Spreading the word — it’s the hardest part of being an indie author. Writing the novel is fun and turning the manuscript into a real book is a thrill, but now you have to actually find people to give it a chance!
While I know the feeling of not wanting to spend money on marketing, I’ve come to learn it’s a key to success. The good news is you can control your costs. Before you do anything else, set yourself an annual budget and use a spreadsheet to keep track of what you’re spending. That will help you see how quickly you’re spending ad money, and can actually provide a lot of comfort when you’re thinking about spending more.
While many advertising companies will gladly accept your money, I’d recommend starting with online ad platforms that charge on a per-click basis. These will give you more transparent stats on how an ad is performing, including how many are seeing it, how many are clicking and how many are buying.
The tricky bit is deciding which online ad platforms are worth your time. A quick scan of the web likely will reveal that EVERYTHING WORKS. “Give us your money now!”
Your mileage may vary, but I’ve found that some work better than others. Google Adwords or Bing may be great for small businesses selling custom leather guitar straps, but I’ve found them to be too general-audience for selling books. Oh sure, they gave me a lot of clicks, but the traffic to my website didn’t seem to result in many sales. For example, I found a lot of people clicking my “western” keyword ads for The Wanderer and the New West actually desired clothes or strange pornography.
Those platforms can also feel a little intimidating to use if you’re not a web expert. It’s very possible that an advanced Adwords user could produce better results for me, but as a writer I found it difficult to get the results I wanted.
What I’ve found is that the ad platforms that work best are the ones that specifically target readers.
My books are available on Amazon, so advertising them through Amazon Marketing has by far been the best use of my money. Amazon is a little picky about the ad copy but if you can write a message that’s clean and compelling without seeming too shameless, Amazon pretty much handles the rest. You can make sponsored ads that appear next to search results and product display ads that show up on users’ Kindles. I’ve had slightly more success with the sponsored ads, perhaps because those are seen by people actively searching for books to buy. However, definitely run both and see what works for you. As with all these ad platforms, you can set the ads up for a limited time, check your results, and edit ads accordingly.
OK, so what about other stores besides Amazon? The easiest, most successful way I’ve reached those readers is with BookBub. This is a popular e-newsletter that’s known for its selectivity about books it features. But the platform also accepts ads, so even if you don’t have enough customer reviews to be featured in a particular newsletter, you can still get your book in front of readers. It’s super easy to create an ad on BookBub–all you need is a cover and some short, snappy copy. Better yet, you can add links to your book in every store it’s available. BookBub knows the preferred store of its readers — whether its Google, Apple or Barnes & Noble — and automatically will serve them the correct link! Reedsy says not knowing BookBub allows ads is one of 12 common book marketing mistakes. I’d have to agree!
The third ad platform I use is Goodreads, though to be honest I’ve had mixed results. I do think it’s very important for authors to be on Goodreads–which happens to be owned by Amazon. However, while giveaways can be valuable, I’m not totally convinced by the platform’s self-serve ads. These seem to work best in conjunction with giveaways, as readers just seem more likely to click ads if they think they can get the book for free. But I’ve found that I have to pay more per click than on other services just to get my ads seen. When readers do click, they don’t always add my book to their to-read shelf. And while getting on that shelf does flag intention to buy for many readers, I’ve seen many others who have shelves with hundreds or thousands of books. It could take them years to get to my novel! On the other hand, not getting a lot of clicks means you’re not spending that much money. I find it pretty difficult to get through my ad budget on Goodreads, so this may be a situation where it doesn’t hurt to try.
If you’re an indie author, I’m interested to hear what ad platforms have worked (or not worked) for you. Please let me know in the comments!
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