This is a Test. This Is Only a Facebook Test.
I received a coupon in my email from Facebook for $50 in ad credit. I’ve received similar emails in the past and promptly trashed them. Nobody pays attention to the ads on the side of Facebook. Right?
In an experiment, I cashed in my credit to see what would happen in a short period of time with certain parameters. I chose to run the “campaign” from 10/13-10/22 and chose the following demographic given to me in choices.
Targeting
This ad targets 20,761,660 users:
- who live in the United States
- who like #Reading (process) or #Twilight (series)
- who are not already connected to Brinda Berry, Author
- who are in the category Literature/Reading or the category Entertainment (TV)
-
Facebook Ad
Facebook Ad Clicks Graph
The results are that 112 people clicked out of 27,576 people with this ad in their Facebook newsfeed.
Facebook Sponsored Stories
Then there’s also a thing called Sponsored Stories. Some of my credit went into this. See how it shows one user how another has liked me? So, the theory is a person would be inclined to “like” a page a friend has liked.
Facebook Sponsored Stories Graph
How did the Sponsored Story fare? I received 38 clicks to “like” my page from the ad that ran naming a friend who’d liked me.
So, here is the total outcome of running an ad and a sponsored story. Almost 40,000 people saw the ad and/or sponsored stories. I have 150 who “liked” me. My experiment didn’t cost a dime since I had a coupon code. It did give me some great information. Is it worth $50 of your marketing dollars?
BIO: Brinda lives in the southern US with her family and two spunky cairn terriers. She’s terribly fond of chocolate, coffee, and books that take her away from reality.
WEB BLOG FACEBOOK TWITTER GOODREADS YOUTUBE
Gloria Richard 
Thanks for sharing, Brinda!
I’ve been wondering about doing this. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, Brinda
Geesh! Make me pull out my old corporate America R.O.I. skills, why don’t ‘ya?
Hush. I have to get the numbers calculated before our staff meeting.
[Steps I’ll climb on the corporate ladder for this type of marketing brilliance, current salary multiplied by 1.05 for each step, plus end-of-quarter Brilliance Bonus equals…SKA-Weet!…both pairs of cowboy boots I’ve been slobbering to buy since I tried them on.]
I had no clue.
No clue how those ad thingamabloopies worked. Now, I do and I see the benefits — especially for authors who have books out.
Fifty dollars (minus fifty dollar coupon) investment yielding 150 new LIKES? Amazing.
I must come to Arkansas, Brinda. Why? So you can smack me upside the head and teach me more about
FazebFaceBoobF-A-C-E-B-O-O-K than how it is spelled. I do not tap into this SM resource as much as I should.Better stated:
I do not tap into this resource.
This is all food for thought and I got excited about trying something new since it was on the house, so to speak. You crack me up.
Interesting analysis. Now if only there was some way of knowing if that translated into new readers for your books! Thanks for sharing this.
Tracking sales related to campaigns is not difficult, but it takes time. For example, I could insert buy links in a post only on Facebook. Those links would have to be trackable to a system such as Bit.ly or Goo.gl that allows me to see number of clicks on any date for that special URL. I currently have accounts in both of those I’ve mentioned. Then I’d also have to monitor the sales in the date ranges when I have collected clicks on those specific URLs.
interesting test, not a tremendous amaount in terms of figures; but for those starting out it`s a great tool to use; having said that there was not many clicks on the stories generated -this makes me wonder if this means it`s kind of dead interest as you`d ideally want active interactions with your target audience, wouldn`t you?
Hi! This was a learning experience for me, and I sure I would go about it differently a second time around. The sponsored story can be tailored more to capture a Facebook user’s attention. I let Facebook generate mine. That being said, you are correct that it didn’t generate a lot.
Love that you did the “experiment.” I appreciate that you took the time to show us step by step what you did. I’ll look a bit more carefully in the future about coupons.
Smiles,
Linda Joyce
Thanks for reading and leaving the note!
I too have tried to sponsor a story with the facebook credit. While it generated a lot of “likes” from people in various parts of the world, I’m not sure it will translate into sales as it didn’t really target a specific audience. If I was easily impressed that the sponsored ad reached a global population, so to speak, I might be happy. But a lot of the people “liking” the ad, didn’t seem to be romance readers. Also, it didn’t result in any of them liking the page – only 1 or 2.
I still think one of the best ways to get your page known, is to use facebook as your page and comment on other pages you’ve liked. I may not have 1000’s of followers, but by doing so, I’ve attracted other readers of romance who have stuck around and those are the people you want. Plus, this is free!
I did like you a few months ago and actually paid the $50 but it didn’t yield many new “likes” for me.
Gloria is one of the best Facebook promoters I know. She always promotes my posts and others. I’m sure she’s gained lots of Facebook page follows by doing this.
That’s one area I don’t tend to be good at doing. My hours of the day tend to disappear too quickly. 🙂
Sheeesh! Sign me up!
Hi Susie,
Facebook would love to sign you up. 🙂 Watch for emails that give you a credit to try. That one isn’t the first one I’ve received.
Interesting! Will have to keep this in mind…though could get pricey.
Yes, it could. I’ve participated in blog hops that give me good results for less money.
I ended up with 300 extra friends on FB when I was promoting my Lupus Verse Me blog on blog spot. and a few followers to my blog when I had none. I felt the same way no one looks at those ads and didn’t keep track of my money. I couldn’t understand how I got 800 views on my blog in one day when for over a month I barely had one person visit. It is a great advertising venue.
Apparently, someone DOES look at them. lol
Wow. I’d love to get 800 views on my blog in one day.
BB, ever the trail blazer! Thanks for experimenting and sharing. It’s a no loose situation with a coupon.
Yes, I thought it couldn’t hurt to try it!
Brinda … somewhere is the recessess of my addled brain, I can see this must be a great marketing tool. To add this to the other great marketing tools, to learn how to market … “to market, to market, to buy a fat pig … home again, home again … jiggity jig.”
Make sense to you?
I didn’t think so. One of these days Gloria and I will learn what it all means … or as they say … one of these days we’ll get it together and then realize we forgot where it was 🙂
I don’t know that I’ll pay $50 to run one again. I’ve seen better results for less money from large blog hops.
I agree. For $50 and 40K in users, I’d have at least hoped for the 1-2% you achieve via a mailing campaign (400-800 Likes).
Thanks for sharing this, Brinda. I passed on the free FB ads, but wondered how effective they would be.
One way to get more likes on your FB page is to use rafflecopter when giving away prizes and offer a chance to win for liking a FB page. Again, not sure how this translates to sales, but I did learn we should always post on our pages never our profiles, so I guess the people who like us may see our posts. I’m still a little foggy about all this.
You are absolutely right about the Rafflecopter. I use them all the time and have one on my blog post today. It’s too bad that hosted WordPress files can’t support them.
New to marketing writing and this post definitely helps open some doorways into the “what next” after a manuscript is rotation for publication. All I can say is thanks and I’ll look forward to your next post.
Nice to meet you, Susan. I’m always looking around for the “what’s next.” Things change everyday!
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I did try a Google campaign with a coupon, but I didn’t think it did all that much. Since then I’ve just trashed the coupons. My next marketing round is targeted paranormal book tours on review centered blogs. Whew, that was a mouthful to type. We’ll see how that goes! Thanks for the info on your FB campaign. For $50 free credit, I think it was terrifically successful. 🙂
That’s exactly what I did when my second book released. I got a lot of good reviews that way.
For a free coupon, this was worth the try. 150 more likes? That’s 150 more potential readers. If one keeps their page alive and kicking – and I know you do – it’s certainly something to consider.
If you’d paid the $50, it’s still only $0.33 per like. I suppose one has to consider the value.
Carole- If you try ads with the tennis club, I’d make sure to select the geographic area that is very local to you. I’d also offer something free (like a drawing for a lesson) and not just go with their standard ad as I did.
You really make it seem so easy along with your presentation
however I find this topic to be actually one thing which I think I’d by no means understand. It sort of feels too complex and very extensive for me. I’m having a
look ahead to your next put up, I will try to
get the hold of it!