![Boosting Box Set Sales with BookBub Ads [Case Study]](data:image/svg+xml;nitro-empty-id=MjU1Nzo5MTc=-1;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgNzUwIDM5NCIgd2lkdGg9Ijc1MCIgaGVpZ2h0PSIzOTQiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+)
BookBub readers love a great deal, and what’s a better deal than several books for the price of one? When Jasper T. Scott wanted to increase exposure and sales of his epic military science fiction series The Cade Korbin Chronicles, he made the complete four-book series into a box set for the price of $0.99. During the launch of his box set, he promoted it with BookBub Ads, generating over 3,500 clicks at a profitable cost-per-click (CPC) rate and an average click-through rate (CTR) of 3.5%.
Here’s how he did it!
Campaign Goals
Jasper creates box sets for any series he completed at least 18 months ago. He’s careful to ensure that any series he is turning into a discount box set is not still making significant money across the individual books. This strategy allows him to hit a new audience, and since 85% of BookBub readers are more likely to take a chance on reading a new author if they can get that author’s books at a discount, a box set is a great way to grab their attention.
I learned that BookBub readers like a deal. Book bundles for $0.99, or $0.99 books in general, tend to convert well, but I’ve found discount box sets do particularly well with BookBub Ads.
While there are several goals you can accomplish using BookBub Ads to promote a discount, Jasper’s primary focus for The Cade Korbin Chronicles was to increase sales and exposure for the series during and after the launch of the box set. He would evaluate the success of his ad campaigns by their CPC, which he wanted to keep low to ensure his campaigns were ROI-positive.
I look for a CPC of $0.30 and below. Any campaign above $0.40 CPC isn’t worth it to me, but that’s because I’m promoting 0.99 books. At a higher price point the rules would be different, and everyone has a different threshold.
Campaign Strategy
During the box set promotion, Jasper created multiple continuous ad campaigns to test two primary elements: author targets and ad creative. Each ad Jasper creates targets one author and starts with a relatively high CPM bid in order to ensure his ad wins impressions. This enables him to quickly notice which author targets are performing well and which aren’t. He increases his budgets for those that are and pauses the others.
I would say try to target as many authors in your genre as you can (one target author per campaign). Try not to focus on the most popular ones. Instead, pick midlist authors and below. Your CPC will be very high on the popular authors. Midlist targets are very reasonable, however.
If Jasper notices that author targets he’s previously identified as a good match are not performing as he expected, he’ll try the same authors again, but this time change the ad creative. For this campaign, he originally highlighted a comparable tv show that he thought would entice readers. While this is a great strategy, it didn’t produce the results he wanted to see for this particular campaign, so he created a new ad that highlighted the stellar reviews on his box set. His original ad creative had an eCPC of $0.54, while his new ad creative had an eCPC of $0.39!
Results
Jasper was able to use BookBub Ads to increase exposure and buzz for his box set at the time of its launch. He achieved his goals by running test campaigns to narrow in on an effective target audience and tailoring his message to them. By the end of his campaigns, he’d spent $997 to get 3,509 clicks, which is an effective CPC (eCPC) of $0.28!
I would say I achieved my goals at a reasonably low cost, and BookBub Ads are targeted well to my audience, which is an added benefit. For reference, on Amazon ads, I am able to get around $0.55 per click, but some campaigns cost $1.00+ CPC.
Here are the average results from 20 campaigns, which ran continuously for different periods spanning from two days to five weeks:
Moving forward, Jasper plans to use BookBub Ads to promote more $0.99 discounts, though he is also curious to try other price points!
I’m going to try a full price or at least $2.99 book sometime as well, but I have no idea how well that will work. Time will tell!
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Click to tweet: Author @JasperTScott shares how he achieved a $0.28 CPC promoting his box set with @BookBub Ads! https://bit.ly/3MiNz0u
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