Market Your Book With Online Ads: A Good Choice?

Reach your target audience with online ads

Welcome to Artist Entrepreneur Fridays, where we focus having a successful author career from the business and strategic perspectives. This week I have guest post from Tak Shiota, a Social Media Consultant with FriesenPress, leading the company’s social media efforts. He also trains authors on social media strategies. FriesenPress is a fee-for-service self-publisher. Tak analyzes whether or not using online ads to market your books is a good choice. Read on!

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Are online ads a good choice for authors?

First, a word of warning — buying an ad doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, if you don’t do it right it will cost you a tremendous amount of money, with little to no return.

For many authors an ad seems like an easy way to market a book, one that you can throw money at and have some returns.

The truth is that it takes constant tweaking and monitoring. Using online ads to market your book is also a complete a waste of money if your online presence isn’t optimized and kept up to date (such as your website and social media).

That being said, it can be a great way to supplement your other online efforts, and it can take your marketing to a whole new level. But how do you know if you’re ready for online ads?

While it’s hard to generalize whether online ads will work for any set group of authors, there are some basic questions that might help you make an informed decision.

Ask yourself the following questions, and if you can answer yes to most of them, online ads might be something to consider.

1 – Does your target market respond well to ads?

Certain demographics respond better to ads than others. For example, if your audience is more technically savvy and younger, there is a good chance that they have ad blockers installed on their browser. Do your research and find out how your demographic uses the internet.

2 – What kind of competition do you have within your demographic? Is it affordable?

Online ads are administered by auction. If there are other businesses who also want to reach the same people as you, then there is an automated bidding war. Whoever has the preset maximum bid amount wins the right to the best ad space, and is charged accordingly. So for example, it is very expensive to target people who are interested in “romance novels” because you’ll be competing directly with Harlequin and other romance novelists. Instead, you need to narrow it down to an obscure market that lessens your competition in the auction.

You can do some keyword searches using Google’s Keyword Search Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

3 – Is the ROI high enough?

The return on investment (ROI), must be higher than the money you spend. This is basic economics– if you’re spending more money on your ad than the sales you’re making from it, it’s not worth it. Take a look at your ad prices, and compare it to how many books you would need to sell to break even. Does it seem likely?

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What do you think about online ads? Have you had success with them? Share your stories! Thanks!