THE Group for Authors! discussion

I am in the middle of having a giveaway for the first time and have paid some money to help advertise it in the self serve program. Something isn't working, though, because Goodreads isn't using any of my advertising money and I'm not getting any clicks. I actually don't know what a click is. A lot of people have signed up for the giveaway, so that doesn't seem to be it. Also, friends don't see my ad on their pages--shouldn't they?

I've been trying to read here and there to get help and have sent some emails to no response. One place said to narrow the genres I've selected. I could do that, but I don't know where.

Any suggestions would be tremendously appreciated.

A suggestion. The book give away is a good idea. I would suggest never paying for ads, because a better strategy, especially for fiction books, would be to give away books by placing them where peoples would be interested in them, and also giving them away to friends who would be interested in them E Lynn Harris, the famous author, placed free copies of his book is beauty and barber shops and gave them away to family and friends, and he eventually became famous.

To me, the money spent on the book itself, when the book is placed where it's likely to be read, and enjoyed, is the best publicity. I'm afraid trying to mass market and advertise a book is money not well spent, unless your Stephen King, which we're not :)

Have you contacted goodreads and asked them about this? I didn't know goodreads would do pain ads so I can't help you on that issue.

Thank you, A.J. That's definitely something to consider. I've written three notes to GR moderators and haven't heard back. I'm hoping posting here might help since I still have a week left of the giveaway.

Bonnie wrote: "I am in the middle of having a giveaway for the first time and have paid some money to help advertise it in the self serve program. Something isn't working, though, because Goodreads isn't using an..."

The GR self-serve ads are a waste of time. If you look to the right of this conversation, you will see a box marked "sponsored books". At the bottom of that gray box is "more books...". Click that link and keep going until you see your book. You will see the problem.

In the early days, there were only 2-3 ads in the gray box, no additional pages. Now, it's ridiculous.

The only ads that work are a FEW sites (Digital Books Today, Kindle Nation Daily) that return 50% of their cost. The only ad platform that runs in the black is Bookbub. If you have a first class book, professionally edited, etc, Bookbub is worth the money.

Otherwise AJ is on track. you have to handsel your book to individuals for a long time to gain traction.

Thank you, Andrew!

Have had same problem Bonnie - changed targettimg and everything.

Thanks for your note, Ellie. Good to know I'm not the only one. That's what I was going to do--change the targeting since that's what it says might be the way to solve the problem on one of GR's FAQs. I'm guessing from your note it didn't work.

Sigh. I still have a week left of the campaign and I'd really like to fix it for the rest of the time.

Good luck with that. I wanted the promo during June when we had an Amazon promotion running in the 100 books £2.99 and under category. We had two ads running simultaneously leading to Good Reads and Amazon, not a cent was spent!

Bummer. Theoretically, the ads should get get it to a wider audience. I'll confess, as I did above, that I don't even know what a click is. Do you?

Good luck to you!

b

Hi Bonnie
I think a click is when they click on the url link that you have specified. We had lots of views, but I think we would have had them anyway as we were doing a 10 book giveaway.

A click is when someone actually clicks on the ad and looks at the url it takes you to. An add is when someone actually adds the book to one of their shelves. A view is how many times the ad shows up on someone's page. You should be seeing views in the multi-thousands, else you are not going to get any clicks. The number of clicks, in my experience, is directly related to the number of views and seems to have very little to do with targeting. I'd increase your targeting or get rid of it altogether and go with everybody. Especially, author targeting doesn't seem to work at all. Genre targeting is better but not great. I've run 5 'campaigns' through Goodreads; they are just something that kind of run in the background until they are done for me. I usually get 50-75 'adds' per campaign, some of which may translate into purchases in the future, but I have no proof of that. Just one more thing in your marketing strategy.

Thanks again for your help, Ellie!

And your explanation of clicks and so on is very helpful, K.A. Then it's weird that I've had a lot of people sign up for the giveaway without even clicking! I'm going to go back in and work on the targeting more, and then I think I'm going to post in FB that I'm having a giveaway in Goodreads and provide a link. Hope that helps!

Hi Andrew, I have paid for promo adverts with mixed results. Only recently I learned of Bookbub. Today I sent them a request to advertise my next promo in two weeks time. I have my fingers crossed until I hear back from them.
Has anyone here spent the $150 to be listed with Writers Digest - and if so, with what results?

June wrote: "Hi Andrew, I have paid for promo adverts with mixed results. Only recently I learned of Bookbub. Today I sent them a request to advertise my next promo in two weeks time. I have my fingers crossed ..."

Hi June,

Why did you pick Bookbub? I'm asking because I've just heard about it. Has anyone had good results with it?

Ellie and anyone else who is interested:

Somebody from GR contacted me and said I had targeted too much and that I esp shouldn't target "over 18" because most people don't give their ages. I took all targeting off, and I am having more success and getting more clicks.

Thanks Bonny, I took out almost all targetting but I'll take another look

Good luck!