The two Facebook ads I posted a couple of days ago have been selling books like gangbusters! And making a profit? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
It’s the best pay-per-click ad response I’ve ever had. My targeting is nothing different from what I’ve done before, just the ads are different. I’m targeting US and UK, to similar authors mostly. Yesterday I sold 18 books, including one reader who bought the whole Last Mayor series in one go – 9 books. Normally I sell 1 or 2 a day.
From Feb 1-5 I’ve spent 65 pounds on ads and am getting clicks between 11-20p, which is great. I’ve sold 36 books over that period with 2,000 page reads, for a sum of $78, which is 60 pounds.
So, technically I am 5 pounds in the hole. That is pretty record-breaking in my FB ad history – I always lose more than that. Is this a few day fluke, or will these kind of sales hold out? Because if they do, then readthrough of the zombie series should take me into profit.
Even Mark Dawson, it seems, doesn’t make profit on the direct sale of whatever single book he advertises. It’s the readthrough where he makes his money. The zombie series gets maybe a 30% readthrough to book 9, so each sale of book one is worth around $5. I sold 6 in this period, so add that up and it looks like $30 on top, putting me 20 pounds in profit.
Not a lot, true, but more than I was getting per day before these ads. Each additional sale is a person who maybe joins my newsletter list, maybe leaves a review, and bumps the book’s ranking a little to increase overall visibility. I’m shoving money in Zuckerburg’s hoodie, but maybe he’s shoving a little back my way. Gotta pay the tithe…
If sales keep up.
- Just realized I didn’t include Smashwords sales – sold 3 books in the period, which will cover the 5 pounds I was down. Therefore – I am in pennies of profit!