Facebook Ads

I tried out Facebook ads this weekend while my publisher was running their $0.99 sale on ebooks. Sales were pretty good, by some weird miracle, but that started before I launched the ad. So judging how effective the ad was in generating sales is next to impossible.

However, it did get the books seen by 139,825 people who had never heard of it before. Most of them probably ignored it, like I do with most ads on Facebook, but 67 of them clicked the link.  If I’m doing the math right that should be 0.0004%. While that’s a terrible return on investment it is a lot more people who, even subconsciously, have now heard of the books.

Are Facebook Ads worth using? Hard to say. It did allow for more exposure. Even if all 67 clicks resulted in a sale, which I seriously doubt, that still doesn’t pay for the ad itself. Granted, part of that is due to the $0.99 sale. If the book were full price it would have paid for it.

Will I use this in the future? Maybe. It might be worth looking at other advertising options. If the Texas Book Fair goes well for Grey Gecko, they might have the funds to start doing some advertising. Or you can vote for them to have a chance to win $25,000 from the small business challenge. They just need a few more votes. If they can win, they can definitely afford advertising.