Post by writeway on Jul 3, 2020 5:52:27 GMT
So lurking on Kboards, I saw K's post on there and felt it was a great question. I don't post on Kboards so I thought it would be cool to talk about it here too.
K asked: What is the bare minimum dollar amount you need to make advertising worth it?
For me it's a simple answer, it's whatever makes you a profit. During all my years of marketing and using ads, one thing I have learned is that a big ad spend doesn't always mean results. I've had more results with ads where I spend small amounts. AMS has been the only ad platform worth it for me. I lost about 2,000 dollars in two years fooling around with Bookbub ads and finally had the sense to give up. I'm stubborn and love a challenge so I kept trying because I was determined to make them work. Well, besides doing good with BB ads around September 2018, it was a bust the rest of the time.
I gave up FB ads two years ago because it's common knowledge that you need to have MONEY to burn to tackle FB ads. FB takes a lot of learning and burning "through" your dollars that is. If you can't get the "magic formula" you are just flushing money down the toilet.
I know many folks don't like AMS but to me they are the only ads where you can spend a dollar a day even and make a profit. Especially if you are in KU. I have about four ads running on AMS and I spend around 6-9 dollars a day. That's for ALL the ads, not each. And my ads appear on the first pages of some books too so they aren't buried either. I target categories, not keywords and find that more bang for your buck. Most say the key is to have a huge daily budget but bid low. I have tried that method and it does work much better than bidding high and budgeting low. See, Amazon favors ads with big budgets, not big bids. People think bidding tons on a keyword will do the trick but experts have tested methods and all say that their ads did much better with a high daily budget and low bidding. With a higher budget, you can keep up with your costs and still turn a profit. Me, I try different methods. I lowered my daily budget so it's about 2-4 dollars for each ad. So far, that is working for me and I am getting visibility and borrows because I'm getting page reads. I know it's the ads because I'm not running any other promotion on these books right now.
Anyway, don't wanna turn this into another AMS ads lesson. LOL! But, back to the question. Yeah, I believe in the simple way to tell if advertising is worth it. If you spent a certain amount and didn't make it it back or more than the advertising wasn't worth it. Making a profit or at least breaking even is the key. The issue is, that's not consistent. You won't always make a profit no matter how well you know ads. Sometimes you're gonna have a loss. Especially in times like this when the world is so crazy and people have more things on their minds than books.
But, you should have good luck most of the time with your ads or you (general you) need to regroup. If you run ads and you are at a loss every time you run them then you are doing something wrong or it might be your targeting, you're not spending enough, or the book.
So yeah, I read through most of the answers on Kboards and I can't see why many found the answer so complicated. It's always about the ROI in my book. I can't see how else you can judge PAID advertising as being effective if not by the income you get because of it.
If you spend 50 dollars on an ad or promo and made 55 dollars, the ad was worth it.
You don't have to break the bank to make a profit.
Great question!
K asked: What is the bare minimum dollar amount you need to make advertising worth it?
For me it's a simple answer, it's whatever makes you a profit. During all my years of marketing and using ads, one thing I have learned is that a big ad spend doesn't always mean results. I've had more results with ads where I spend small amounts. AMS has been the only ad platform worth it for me. I lost about 2,000 dollars in two years fooling around with Bookbub ads and finally had the sense to give up. I'm stubborn and love a challenge so I kept trying because I was determined to make them work. Well, besides doing good with BB ads around September 2018, it was a bust the rest of the time.
I gave up FB ads two years ago because it's common knowledge that you need to have MONEY to burn to tackle FB ads. FB takes a lot of learning and burning "through" your dollars that is. If you can't get the "magic formula" you are just flushing money down the toilet.
I know many folks don't like AMS but to me they are the only ads where you can spend a dollar a day even and make a profit. Especially if you are in KU. I have about four ads running on AMS and I spend around 6-9 dollars a day. That's for ALL the ads, not each. And my ads appear on the first pages of some books too so they aren't buried either. I target categories, not keywords and find that more bang for your buck. Most say the key is to have a huge daily budget but bid low. I have tried that method and it does work much better than bidding high and budgeting low. See, Amazon favors ads with big budgets, not big bids. People think bidding tons on a keyword will do the trick but experts have tested methods and all say that their ads did much better with a high daily budget and low bidding. With a higher budget, you can keep up with your costs and still turn a profit. Me, I try different methods. I lowered my daily budget so it's about 2-4 dollars for each ad. So far, that is working for me and I am getting visibility and borrows because I'm getting page reads. I know it's the ads because I'm not running any other promotion on these books right now.
Anyway, don't wanna turn this into another AMS ads lesson. LOL! But, back to the question. Yeah, I believe in the simple way to tell if advertising is worth it. If you spent a certain amount and didn't make it it back or more than the advertising wasn't worth it. Making a profit or at least breaking even is the key. The issue is, that's not consistent. You won't always make a profit no matter how well you know ads. Sometimes you're gonna have a loss. Especially in times like this when the world is so crazy and people have more things on their minds than books.
But, you should have good luck most of the time with your ads or you (general you) need to regroup. If you run ads and you are at a loss every time you run them then you are doing something wrong or it might be your targeting, you're not spending enough, or the book.
So yeah, I read through most of the answers on Kboards and I can't see why many found the answer so complicated. It's always about the ROI in my book. I can't see how else you can judge PAID advertising as being effective if not by the income you get because of it.
If you spend 50 dollars on an ad or promo and made 55 dollars, the ad was worth it.
You don't have to break the bank to make a profit.Great question!
