@Paola M Actually, that seems like a good result to me. If I get a Bookbub Featured deal for a free first-in-series or free prequel, and I get 10,000 downloads (which is typical), then I still have 3,000 new readers. The same goes for using a FB ad to distribute a reader magnet... but in that case, it's even better because you now have those people on your email list. It's all a numbers game, and 30% is a great number.

Surprisingly, I have few book ads that show up in my FB feed, so I had to also take a peek at the Meta Ads Library. Here are five ads that stopped me from scrolling, for various reasons. Ad #1: Kyla Stone Books. I’ve actually read this series, which might be a factor. But the contrast of a cute dog in a post-apocalyptic setting is intriguing to me. Therefore, the image itself made me stop to read more. How I could use this feature: This image is all about the odd mismatch… something that doesn’t seem to belong. I think I can do more of this with my images, such as placing a strange vicious creature in a setting that looks normal otherwise. Ad #2: Litographs. Not an author ad, but whenever I see an image with a small piece of paper that has a brief note written on it, I HAVE to pause to read the note! I found several like this, with the same result. How I could use this feature: I’m considering trying this. A scrap of paper, maybe with torn edges, with a brief handwritten note, such as: “Could you survive here for 36 hours?” And the note is hovering over a wilderness scene with no signs of civilization, and maybe a few strange creatures in the background. Ad #3: Jer Patch. Okay, I’m a sucker for cool images of dinosaurs and other creatures. This one stopped my scroll immediately. I think the ad could be improved, but the dark moodiness of the image is enough for someone like me. How I could use this feature: Simple… create images so striking that they stop anyone whose interests are remotely like my own. Midjourney is my friend. Ad #4: Robert Appleton. Once again, this image stopped me immediately. It’s just too cool to ignore. And this one has the added bonus of a strange contradiction—a woman and her dog, with an impossibly large creature in the distance. Take my money—I need to read this book! How I could use this feature: Same as the last one. Create images so striking that they stop the scroll. Ad #5: Kiyo Home. Not an author ad, but this one still stopped me from scrolling past. Why? Because it is so simple. One cute object over a plain background. The simplicity of it is attractive to me. And it doesn’t hurt that the object itself is interesting. If this object were in front of a BUSY background, it would not have stopped my scrolling.

I would absolutely recommend this group and ALL the workshops Mal and Jill provide. The workshops are very well organized, and the follow-up Q&A sessions each week allow us to ask any questions we have—it's also when Mal goes through our homework and makes helpful comments. If anyone is on the fence about this, and you want to up your FB Ads game, just do it! You won't regret it.

D

I recently started two UK ads that are doing quite well. This gets me excited, and so I'm contemplating a more systematic approach to launching ads in the UK and other countries like CA and AU. But I know it's possible (perhaps even likely) that I got lucky with these two UK ads. The first screenshot is for one of the two ads from when it started on March 2 to March 19. The second is in Attribution for the same time period, same ad. So, my question is, do you have advice to help me prepare to launch ads for other countries besides the US. For example, are there specific details that might be more (or less) important for ads in the UK (or Canada or Australia or ??) compared to the US? I do know that I need to create my attribution link in my UK account that points to the book in the UK store, but beyond that, I'm clueless. Any advice would be helpful.

I have a Lead Ad that has been running for 55 days ($5/day). This ad points to a reader magnet on Bookfunnel to get newsetter subscribers. My 7-day average cost per subscriber varies from about 50¢ to 70¢, with it being over 60¢ during the last few weeks. So I assume it is drifting upward. Two days ago, I swapped out the ad image for a different image (without making any other changes), and this made the cost drop to about 45¢ to 50¢, at least for the two days since then. So, I suppose I could swap the image every now and then to keep the cost down. But do you have advice on other methods? This is my first Lead ad I've ever made, so it's kind of a new ballgame for me. I could just kill the ad and make a new one, but eventually I'd like to have TWO lead ads running (for two reader magnets) at $5/day to keep adding subscribers at a reasonable rate, so I'd like to know strategies for tweaking lead ads. I attached a few screen shots of the settings for this ad, though they may or may not be helpful.