BookBub Ads is the most flexible tool we offer, and can be an effective option for driving sales, reaching new readers, and running cost-effective ad campaigns.
But that flexibility has a trade-off: It can be hard to know what to change about your campaign to create a winning ad. To take out some of the guesswork, we’ve rounded up a few of the most common challenges we hear from advertisers about their campaigns and shared suggestions for how to address them.
Jump to:
First: Set your campaign’s goals
The first step to any ad campaign is knowing what you want to accomplish.
Having a clear goal gives you a framework to assess your results and decide when your ad needs tweaking. An advertiser aiming to maximize exposure will use very different strategies from one trying to generate a positive ROI.
Keep in mind that not every tip here will work for every ad, and some may not be relevant for your campaigns depending on your goals — consider what you want to achieve before starting your ad, and before making changes.
If your ad isn’t winning enough impressions…
BookBub Ads appear in dedicated spaces at the bottom of our emails to BookBub and Chirp subscribers and on BookBub.com. Each instance of an ad being served is called an impression. Here’s how it works: At the moment each reader opens an email or a page on our website, our auction determines which ad to show that particular reader. The auction identifies every ad targeting the reader’s subscription preferences and interests, and the ad with the highest bid wins that impression. So one impression = one chance for a reader to see your ad.
If your ad isn’t winning impressions, and therefore not reaching as many readers as you want, you have two options: You can either increase your bid to make it more competitive in our auction or change your targeting to reach a less competitive audience.
1. Increase your bid
Each advertiser sets a bid for their ad, which is the maximum rate they want to pay to reach readers in their target audience. Your bid determines how competitive your ad is in our auction, so the simplest way to make your ads more likely to win impressions is to increase your bid.
There are two ways to bid on BookBub Ads campaigns: cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or cost per click (CPC).
CPM bidding is straightforward — raising your bid makes your ad more competitive, and therefore likely to win more impressions.
Troubleshooting low-serving CPC ads is a bit more complicated because our auction takes the click-through rate (CTR) of CPC ads into account when calculating which ad is the most competitive. You may be able to win more impressions by increasing your bid, but you should also consider tweaking other campaign elements, like your targeting or ad image, to increase your CTR so that your ad serves more frequently. Skip ahead to the next section to learn more about increasing clicks on your ad!
If you have a CPC ad that isn’t serving many impressions, we also recommend duplicating that campaign and making any changes to the new version so that it can get a fresh start in the auction and won’t be affected by the CTR of your original ad.
2. Change your target audience
Another way to win more impressions and get your ad shown to more readers is to change your target audience. Some audiences are in higher demand than others, so to win more impressions from your budget, you can seek out less competitive segments of the marketplace.
BookBub Ads allows you to target readers in several ways — by category subscriptions, author interests, retailer preferences (Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo), and regions (US, UK, Canada, and Australia). Most advertisers tend to include Amazon US in their targeting, so there’s often less competition to reach readers in other regions or on other retailers.
Targeting fans of relevant authors also allows you to reach a narrow audience that other advertisers may not be targeting. When you target fans of an author on BookBub, your audience will include any reader who has engaged with that author on BookBub, including those who have clicked on past Featured Deals. If your goal is to identify under-targeted audiences, you should avoid the biggest names in your genre, as these authors’ fans are likely to be targeted by lots of other advertisers. To get ideas for other authors to include, check out your also-boughts on retailers and keep an eye out for similar books being featured in your genre on BookBub. For additional tips, you can learn how some successful advertisers choose which authors’ fans to target.
If your ad isn’t getting clicks…
Many advertisers want to maximize the number of clicks on their ads. Readers clicking on your ad is one of the strongest signals that your message is resonating with your audience — plus, a click is one step closer to a book sale! If you’re not getting as many clicks as you want, that means your ad image isn’t resonating with the readers you’re targeting — so you can try creating different ad designs or testing new target audiences.
1. Test different image designs
When you run a BookBub Ads campaign, your ad image is all readers will see, so it needs to grab their attention! There’s a lot of room to be creative, but for inspiration, here are some elements we often see in ads with high click-through rates:
- A deal price. BookBub readers love a good deal — 85% of our readers report that they have purchased a book by an author they hadn’t heard of before because of a discount! Including a discount price in your image may encourage more readers to click.
- Tropes that appeal to your ideal fan base. We’ve found that mentioning genre-specific tropes in our Featured Deal blurbs can drive more clicks, and many successful advertisers highlight tropes in their ad images. Browse recent Featured Deals in your genre to see what our editors find readers respond well to!
- Quotes from publications, reviews, or other authors. BookBub readers trust recommendations from authors they love, so using quotes from other authors in your ads can be an excellent way to hook new readers.
- Comparisons to movies, TV shows, or other books. Comparing your books to other content your target audience knows and loves can be a fantastic way to drive clicks. Do make sure your comparisons are accurate and don’t mislead readers about what you’re promoting.
- Simple and clean designs. Avoid adding too many elements to a single image — readers may not take the time to decipher a cluttered design. All the copy on your ad image should be clear and easy to read.
- Imagery from your cover. Your cover can be a powerful marketing tool! If you’re having trouble driving sales from your ads, compare your cover to the covers of authors whose audiences you’re targeting — will your cover appeal to those readers, or do you need to consider a redesign?
- Calls to action. Include a short phrase like “Read now” or “Learn more” that prompts readers to take an action.
How will you know which of these elements will work best for your ads and your books? By running tests! Learn how to test different BookBub Ads designs.
2. Test different targeting
Your ad image is only half of the equation — you also have to ensure you’re reaching the right readers. While it can be tempting to target an entire category of BookBub subscribers with your BookBub Ads campaigns, targeting by author interest is a much more effective way to reach the most relevant, engaged readers who are likely to not only click on your ad, but actually purchase your book.
We interviewed 11 advertisers who consistently run ads with high click-through rates to learn how they choose which authors to target on BookBub Ads. Read their tips and strategies here!
If your ad is too expensive…
BookBub Ads allows you to set your overall budget — you’ll never spend more than you specify on your campaigns. But because ads are competing in a live auction, the actual cost of clicks and impressions will change depending on the other ads in the auction at any given time.
If you have a limited marketing budget but you want to maximize the number of readers your ad reaches, you can lower your bid, adjust your targeting, or try CPC bidding.
1. Lower your bid
Your bid determines the rate you pay for ad impressions or clicks, so lowering your bid will keep your costs down. A lower bid will also make your ad less competitive in the auction, so you may need to tweak other elements of your campaign, like your targeting (see If your ad isn’t winning enough impressions), in order to win enough impressions at a lower bid to spend your entire budget.
2. Change your targeting
Try targeting different combinations of authors, categories, regions, and retailers to find more affordable readers. Amazon readers in the US are most frequently included in ad targeting, so if you can, try targeting readers in different regions or who buy from different retailers.
This can require some maintenance, as the cost to reach different audiences will change over time as other ads start and end, so keep an eye on your ad results!
3. Try CPC bidding
Bidding on clicks instead of impressions ensures you’re only paying for the highest-value readers who actually click on your ad. And because this bidding style allows you to cap how much you’re willing to pay per click, you can ensure you’re maintaining control of your costs.
Note that our auction takes the CTR of CPC ads into account, so you may have to spend some time optimizing your image and targeting to ensure your ad is getting enough clicks to remain competitive and continue being shown to readers. Read these tips from successful CPC advertisers on how to make the most of this bidding strategy.
If your ad isn’t earning a profit…
Keeping the cost of your ad down doesn’t necessarily mean it will be ROI-positive. To earn money from your ads, you have to make sure the readers who click on your ad are actually purchasing your book. To increase the ROI from your campaigns, you should track conversions, test your campaigns to maximize clicks and conversions, and optimize your product pages.
1. Track conversions and revenue
To know how much you can spend on your ads while still making a profit, you have to start by calculating how much revenue they generate. You can find step-by-step instructions and an easy-to-use template for estimating ad conversion rates — how many readers who clicked the ad went on to purchase the book — and expected revenue here.
Strategically choosing the book you’re advertising can help you maximize your ad’s conversion rate and expected revenue, because some books are more likely to convert and generate revenue than others:
- Discounted books have high conversion rates, and the lower the price, the greater the purchase rate — ads for $0.99 books have 31% higher average CTRs than ads for books priced $1.99+.
- Box sets have higher purchase rates than single books of the same cost, which means you’re more likely to generate box set sales at higher prices.
- First-in-series books tend to generate higher revenue per acquired reader because readers who pick up book one may purchase the next books in the series at full price.
You’re welcome to use your own affiliate links to help you track conversion rates; just be sure to check each retailer’s terms of service to ensure your use is compliant with their policies.
2. Test images and targeting to increase clicks and conversion rates
Once you’ve calculated your conversion rate, you can run tests on your ad images and targeting strategy to increase the number of readers who purchase your book after clicking on your ad.
If you’re using CPM bidding, increasing your CTR will also lower the cost of your ad: more clicks for the same number of impressions = cheaper clicks! This means you’ll have a higher revenue per acquisition and more wiggle room with the amount you can bid while still making a profit.
3. Optimize retailer product pages
If testing and tweaking your ads doesn’t increase their conversion rates, you may need to turn your attention to your landing page. We recommend linking directly to retailer product pages in order to minimize the number of clicks it takes for a reader to purchase your book.
You should also take the time to optimize your book description so readers are compelled to click the purchase button once they reach your retailer page!
This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated with the latest best practices and strategies.
