emails to hit with that latest release, but the longer the series gets, the saggier our middle gets in marketing terms.

Unless we direct specific attention on keeping the ranks of those books aloft also, and this is where series ads come in. I spoke about series page ads in BookBub Ads Expert, and I know many of you have been getting increasing joy from those over the last couple of years.

In Amazon Decoded, I shared five more ways that you can move an entire series at once, but I think people need a bit more help with Facebook Carousel Ads.

The trick with getting these right is two-fold. Because Facebook Carousel Ads are a swipe-able (swipe-across-able?) carousel of images, each one pointing to a different book in your series, users really need to be encouraged to actually swipe across, or they just won’t do it. 

I’ve noticed a radical change in performance when I actually made that part of the CTA in the ad text. “This is my awesome tagline. Swipe across to see Kindle deals in this totally amazing series.” Or some variation thereof.

And then I noticed another step up in performance when I included a visual CTA. I do this in one obvious and one subtle way — and I think the latter is actually more important.

As you can see in this image, I’ve included a little arrow to encourage users to swipe across, rather than stating it in the ad text itself (as I had a bit of text that was performing very well which i wanted to use). 

But that’s not the visual cue that is important here – that’s something new I’m trying that I’m not 100% sure about yet (and maybe Facebook will decide they don’t like it – I don’t know, it’s the kind of thing they could, theoretically, get weirdly sensitive about. I still prefer to put it in the CTA of the ad text normally).

The visual cue that is truly important here is much more subtle. Notice the way the book isn’t centered in the panel? It’s shoved over to the left on purpose, so that the book is visible in the next slide in the queue, just to the right. Not only that, the price-tag is visible also. This is all lining up with the CTA in the ad text, telling them (a) there are more books in this series they should swipe across and view and (b) that there are deals throughout the series that are worth viewing.

Then when the user does swipe across, the same effect is repeated: Book 3 (and its price offer) is visible in the "queue" encouraging them to engage further with the ad and view all the available deals.

There is one more aspect which helps these ads work for me: the Shop Now button leads to the series page. I do also have a final slide is a picture of the series, which also leads to the series page, but it’s an open question as to whether the amount of text on that page crosses the line for Facebook, who will then throttle the ad, which in turn will cause my CPC to spike. I don’t usually include that final slide, and you could do something with less text, it’s just a new thing I’m trying and need to test more before I can be sure if it’s worth including.

The ads are effective enough without it, I should say.

A quick note on text in Facebook Ads: officially, Facebook says it will throttle your ad if there is too much text in the image. Keep text to a minimum. Text on products (and on book covers specifically) have an exemption. Price tags, like those sticking out of my books, are probably going to be counted as text though, so I generally keep them small enough and add little or no extra text on top of that.

So that’s how you build an effective Facebook Carousel Ad. Sometimes you will get better results with a straight ad to the series page, like this.

In fact, I get better results with that kind of ad most of the time. Not always, but most of the time. So why do I bother with Carousel Ads at all? Because I find them very effective as a 1-2 punch.

Facebook doesn’t have a frequency cap like BookBub – who will show your campaign to a user a maximum of 4 or 5 times. Facebook will start showing your ad to users for a second time, and a third time, if it runs out of fresh eyeballs. You can monitor this with the Frequency score in your dashboard.

I personally find that, unless it’s a long-running ad pushing a permafree or something, ad performance starts to deteriorate quite rapidly once Frequency hits 2. These aren’t motorbikes or smartphones we are selling here – if someone isn’t convinced by seeing a 99¢ deal a second time, I doubt a third viewing will convince.

(BookBub is different, as many of those impressions may not have actually scrolled down to see the ad image itself – whereas Newsfeed ads are, quite literally, in your face.)

However, what I do find useful on Facebook is going back to that same audience with an ad for that same series… but in a different format. You may already be doing this yourself by refreshing the creative – changing up the ad text or image for a second go at those same eyeballs. And you may find that quite effective – I know I do.

What’s often even more successful for me is switching up the format too. Going from a static image in the letterbox shape (1200x628) to a square image (1080x1080). Or, even better, going from a static image ad to a Carousel Ad.

Someone who glazed over the ad in a different format can find this can grab their attention better.

When I’m going the extra mile on a bigger campaign, I’ll actually do all three ads: a static letterbox image ad, a static square image ad, and a Carousel Ad, and then let the people decide. If the Carousel Ad starts badly and the CPC is too high, I’ll shut it down and move the money across to the other two.

Alternatively, if the Carousel Ad starts out hot, that will get more of the budget, and then when it start to flag, I’ll move that budget across to one of the other two instead.

I let readers pick the winners, in other words.

Dave

P.S. The soundtrack to my procrastination this week is Al Green and Tired of Being Alone.