Image Tweaks Can Increase Facebook Ad Conversion
This week at 365 Days of Actionable Book Marketing, we’re a bit hesitant to make a confession. Marketing is starting to become enjoyable. I know, right? Hear me out, though. There are two very good reasons for that:
1. I’m starting to see results from my book marketing efforts; my sales are consistently higher than last year.
2. I’m getting good at it. This means less wasted time, more targeted efforts, more sense of what I need to do, and less hesitation.
I strongly urge you to be consistent with your efforts; time away means less proficiency, longer learning curves, and for the most part, let’s face it, a much bigger chance of making excuses not to do your marketing tasks. I strongly urge you to follow my twitter feed for great resources I read throughout the week. I share all the good ones. If you miss out on that feed, I list some of this week’s helpful book marketing posts below.
Tweak images for facebook ads
Experts often say it’s the tiniest change that puts facebook ads into profit mode. I swapped out the graphic image of commuters at Grand Central Station for a plain white background. Next, I toyed with changing font color from white to red, lastly, went for an italic script font that seems to be popular with romance books. Each tweak increased relevancy and clicks, and brought down costs.
Standard advice is not to use more than 20% text, not to feature the actual book cover. “Vivid images tend to return the best results,” says Mark Dawson, in this detailed, behind-the-curtain article on his facebook ad experience.
I intend to have a guest on the podcast when it’s up and running to get more specifics on this. Right now, all I can say is split-test. It’s tedious and often feels silly, but it does seem that tiny detail changes can make all the difference on ROI.
I reached out to my Self-Publishing Formula facebook group to get a response to images, and this one, which is from one of my book covers in the boxed set, minus the text, and cropped differently, seemed to get the best response. When I look around at competitors, I see naked male torsos. I haven’t gone there yet, but I’m keen to see what happens…
Tweak text for ads
The same tiny refinements apply to your facebook ad copy. I changed my tagline from “What’s love really like in New York?” to “Seen the movie? Now read the book – 60% off today!” The next day I had an immediate jump in sales and Kindle Unlimited pages read.
Lead into your facebook ad with your most compelling, grabbing detail; often authors choose the discount for this stand-out intro. The next day I changed the first sentence of my copy from “For a limited time…” to “Today get…”
SEO Tip: Optimize Your Posts for Mobile Users
Short Paragraphs
Once again, I thank the guys at Marketing School Podcast for great takeaway SEO and marketing tips. When people spend most of their digital reading time (2.8 hrs per day) on mobile devices, they are looking for long articles with short, scannable paragraphs.
These guys suggest no more than 3 line paragraphs and lots of title and image breaks (which I’m trying to work out how to do on my backend). Also recommended here: a larger 14 point font. Here’s a direct link to the article. Here’s the image site, Stockunlimited, to which I subscribed for a one-time fee, which means quick image downloads for no extra cost. They always have something for my search topic. And it always works. Easy.
Internal Links
Again, I’ve got Neil Patel and Eric Siu at Marketing School to thank for this one. A recognized way to improve your SEO ranking is to have lots of internal links. So, if you hit on a topic on a blog post, link readers to other posts where they can learn more.
Book Marketing Info Links
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