What’s more, Invesp, an an online marketing services firm, reports that 92 percent of social marketers are using Facebook advertising.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

I’m thinking that advertising on Facebook could be a good strategy for many authors.

“Where do I begin?”

But if you’re new to this, as so many authors are, the question is, “Where do I begin?”

That leads to: What works with Facebook ads? What doesn’t work?

And . . . How do I figure it all out?

The best way to start is to decide to invest in learning how to do it. You will need to invest time, energy, and probably some money if you want to learn how to do it right.

And you do want to learn how to do it right. Otherwise, you’ll waste nearly every dollar you spend on this massive social networking site with 1.13 billion daily active users. What’s the point of using Facebook ads if you’re throwing your money away?

Because I’m connected to hundreds of authors on Facebook, I see a lot of ads. I’m going to be honest here: Most are bad. As in, really bad. I’ve seen ads with:

• Typos
• No “call to action,” meaning, something that tells me what you want me to do now that I’ve seen your ad.
• Confusing imagery.
• Videos that are so author-focused that I start to feel sorry for the authors.

I’m no advertising expert, but I’m in touch with what motivates me as a consumer. When it comes to books, it’s not spelling mistakes, vague or confusing messages, and videos that are all about the author and nothing about what the book will do for me, the reader.

3 ways I’m learning about Facebook advertising

And because I’m not an advertising expert, I’m learning about Facebook advertising at the same time you are. Here are the three things I’m doing to get as smart as I possibly can before I spend a single dollar on ads:

1. Taking a Udemy course. I’m working my way through “Facebook Ads & Facebook Marketing Mastery Guide 2017” (affiliate link). I’m watching the videos while walking on the treadmill, which is something of a two-fer, right? (UPDATE: Carol Dunlop reminded me in a comment below about Facebook’s training. Thanks, Carol!)
2. Maintaining a “swipe” file. I save both good and bad Facebook ads on my smartphone with a screen grab when I see them in my newsfeed. Most of my good examples aren’t from authors, though. They’re from successful information products marketers or marketing services firms. Start looking for ads from companies and products whose pages you’ve liked, and grabbing screen shots of those that you think communicate well or motivate you to take action.
3. Looking for information online. I’m interested in finding articles that help me understand what I should be learning about or paying more attention to.

Articles on Facebook advertising for authors

Here are some articles that you might find helpful as a starting point or to fill in some gaps in your knowledge. I’ve provided the title and first paragraph; click on the title to read the entire article:

Facebook Ads: A Guide for Indie Authors: As the number of social media networks continues to grow, indie authors have more and more platforms on which to spread the word about their books. But the granddaddy of all social networks is still Facebook, which boasts more than 1.65 billion active users per month, according to VentureBeat. And it’s this huge user base that makes Facebook an ideal destination for self-published authors looking to market their books and build their readerships.

This is How You Use Facebook to Sell Books: I read the recent DBW piece “Why Facebook Cannot Help You Sell Books” with surprise, and I respectfully disagree with its contentions. I’m pretty much the definition of a midlist author: I write full-time, I’ve hit a few Amazon best-seller lists over the last couple years, and readers seem to enjoy my books. I was making a very good income with the usual forms of advertising throughout 2014—BookBub and the other advertisers, permafree first in series, etc.—but when I turned on my first Facebook ads I immediately saw a massive spike in business.

(Note: The article above is by Facebook ad course instructor Mark Dawson, who offers three free short training videos here.)

How to Use Facebook Ads to Sell More Books: This is the third post in the series to show authors how Facebook Ads Marketing can help sell more books as well as build a viable author platform . . . . In this third post, I will be dealing with how authors can use Facebook Ads and it’s extensions to sell books and grow a sizable author platform.

Day 12: Keep Your Facebook Fans Warm With a Boosted Post: One of the chief purposes of marketing these days is all about keeping your fans and followers warm. A warm audience is a marketing phrase that designates a group that has already opted in to one of your marketing platforms. They have signed up for an email list, liked your Facebook page, or claimed an offer on your website. One of the best ways to keep your Facebook fans warm and engaged is to consider an occasional boosted post.

3 case studies

These “how I did it” case studies from authors are helpful, too:

Facebook Ads: One Author’s Experience: British indie author David Penny shares a case study of his own Facebook advertising campaign, which he’s using to promote the first in his historical crime thriller series, The Red Hill, set in medieval Moorish Spain.tip of the month

My Tale of Boosting a Facebook Post: Many authors I know are hesitant to spend money on Facebook advertising. Without a clear correlation between ads and sales, it can be hard to shell out cash when you don’t know if you’ll see a return on your investment.

Case Study: Amazon Best Selling Book in Just One Day – With Facebook Ads: Meet a contrarian author, H. Ann Ackroyd of TransomPress.com, a Historical Fiction writer. She is one of the authors who took me up on my One Hour Book Marketing And Author Platform Strategy Call. Ann isn’t like any other Historical Fiction writer; she writes her two books in a rhythmic prose format, which isn’t a common phenomenon among authors in the same book genre.

I tend to learn by doing, but this is a big and complicated topic, so I decided to invest in a course rather than use the teach-myself approach.

If you’re using Facebook ads without any training, I’d encourage you to pause your campaigns and commit to learning more about best practices so you get the most for your Facebook advertising dollars.

Are you running Facebook ads? Please us about your experience in a comment. Are they working? What’s your best tip?

Tip of the Month

I always share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month I recommend a free and short e-book that I know you’ll find helpful.

Kathleen Gage’s Hit #1 on Amazon walks you through the process she follows to get the top category position for her books. (Note that’s category best-seller status, not all-of-Amazon best-seller status.)

Use my affiliate link to get your free digital download of Hit #1 on Amazon immediately.

Kathleen’s advice applies to fiction and nonfiction. I’d love to see you give it a shot.

Facebook 101 for authors

By Joel Pitney

When I bring up Facebook to my author clients, the responses range from “What’s the relationship between book sales and vacation selfies?” to “I know Facebook is important, but I have no idea why or how to leverage it for my book.” But I’ve found Facebook, when used effectively, to be the most effective social media outlet for authors to drive traffic to their websites and build exposure for their books.

In this article, I’ll address some of the key decisions that authors face when launching or refining their Facebook campaigns. I will also outline the best practices I’ve found to be most helpful.

A note for your journey

Before you begin a Facebook campaign, it’s important to remember that it’s a long game. You will likely encounter all kinds of articles, promotional emails, and experts promising “silver bullets” to help you gain “millions of fans” virtually overnight. But these are empty promises. Like any aspect of book promotion, your success depends on the quality of your content and your long-term commitment to trying things and adapting to what is and isn’t working.

So as you begin your Facebook journey, set your expectations appropriately and prepare yourself for a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, because you’ll burn out before you even start. Start your page small and add a new strategy or tactic each week or month. Let the page, and your relationship to it, grow organically.

When to start?

The simple answer is yesterday. Facebook marketing only works when you’ve built an engaged audience of people who resonate with your ideas, views, and content. So you shouldn’t wait to start until your book is ready to be purchased. You should start as early as possible so that you can find your target audience, discover what kinds of things resonate with them, and build a “tribe” of followers who will be interested in everything you do, including your book when it comes out.

What kind of page to set up?

Okay, it’s time to get started. The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of page to set up for yourself or your book. There are two general ways to set yourself up in the world of Facebook:

• Personal profile: This is your personal page where you share life events, pictures of grandkids, etc. You “friend” people and they have to accept your “friend requests.” If you have a personal profile page, you should keep this one separate from your “fan Page.”
• Fan Page: This is a professional Page that people can “like” without needing any kind of approval. Instead of “friends,” you have “fans.” This is what you should use to promote your book.

Here’s an example of a Page header. Note the arrow pointing to “like.”

When you set up your “fan Page,” you’ll be given a few options of what type of Page to set up: an author Page, a business Page, etc. I highly recommend setting up an author Page under your name, not the title of your book. This way you can build a following for all of your work that will promote the book you’re launching now and any future books or projects that you want to launch.

When setting up your fan Page, be sure to use a professional headshot for your profile picture, and develop a cover image that clearly conveys the value and perspective of your Page—both in the image and with text on the image. This will be important for your Page promotion efforts (outlined below). Here’s an article about developing an effective FB cover image.

(For more on profiles and Pages, read “Facebook profile, Page, or group? Au author’s primer.“)

Creating consistent content is key

Okay, so you’ve got your Page set up. What do you do next? The first thing is to populate your Page with regular posts and give people a sense of who you are and the “value” you might bring to their lives.

A good goal is to post something to your Page every day, but as I mentioned earlier, it’s important to start off slowly and build. You might try to publish two to three times per week to start off, and then grow to daily posting once you’ve gotten the hang of things.

What kind of content should you post? The short answer is: anything that would be of interest to your target audience of readers. But within this, I recommend a nice mix of the following:

• Your own articles, blogs, videos, or media. This is a great way to drive traffic back to your site where people can sign up for your email list, buy your book(s), and learn more about any other services you offer.  
• “Creatives” or what I call “picture quotes” are one of the most popular things on Facebook and tend to get great results. These are essentially pictures with quotes overlaid onto them. The quotes can be from yourself (but don’t go overboard) and from others. Here’s a great resource for making “Creatives.”  You’ll also find this article on three types of image quotes for authors helpful, along with this author social media image case study, too.  

• Third-party articles on topics relevant to your audience. While sharing articles written by others might seem like you’re wasting your time promoting other platforms, it’s important to do for a couple of reasons. First, you shouldn’t only promote yourself on your Facebook Page—people don’t like that. Second, by sharing ideas from others, you start to become an “authority” that people look to for all kinds of information on your subject matter. If you’re worried about spending time scouring the internet for relevant articles, I recommend setting up a “Google Alert” for news stories on your relevant keywords.
• Book content: Once your book is available to order, you can start to include posts about your book. This might be a picture of you with your first copy, an endorsement you’ve received, a promo about a free excerpt, etc.

Increasing your exposure with Facebook advertising

So you’ve built your Page and started to populate it with interesting, relevant content. How do you make sure that people are reading it? Unfortunately, Facebook is now a “pay to play” game, so even the greatest and most interesting Facebook posts won’t see much traffic unless you invest some money in promoting your content.  

To understand Facebook advertising, you need to know a little about how Facebook works. Most people consume Facebook content via their feeds (usually on their phones) where they see a stream of various posts from their friends and the Pages they follow. But not every single post by every fan Page makes it into a user’s feed. (In fact, just s small percentage of Page posts show up in feeds.)

How does Facebook filter what shows up in someone’s feed? It uses an algorithm that takes into account both a user’s Facebook habits (which posts they’ve liked, shared, clicked, or commented on) and the financial investment made by that the Pages they follow. This means that a lot of the posts that appear in a feed are there because the producer — the Page owner — paid for them to be there. And you’ll need to do the same to get your stuff into the feeds of your fans.

Here’s an example of a sponsored post.

Now that I’ve (hopefully) convinced you to incorporate some advertising dollars into your Facebook campaign, let’s talk about how to do it. Here’s the strategy I’ve used with a lot of my author clients:

• Set up a Facebook Ads Manager account. This is a pretty simple process. Here’s an article about how to do it.
• Determine your budget. I recommend a minimum advertising budget of $10/day ($300/month) to get things started. If you’re going to put all this time and energy into your Page, this is the least you should spend on promoting it. As you start to gain traction, you might consider increasing your budget.
• Start by promoting the Page, not the posts. There are two types of Facebook advertising: Promoting your Page and promoting each of the posts on your Page. Promoting your Page is essentially creating ads for the Page itself that show up in the feeds of people you target. The goal is to get people to “like” your Page. I recommend using your entire daily budget to promote the Page in the beginning, so you can build a fan base, before moving into promoting the posts themselves.
• Create custom audiences. Facebook allows you to set up an infinite number of “audiences” for your promotions. You can target people based on a variety of demographical information (age, location, gender, etc.) in addition to particular interests (cooking, meditation, business, autism, politics, etc.). You’ll want to create a few different custom audiences and test them out to see which ones work best. For example, you’ll have a different audience for your Page promotions than your individual post promotions. So if you’re a cookbook author, your Page audience might be more general and include keywords like “recipes,” “cookbook,” and “foodie.” But say you have an individual post listing your top 10 holiday recipes. You’d want an audience that included keywords like “holidays,” “Christmas cookies,” “New Year’s Eve cocktails,” etc.
• Shifting towards promoted posts. Once you’ve had a chance to build your fan base to at least 1,000, it’s time to start shifting your advertising budget toward promoting the posts themselves. This is also called “boosting” and allows you to create a custom audience for promoting each individual post. As you transition into this phase, I recommend splitting your budget between Page promotions and post promotions 50/50 ($5/$5 for a $10 daily budget), and then as your fan base grows, shifting your money more and more into promoting your posts. Once you’ve eclipsed 5,000 fans, you should spend all of your budget promoting posts, as you will continue to experience Page growth from your post boosting efforts.
• Track your progress. This is key, because even the best-laid plans are bound to need improvement. Track your stats closely, find out what’s working and what isn’t, and evolve your strategy. For more on how to do this, check out the next section.

Tracking your progress

One of my favorite things about Facebook is how many simple, easy-to-read analytics it provides to track your progress. But it’s important to understand which statistics are more important than others, and how to respond to the data. You should determine the key metrics you want to track, and determine how much you’re spending for each. Below is a breakdown . . . .  

• Page likes. As we discussed above, part of your advertising budget should be spent on getting more fans to like your Page. At first, you will likely be paying around $1 per new fan when you promote your Page. But you want to get this number down closer to $0.35/fan. How? The best way is to refine the copy and images in your ad and tweaking your target audiences.
• Post reach. Facebook likes to show you the many people your posts are “reaching.” This basically means the number of feeds in which your post is appearing, and this number will increase as your fan base grows and as you invest money in promoting posts. While less important than the engagement stats below, “reach” does help you to determine how effective your post promotions are in reaching your target audience.
• Post likes, shares, comments. I’ve lumped these three stats together, because in my opinion, they are interchangeable. Together with “clicks” (see below), they make up post “engagement,” which is really the most important statistic of them all. You might “reach” a lot of people, but what really determines the success of your campaign is how many people are actually engaging with your content by liking it, sharing it with their friends, or making a comment on it.

• Clicks. This is perhaps the most valuable of all Facebook metrics, because it represents someone taking the time to click any link that you’ve shared. Of course, not all posts have links, but for those that do, this should be your ultimate goal, especially if it’s a link back to your website.

While there are no set-in-stone benchmarks for how much money you should be spending for each of the above metrics, your goal should be constant improvement. Over time, you want your cost per fan, like, comment, share, and click to be going down, as you tweak your advertising strategy to do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.

How to handle the overwhelm

At this point, you might be thinking, “This will take me a lot of time that I don’t have, and I’m not confident in the return I’ll get from what I put in.” Fair enough, but in my experience, over time, your investment of time and money will start to pay off.

That said, here are a few tips for saving time:

• Batch your posts. I like to create my calendar of posts in one- to two-week batches, then schedule them all in advance using Facebook’s native scheduling tool or a social media posting tool like Hootsuite or Buffer.
• Hire an assistant. You might find it worthwhile to hire a low-cost social media assistant to research, develop, publish, and promote your posts. These professionals will create your posts for you and allow you to tweak them to make sure they fit your voice and perspective. For a high-quality social media person, you can count on spending $25 to 50/hour for one to three hours per week. As with anything, you get what you pay for, so be suspicious of any individual or service promising great work for super cheap .
• Do a little every day. The best way to deal with an overwhelming amount of work is to break it up into digestible chunks. You may not feel like you have enough time in your schedule to devote to Facebook, but you can likely find 15 minutes a day in between things to give your attention to it. This small amount of effort, even if you’ve hired an assistant to help you, will enable you to be much more tuned in to the audience you’re building.

There you have it. That’s my two cents on using Facebook to build your author brand and promote your book. As I mentioned in the beginning, the key is to get started and grow organically, adapting and building along the way. I hope you find the information useful and please share any questions or suggestions from your own Facebook experience in the comments below!

Got a question about using Facebook for book promotion? Ask it here in a comment. And, if you found this detailed how-to post helpful, please consider sharing it with your author networks.