Promoting your books is a crucial component of reaching more readers and getting in front of your audience. While there’s no single promotional tool that is universally effective for books, one strategy that many authors rely on is display advertising. And this strategy is broad — display advertising can encompass many different platforms, tactics, and goals, and is infinitely customizable to each advertiser’s unique business.
We surveyed our partners to learn more about how authors are using this type of online advertising for their books, focusing specifically on three of the most popular platforms for book advertising: Amazon Ads, Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram), and BookBub Ads. We hope this helps break down the differences and strengths of each platform and provides a solid foundation for your own book advertising strategy!
Who responded to the survey
To gather data, we surveyed 200 advertisers who have run a BookBub Ads campaign in the past year. The vast majority (98%) of respondents self-publish some or all of their books. They were fairly evenly split amongst distribution strategies: About 37% use wide distribution (all ebooks are available on multiple retailers); 35% have all of their books exclusive to Amazon; and the remainder use a mix of the two across their catalogs.
The majority of survey respondents reported writing romance or rom-com. Following those, the most respondents wrote speculative fiction (which includes fantasy, science fiction, and horror), and mysteries, thrillers, and action. Although less common, other genres represented were literary, historical, and women’s fiction; teen and young adult; middle grade and children’s; nonfiction; religion and spirituality; and LGBTQ+ fiction.
Finally, 35% of respondents had published between 21–50 books and 34% published 10 or fewer.
How are authors using book advertising?
More than half of authors are using display advertising weekly as part of their core marketing strategy.
Frequent advertisers were also more likely to spend more on ads: 40% of those who advertise their books weekly spend over $1,000 per month, and 55% spend over $500 per month. They were also more likely to have a higher monthly marketing budget overall; two-thirds of authors who run ads on a weekly basis spend over $500 per month in marketing across all channels.
When it comes to advertising goals, there were three clear frontrunners: Most authors use online advertising to promote first-in-series books, new releases, or limited-time discounts. Only 35% of respondents reported using ads to promote a permafree book, though it wasn’t specified whether this was because they don’t have any permafree books, or if they simply don’t use display advertising to promote those titles. However, authors who use wide distribution for their ebooks were more than twice as likely to advertise their permafree books than authors whose books are all in Kindle Unlimited (KU).
With more independent authors investing in selling direct in recent years, we were curious to know how authors use ads to promote their own stores or drive direct sales of their books. We’ve seen some authors begin to incorporate BookBub Ads into their direct sales strategies, but fewer than 20% of authors in this survey said they use ads for this goal.
Finally, we asked authors how they assess advertising results. The majority of advertisers (67%) determine their ads’ success based on the volume of sales they drive. Slightly fewer (62%) say their cost per click is important to them. A less common strategy among these authors is to focus on the total volume of clicks or impressions driven by their ads, which are useful metrics to consider when the goal of a campaign is exposure. Authors whose books are in KU were much more likely to rely on volume of clicks or impressions than those whose books are widely distributed.
What are the strengths of each platform for book advertising?
To drill down into how authors use each of the three major book advertising platforms, we asked a series of questions about their experiences across platforms, why they prefer one over another, and their advice for authors choosing which platform(s) to use to advertise their books. Here’s a summary of what we heard from respondents about the differences between platforms.
BookBub Ads scores best on ease of use and offers flexible targeting.
BookBub was the most popular platform in our survey for promoting discounts and new releases. Although BookBub is best known for its promotions of low-priced books, many authors also use ads to advertise full-priced books.
BookBub Ads work well for discounted books. And as your following grows, they work better.
— Anne Janzer, author of The Writer’s Process
I’ve always thought BookBub readers wanted a discount, but for my new release, BookBub readers are clicking on my $4.99 ebook ad and buying the ebook.
— Susan Specht Oram, author of Shore Lodge
BookBub Ads’ targeting capabilities stood out to respondents. On BookBub Ads, you can target readers based on the genres and authors they’re fans of, but also by their region and preferred ebook retailers: BookBub is the only major ad platform that allows for targeting readers who buy books from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Apple Books. Authors also like that it’s a platform for consumers specifically looking for books.
When I use the BookBub Ads platform, I can be certain that the readers my ads reach have a clear intention of buying books… being able to filter an audience depending on their preferred store and genre is also a huge advantage when it comes to BookBub Ads.
— Cristiana-Maria Pavel, author of The Queen’s Emerald
They are terrific for me to wide retailers (Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google). I don’t get good sell-through on Amazon so I leave them out of the targeting and I appreciate the ability to do that!
— Lainey Davis, author of Sweet Distraction
I love the targeting I can do with BookBub, and trust it will end up in front of those readers, without paying for superfluous random impressions or clicks I haven’t asked for. It’s so simple to isolate and test comparable authors for individual books, and I appreciate that so much!
— Anonymous Author
BookBub is great for reaching non-Amazon readers, and it’s surprisingly good for KU reads, too.
— Autumn Macarthur, author of The Wedding List
Authors also appreciate BookBub’s simple user interface. 84% of respondents agreed that setting up a campaign is easy, and 77% find it easy to understand results. On top of that, authors were confident that they could get help with their ads if they needed it.
I prefer BookBub because of the ease of making ads and the immediate results I can see.
— Anonymous Author
BookBub has made it easier than any other platform to test iterations of my ad with quick, clear results. It means I save money in the process of finding an ad that works. I also feel like BookBub provides lots of resources to learn their system.
— Anonymous Author
I really like that I can talk to real people at BookBub.
— Minerva Spencer, author of Phoebe
Romance authors also noted they appreciate being able to advertise erotic romance books to relevant readers, which can be challenging on other platforms.
BookBub is the only platform that allows advertising for erotic romance and erotica, which means I do all my advertising for those series using only BookBub. That makes BookBub a very important part of my marketing strategy.
— Minerva Spencer, author of Phoebe
Meta Ads offers flexible ad formats and wide reach to a large user base.
One major benefit that authors called out about Meta Ads is the scale available on the platform, with over 3 billion monthly active users on Facebook alone (Meta also owns Instagram). 82% of surveyed authors agreed that they could reach a large audience of readers using Meta Ads, and some authors specifically called out being able to review detailed demographic data about the readers who engaged with their ads.
Facebook has a large audience and does well at moving full-price books.
— Leann Ryans, author of Raider’s Treasure
Meta gives me a lot of details about the demographics who click on my stuff.
— Ivy Nelson, author of Blood
Across Meta’s multiple advertising properties, you can create different ad types (for example, text, image, and video), and authors appreciate being able to experiment with different ways to engage their audiences.
I like boosting posts on Instagram or Facebook the most because they are simple and based on organic posts.
— Anonymous Author
With Meta, I am able to include long hooky excerpts in my ads.
— Ivy Nelson, author of Blood
Pay-per-click ads have generally not been very successful for me and are often too expensive to be cost-effective, as an author with only a few books so far. I have recently tried Instagram Reel ads to promote a couple of books and found more interest from readers.
— Anonymous Author
The most common goals authors had when advertising on Meta were promoting a first-in-series and promoting a new release. However, 20% of authors also reported using Meta Ads to drive newsletter sign-ups. Although a minority of authors use ads for this purpose, those who do typically use Meta to accomplish it.
I only advertise free first-in-series, discounted first-in-series, limited-time discounts and mailing list sign-ups. Of all those, mailing list sign-ups gets priority.
— Anonymous Author
Amazon Ads makes it easy to track conversions and promote KU books.
Many authors report that an advantage of Amazon Ads is the ability to easily attribute sales. Authors can use Amazon Attribution links to help track conversions on campaigns outside of Amazon, but on Amazon itself, this capability is baked in.
Amazon is great because I can see how many people clicked versus bought.
— Carmen DeSousa, author of She Belongs to Me
Amazon allows for the easiest tracking of clicks to conversions.
— Kari Trumbo, author of An Imperfect Promise
76% of respondents agreed that Amazon Ads allow them to reach a lot of readers. Several authors reported that Amazon Ads are especially effective for books enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, as it’s more likely that a reader browsing on Amazon will have already purchased a KU subscription.
Amazon works best for Kindle Unlimited.
— Anonymous Author
Amazon is best for visibility and building brand familiarity, especially now they’ve made more sponsored brand ads available to authors who don’t have a vendor account.
— Autumn Macarthur, author of The Wedding List
A few authors also noted they appreciate the longevity of their Amazon Ads. Because these ads are tied to a specific product, they can remain evergreen through price changes and special discounts. For some authors, this means that when they set up an ad that works for them, they can let it run without intervention for a long time.
Amazon can run for months or even longer without too much tweaking.
— Anonymous Author
Amazon ads are great for long-term campaigns.
— Anonymous Author
Advice for authors considering book advertising
Display advertising can be an effective way to reach readers and promote books, but it often requires lots of testing and iteration before you see a payoff. Survey respondents encouraged other authors to start with small budgets, emphasizing that finding a campaign setup that achieves what you want isn’t always a fast process. It’s worth taking the time to learn what works for you!
Start small. $5 or $10 goes a long way. Check it regularly and make changes as needed.
— Eileen Troemel, author of Hunger
Experiment, start small then scale and watch instructional videos.
— Anonymous Author
It’s very easy to spend a lot of money quickly, so start slowly and stick to a budget you can afford.
— SL Beaumont, author of The Carlswick Affair
Do lots of experimenting!
— Anonymous Author
Many authors agree that part of experimenting with ads includes trying out multiple platforms, highlighting that each one has its unique strengths, challenges, and audiences. Several mentioned that some platforms will work better for some authors and books than others.
Try them all, and give them a good run. Some are better fits for certain genres than others are.
— Lucy Monroe, author of Urgent Vows
Try all the different types of ads and see which one works best for each book. They won’t all be the same.
— K.A. Masterson, author of My Soul to Take
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket; it’s a big world, and most advertising platforms can hit different segments of that big world… I love both BookBub and Facebook Ads because they have significantly different audiences and age brackets.
— R.J. Blain, author of Playing with Fire
Every genre and author has different needs and fit. Experiment with each ad platform at least for a little while to see what works best for you.
— Judith Hale Everett, author of Two in the Bush
Other authors spoke about the benefit of focusing on a single platform. Creating successful campaigns requires a significant investment of time and effort, and for them, that effort is best concentrated on learning the ins and outs of one channel.
Pick one and learn how to use it really, really well.
— Katy Archer, author of The Forbidden Freshman
Find the one which works and use your budget there.
— Anonymous Author
Although campaign tactics will vary significantly from author to author (and book to book!), one refrain of many authors was that targeting is key — reaching the right audience makes all the difference.
Start small and choose comparable authors carefully. It makes a difference.
— Cindy Sample, author of Dying for a Date
Target properly. Don’t just throw spaghetti at the wall.
— Janice Whiteaker, author of Cowboy Seeking Nanny
Do your research on finding comp authors and experiment.
— Laura A. Barnes, author of Whom Shall I Kiss… An Earl, A Marquess, or A Duke?
Lastly, remember that nobody knows your books and business as well as you do. Your knowledge of what your audience cares about — and why they like your books — will be what equips you to create successful campaigns!
Advertising sells books, and it’s a must. Learn the tools and use them. Don’t rely on others. No one can sell YOUR books the way you can.
— Anonymous Author
Keep it simple and uncluttered. Have a nice cover with a look and title that communicates the genre well. Try to use the language that’ll attract your specific readers — focus on only one point or hook you’re trying to communicate. Know your audience, what books they’re reading, and which of those are like yours.
— Anonymous Author
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