WHAT’S NEW

1. WHAT’S NEW JUNE UPDATE: CURRENT RECOMMENDATIONS & NEWS

2. NEW • Amazon: portfolio feature, new bids (dynamic up/down, dynamic down, fixed, placement bids) • Facebook: new dashboard, CBO, learning phase at ad set level is now 50 clicks instead of 500 impressions, quality score is replacing Relevance • BookBub: CTR breakdown by author target feature still in beta

3. MUSINGS • Page read numbers might be lower these days from strategies like KCD discounting or 99c launches

4. GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS • AMAZON: run auto ads for your first in series and box sets. Calibrate bid according to your series readthrough numbers. • BOOKBUB: use for discounts. Especially effective when discounting multiple books at once with a Kindle Countdown Deal or on a box set. • FACEBOOK: when running ads to backlist, discount first book to $2.99 or $0.99 (if in KU). If wide, go permafree with Book 1.

5. AMAZON: RECOMMENDATIONS • Sponsored Product • Keyword • Category (higher cost and lower conversion in my testing than keywords) • ASIN (specific products) • Kindle Lockscreen • Kindle Lockscreen ads have produced extremely poor conversion in my tests (they’re clickable offline) • TARGETING: keywords, products/ASINs, categories • Hand-curate your keywords; don’t shotgun. • I use Phrase match; Broad will show up for too many unrelated search terms; Exact is probably too narrow, but can be useful in certain circumstances • Can use ASINs to target specific titles/editions with pinpoint accuracy • Don’t need a ton of keywords and don’t need to max them out keywords (e.g. to 1,000)—generally going to be way too broadly targeted and waste money. • Don’t target by category

6. AMAZON: RECOMMENDATIONS • Multiple new types of bids/placements. • RECOMENDATION: stick with Dynamic Bids Down Only unless you have a specific reason to use an alternative • Be careful with Dynamic Up/Down and Placement Bidding, particularly when combined—it can massively increase your bids. • You can change the bidding strategy and placement bidding after you create a campaign • Note that any older campaigns created before April 22 will be using Dynamic Bids Down Only

7. FACEBOOK: RECOMMENDATIONS • OBJECTIVE: Traffic (for selling books) or Conversion/Lead Gen (for subscribers) • This is why you don’t Boost posts: Boosted Posts are optimized for Engagement (people liking/sharing/commenting), which is not what we want in most circumstances • REGIONS: United States, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand • Target only one region per ad set; don’t lump multiple regions together • PLACEMENT: News Feed Only (others convert lower) • If you want to target Instagram, target it by itself in a separate ad set • TARGETING: interests/behaviors, custom audiences, Lookalikes • Test one target at a time, then aggregate similar targets (e.g. authors in one ad set, TV shows in another). • INTERESTS: authors and genres are the first place to start. If you exhaust these or they don’t work, can go into TV audiences, tangentially related sub-genres (e.g. PNR for urban fantasy, or contemporary romance for steamy romance) affinity audiences, and so forth. • LOOKALIKE: might be the most powerful feature on Facebook. Often key to scaling with low CPCs if you write in a niche sub-genre.

8. FACEBOOK: RECOMMENDATIONS • TESTING: $8 - $15 is enough to determine effectiveness of an audience/ad • LEARNING PHASE (ad set level): 50 optimization events—optimization event is a click when using Traffic, so need 50 clicks before ad set stabilizes. • QUALITY SCORE (ad level): essentially a grade for your ad. Appears after 500 impressions. • Performance fluctuates before the Learning Phase and/or Quality Score is assigned.

9. FACEBOOK: CREATIVE • Ad elements, in order of importance: • Audience • Image (use book cover or book background to increase conversion) • Really do not recommend stock photos, unless you place the book cover on them. • Headline • Copy • CTA • Bottom Copy

10. Ad Creative: Structure EMOJIS/NEW RELEASE CATCH THE EYE > < BLURB BOOK COVER ATTRACTS READERS > < COVER + BACKGROUND HEADLINE HIGHLIGHTS NEWNESS >

11. BOOKBUB: Recommendations • BIDDING: use CPM; don’t use CPC (CPM fills more reliably and is cheaper if you have good targeting and creatives) • Higher CTR means lower CPC when you’re bidding via CPM • Only two factors affecting the CPC/CTR of your ads: targeting and creative • DELIVERY:Email arrives between 6:00 – 7:00 AM PST. Bulk of opens (and thus, available impressions) occur during first hour and then decline over the course of the day. • CPM shows only in bottom of email; CPC shows on both site and email • FREQUENCY: users will only see an ad up to four times to avoid ad fatigue • # of Featured Deals, BookBub Followers, or using the site’s social interaction features has ZERO effect on your BookBub ads • TARGETING: Target Authors + Genres together. The genre acts as a narrowing filter so that only people of say, Supernatural Suspense and Ilona Andrews are targeted. • Test authors one at a time, then aggregate together. • IMPORTANT: Never target by genre alone.

12. BOOKBUB: Recommendations • TEST BUDGET: $8 - $15; want about 1000 impressions to determine whether audience/ad creative is working • Mostly about nailing down audiences. • Test with a discounted or free book; otherwise going to be brutal • Test 1 ad to 3 audiences; if no winner, then scrap ad + audiences, and try new ad to 3 new audiences • Once you get a winning ad (above 1.5 – 2% CTR), then roll that out to 3 new audiences to find more working targets. • Can also test new creatives against winning creative by targeting known working audiences.

13. BOOKBUB: CREATIVE • Importance of creative assets, in order: • Audience • Creative (only has three elements, really) • Deal/Offer • Image • Copy: social proof, review quote, buttons, tagline, direct sell (“if you like”)

14. AD CREATIVE: STRUCTURE < HIGHLIGHTS THAT THIS IS A COMPLETE TRILOGY URGENCY > < DEAL BACKGROUND IMAGE CONVEYS GENRE and ALSO ESTABLISHES CONGRUENCE

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