For some time now, Facebook advertising has been a hot topic for indie authors. Successful campaigns have revolutionized the sales and fortunes of some authors, while other indies have been left poorer and discouraged.
But how can indie authors tell whether their results have been good, bad or indifferent, compared to other authors' campaigns? A new survey by Michael Alvear promises to answer those questions.
Read on for a more detailed appraisal of the complexity of the problem, and to find out how you can help Michael provide the answers.
When it comes to Facebook advertising, every book is different, as is every author's circumstances, including their skill in creating effective advertising material and their tenacity in evolving their campaigns to optimise their effectiveness. When deciding to advertise on Facebook, each author must make tough and potentially expensive decisions on:
- advertising image and artwork
- strapline and supporting text
- precise target audience
- countries to reach
- timing of the campaign
And what exactly should we be advertising anyway?
- Our latest book?
- First in a series?
- Back-catalog books whose sales have slumped?
Or should we focus on growing our author page “likes” or our mailing list subscriber database?
All of these decisions are made more difficult because we cannot know exactly how Facebook's algorithms work.
We're playing blindfold.
But if we work together, we stand a greater chance of cracking the code. The more we can find out about the relative performance of other indie authors' Facebook ads, the better our chances as a community of reaching more readers for our own self-published books by this means.
Author Michael Alvear is conducting this important new survey
This is why at ALLi we welcome a new survey by Michael Alvear, author of Make a Killing on Kindle, which aims to gather and consolidate the Facebook advertising experience of authors from around the world. To make the results statistically significant and representative, Michael is seeking input from as many authors as possible. If you're an author who has advertised on Facebook, we hope you'll want to take part by answering the eight questions below:
Create your survey with SurveyMonkey
How the Survey Results Will Help You
Once a substantial number of responses has been collected, Michael will publish the consolidated results.
If you've already advertised on Facebook, these results will show you:
- how your results compared to the average
- industry benchmarks for cost per click
- conversion rates
- ROI (return on investment)
If you've yet to take the plunge, the results will help you decide whether or not Facebook advertising is right for you.
Either way, the survey can only help authors of all kinds make more informed choices and improve their Facebook advertising experience.
Read more about Michael Alvear and his work over on his website: www.writingforaliving.us
OVER TO YOU Like to share any thoughts on your experience to date with Facebook on this blog too? Feel free to leave a comment.
#Authors - like more insight into how effective Facebook advertising is for your #selfpub books? Take part in this survey: Share on XOTHER POSTS ABOUT FACEBOOK ADVERTISING – FROM THE ALLi ARCHIVE
