I Bloody Love BookBub Ads

When we talked about Facebook ads recently we said that for authors they’re about discovery. In comparison, BookBub ads are about intent.

People subscribe to BookBub for just one reason: to find books to buy.

That single fact makes BookBub ads fundamentally different from Amazon and Facebook. We’re not interrupting someone’s day or trying to spark interest from nothing or a low base. Instead, we’re showing our book to readers who’ve already raised their hand and said ‘I’m looking’.

Here’s a common myth: BookBub are expensive per click so we shouldn’t run them. Right, and wrong. Yes you tend to pay a higher CPC, but conversion is so much higher that the other platforms (I had 15% on one of my campaigns - 15%!).

BookBub allows us to directly target readers based on the authors they follow. That means we can place our book directly in front of fans of very specific, very relevant writers in our genre. Not people who might like reading or books and so on (you know, those very general targets Facebook gives us these days). No, people who already buy books like ours.

BookBub ads tend to perform best for authors with clear genre branding and professional presentation. BookBub readers are experienced, they’ve seen thousands of covers, read countless blurbs. They know what they like and they decide quickly.

Another strength of BookBub ads is international reach.

BookBub has BIG audiences in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, and ads can be run across multiple territories (we advise one book, one country, one author target).

And, what I really, really like about BookBub is the tiny budget we can run with - from as low as $1 / day (okay, I start a touch higher than that, but even so). And, if you’ve picked a less than enticing author to start with and nobody clicks, your budget stays unspent for another day. Compare that to Facebook who’d charge us for impressions, even if we got zero clicks…

When BookBub ads work, they tend to do so exceptionally.

And when they don’t, they fail fast, which in its own way is useful information.

We often advise authors to start with BookBub ads, particularly if their books are in the larger, popular genres.

If you want to know more about BookBub:

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