As the end of the year approaches, it’s time to share the best BookBub Ads campaigns from 2022! There are many different ways to run successful ad campaigns, so these ads represent a range of genres, book prices, and advertising strategies — we hope one of these examples sparks inspiration for your own marketing in 2023.
G. S. Jennsen, Starshine
This advertiser created a campaign to run for the duration of August, with their budget paced to spend evenly throughout the month. They combined author and category targeting to reach fans of a single author who were also subscribed to Science Fiction, and set a high CPM bid. The campaign served 20,600 impressions and earned 1,400 clicks at a 6.74% click-through rate (CTR). In September, they set up the exact same campaign to run again for another month, with a higher budget, and got even better results: 34,750 impressions, 2,550 clicks, and a 7.34% CTR! They repeated the campaign again in both October and November, continuing to earn thousands of clicks at CTRs of 6% and higher.
Little, Brown, Desert Star by Michael Connelly
Little, Brown ran seven distinct ads from June to November to drive awareness for Michael Connelly’s November 8 release. In total, these campaigns served over 6.3 million impressions and earned 14,850 clicks to the preorder across US retailers. The top-performing campaign targeted Connelly’s own fans using the image on the left, driving a 1.45% CTR at a $0.46 cost-per-click (CPC). Each variation used a slightly different ad image but the same mid-range CPC bid, and targeted readers in the Thrillers, Crime Fiction, and Psychological Thrillers categories or fans of similar authors.
Tess Rothery, Assault and Batting
This continuous campaign for a $0.99 cozy mystery audiobook — book 1 in a seven-book series — began the first week of January and ran until the end of October. The ad started with a $5 daily budget, which was slowly increased to $8 over time, and a low CPC bid. Because fewer advertisers are promoting Chirp audiobooks, it’s often easier to win impressions with much lower bids than you need for ebook campaigns — this ad served 885,600 impressions, targeting 28 authors and the Cozy Mysteries category. In the 10 months this campaign was live, the ad got 6,200 clicks at a 0.71% CTR, and nearly 1,500 copies of this book were sold on Chirp!
Ellis O. Day, The Baby Bargain
This ad copy highlights multiple tropes that romance readers love, and combined with the free offer, it proved irresistible! The advertiser created multiple ads using this image, targeting different combinations of authors and retailers, but the campaigns targeting the author’s own fans proved most successful. Over 2 months, they collectively served 186,900 impressions and drove 1,250 clicks to Amazon, 3,275 to Apple, 2,800 to Barnes & Noble, 2,700 to Google, and 1,050 Kobo, for over 11,000 total clicks. The version targeting Kobo readers had a 10.44% CTR!
Vintage Books, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
This campaign is a testament to the benefits of running ad tests to identify effective targets! Vintage ran an ad using the image on the left for a week at the end of June, targeting the fans of 16 authors who were also subscribed to either Literary Fiction or Historical Fiction with a $10 CPM bid. The ad served 75,250 impressions across all US retailers and garnered a 0.19% CTR. When the $2.99 deal price went live in early July, they created a second ad using the image on the right and targeting the nine authors who earned the highest CTRs from the first campaign, using the same retailer and category targeting as the first ad. Vintage set an even higher CPM bid for this second ad to get visibility for the deal, and the results speak for themselves — the ad won 414,700 impressions and earned 2,050 clicks at a 0.49% CTR!
Shepard Publications, Smart Housekeeping Around the Year
6,850 readers clicked to learn more about this housekeeping almanac at a 1.28% CTR! This continuous ad ran from January to the beginning of March and targeted either General Nonfiction or Advice and How-To subscribers who were also fans of 29 other authors in the decluttering space. A moderate CPC bid was still competitive for this audience, winning 536,750 impressions while maintaining an affordable CPC rate of $0.44 for a $3.99 book.
Bethany House, The Apostle’s Sister by Angela Hunt
This ad copy speaks directly to the ideal reader for this Christian Fiction novel and the striking orange background reflects the dress on the book cover. These elements made for a very effective image — this campaign drove over 700 clicks from the author’s own fans and fans of two other authors at a 1.39% CTR. Despite the ad’s high CPM bid, the average CPC was only $0.56.
Barbara Freethy, On a Night Like This
This is a fantastic example of a campaign promoting a free first-in-series book! The advertiser set up multiple ads with this image, targeting fans of individual authors on Amazon and Apple in the US and Kobo in Canada. Across all versions, the ads earned 5,000 clicks at an average CTR of 1.63%. The top target had a 4.37% CTR, driving 1,600 clicks from 37,000 impressions in one month. That campaign used a $10 daily budget and low CPC bid, maintaining an eCPC of $0.35.
Brian Rathbone, The Dawning of Power
This ad for a box set of the first three books in an epic fantasy series on Chirp promoted an incredible discount and drove 650 sales in one month. The campaign used a CPC bid, earning 745,800 impressions and 2,000 clicks at a 0.27% CTR. The image was designed with one of our creative builder templates that prominently features the book cover, which includes the total listening hours to emphasize the value of this set.
Entangled Publishing, The Dark King by Gina L. Maxwell
Entangled set up a continuous campaign with a high daily budget in the week after launch for this steamy supernatural romance. The ad targeted the fans of 31 similar authors across all regions and retailers. A high CPC bid ensured it would get visibility, earning it 528,900 impressions in just one week. This provocative background image and Publishers Weekly quote successfully captured readers’ attention, generating 2,500 clicks at a 0.47% CTR!
Honey Phillips, Exposed to the Elements Complete Series
This continuous campaign for a complete sci-fi romance series in Kindle Unlimited has been live since the end of July and is still going strong! The advertiser set a $10 daily budget and high CPM bid, which has earned consistent impressions and clicks for the last four months. The campaign is targeting fans of a single similar author, and appeals to readers who want to devour an entire series at once. To date, the ad has won 67,750 impressions and 2,950 clicks at a 4.36% CTR.
Sourcebooks, Every Last Breath by Juno Rushdan
This ad made excellent use of the limited space for copy in our in-form creative builder, making comparisons to a TV show and other authors as well as making the genre extremely clear to readers. It used both author and category targeting to reach fans of the book author and one similar author who were also subscribed to BookBub’s Romantic Suspense category. In two weeks, this ad earned 250 clicks at a 2.11% CTR and $0.41 eCPC.
Scott Bartlett, Supercarrier Box Set
This ad creative uses the book cover art (designed by Tom Edwards) as a background image. Combined with simple yet compelling copy and a great deal price, this image is very effective. Scott set up 10 campaigns to promote a $0.99 deal on a military science fiction trilogy, each targeting a single author. Over three weeks in February, the ads served a total of 23,600 impressions at an incredible average CTR of 12.29%, earning 2,900 clicks. One version had a CTR of 15.81%!
Allyson Lindt, Fighting for It
This advertiser tested these three images with a single author target before using the winning image — the one on the left — to create 27 campaigns for this erotic romance audiobook on Chirp, each targeting an individual author. In total, the ads served 30,300 impressions and got 875 clicks over one month, generating 30 audiobook sales at $4.99. The top-performing version had a 10.93% CTR and CPC of only $0.07!
Kensington, The Girl Who Survived by Lisa Jackson
The author’s name is front and center in this ad promoting Lisa Jackson’s latest release. This campaign ran in the two weeks after launch, targeting Lisa Jackson’s own fans, 30 similar author targets, and the Romantic Suspense, Thrillers, Crime Fiction, and Psychological Thrillers categories. It won 75,800 impressions and 800 clicks at a 1.06% CTR. Although the ad had a high CPC bid in order to be competitive in the auction, the average eCPC for this full-priced book was just $0.62.
Krista Sandor, The Nanny and the Nerd
Even without a deal price to grab readers’ attention, this ad (and, quite likely, those abs!) was a hit, generating 4,575 clicks at a 2.68% CTR and an average CPC of $0.45. This continuous campaign ran from March to September, bringing thousands of new readers to this first book in a series. The advertiser targeted Amazon US readers who were fans of two similar romantic comedy authors and subscribed to either New Adult Romance, Contemporary Romance, or Rom-Com.
Looking for more BookBub Ads inspiration?
- The Ultimate Guide to BookBub Ads
- The Best BookBub Ads of 2021
- The Best BookBub Ads of 2020
- The Best BookBub Ads of 2019
- The Best BookBub Ads of 2018
Click to tweet: Here are the best BookBub Ads campaigns of 2022! This is fantastic advertising inspiration: http://bit.ly/3iyD9h2 #pubtip #bookmarketing
Click to tweet: The 5th annual Best #BookBubAds of the Year is here! @BookBubPartners rounded up a great range of genres, book prices, and advertising strategies, so there’s some inspiration for everyone: http://bit.ly/3iyD9h2