On Ads, KDP, Stats…and Beyond!
On February 2, 2019 by adminAs promised, I’m checking in with the takeaways from last month’s promotion. What worked? What didn’t? And how do I measure success?
In January, Scribble & Spark ran a special through KDP with the “goal” of getting the 2018 release White Dove to the number one book in its genre on Amazon. To help promote the book to new audiences, I stacked ads across the usual suspects (Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter), targeting specific groups. But in reality, my goal was to get the eBook in as many hands as possible because what I really am chasing is reviews.
So how did things pan out? We’ll start with Facebook. The Facebook
So what about Twitter? I know my Twitter
And finally, we get to the one series of ads where I know I got some good bang for the buck… Amazon. I find that ads that cater to a specific audience– especially the ones that will show up on your Kindle– are great investments. I could be biased, but for me personally, I pay attention to the books that Amazon recommends. And here’s where some of the details matter… I also pay attention to the design work on covers. I know we’re not supposed to… but I do judge a book by its cover. I spent a lot of time thinking about my cover and really relied on the expertise of my designer (Mark Thomas @TheCoverness) to produce a great finished product. I know what I like when I see it, but I don’t have the gift of design.
At the end of the week, White Dove did get some attention and made it to #2 in its category. But one of the second-order effects that I wasn’t expecting was the number of pages read from the Kindle Unlimited subscribers. I am still feeling the boost of that group of readers, as I have been hundreds of pages above my daily page count average ever since the promotion. In addition to that, I’ve had some attention on Goodreads and a couple of pretty awesome reviews. These are the trends I am chasing, and this is ultimately the purpose of the promotion and the ads.
So where to next? As a writer who also has a full-time (plus) job, progress in writing doesn’t move as quickly as I’d like, but it does in fact move. I’m making some awesome progress with the second book in the series–working title Forever England-– and am working on another project that may be of interest to some of the Scribble & Spark fans in the near future. I’m excited about the work on both of these projects and can’t wait to share some of the details.
Until then, keep scribbling!