Looking for inspiration for your next advertising campaign?
Fresh takes on book advertising creative can be hard to come up with, so we assembled 20 of our favorite designs used on BookBub Ads. We hope these designs give you ideas for your own campaigns.
As you browse the examples, keep in mind that they’re meant as inspiration, not templates. All of the examples we chose had high click-through rates (CTRs), but the campaign goals were diverse and may have been different from your campaign goals. Also, the performance of designs and tropes vary highly across audiences and genre interests. An ad below that worked for a romantic suspense audience may not work for a sci-fi audience.
Make sure your campaign is successful by identifying your campaign goals, creating several different ad designs, then testing each design to see which best accomplishes your goals.
1. The Tumor by John Grisham
What we love: By angling the book cover within the 300×250-pixel space, the advertiser fit in the most prominent elements of the cover while making the tagline text large and easy to read. Also, the call-to-action button is clear and stands out in the design.
2. When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
What we love: The copy includes a lot of information in just a few words: the discounted price, the book’s bestseller status, its availability on Kindle. The phrase “For a limited time” also creates a sense of urgency.
3. The Wiregrass by Pam Webber
What we love: The callout with the discount amount and end date stands out in the design, and the large bolded blurb is easy to read.
4. Mister O by Lauren Blakely
What we love: The simplicity of the design draws attention to the cover and the blurb from a popular author.
5. Wind River Wrangler by Lindsay McKenna
What we love: While there’s a lot of text on this ad, the key phrases are bolded and highlighted, drawing the reader’s eye to what’s most important.
6. The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck
What we love: This elegant ad has concise and effective copy, and we love how the lace design ties into the theme of the book.
7. The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
What we love: This advertiser included three blurbs from highly recognizable names and publications in a way that’s easy to read.
8. Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen
What we love: The arrangement of content fits many elements — a large cover image, blurb, tagline, and strong call-to-action button — without being overwhelming.
9. Just Plain Sadie by Amy Lillard
What we love: The synopsis is concise and intriguing, and the call-to-action includes copy written to resonate with the target audience.
10. Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay
What we love: This bold, whimsical design stood out in BookBub’s daily email!
11. Mermaid Moon by Colleen Coble
What we love: The Nora Roberts comp is fantastic, while the two different typefaces and the horizontal line visually separate the comp from the tagline.
12. Texas Tough by Janet Dailey
What we love: The visual star rating is attention-grabbing, and the bolded red blurb stands out.
13. Hawke by Sawyer Bennett
What we love: The call-to-action’s color contrasts with the rest of the ad, making it prominent and eye-catching.
14. The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert
What we love: The copy focuses on a popular comparable title in large font.
15. Finding Allie by Meli Raine
What we love: It’s clear that the promoted book is free, and the orange call-to-action contrasts with the blue design.
16. Dare to Take by Carly Phillips
What we love: The cover image in an iPad makes it obvious that the book is available as a digital download.
17. Dawn at Emberwilde by Sarah E. Ladd
What we love: This elegant design includes a strong call-to-action banner.
18. Some Like It Hot by Leighann Dobbs
What we love: This ad makes it clear the book is for any reader looking for a sweet and sexy cowboy romance.
19. Baby Girl by Bette Lee Crosby
What we love: The simplicity of the design allows for a large cover image and text.
20. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
What we love: The clean design includes a large 3-D hardcover image that supports the promotion of the US print edition.
Want to share this post? Here are ready-made tweets:
Click to tweet: Wow, I love these ad designs for books! Definitely check this out for some inspiration. #WritingCommunity http://bit.ly/1ro59DA
Click to tweet: Authors! Not sure how to design your ad campaigns? Check out these 20 ad examples. 👀 👇 http://bit.ly/1ro59DA