After many years of running ads with ROI all over the place (high highs and low lows all seemingly out of my control), and doing a deep dive into marketing best practices, I finally reached a point where I could get consistent ROI on my Facebook ads.
Imagine rock steady earnings from month to month to month. No question about what your income will be. I've done it. I have students who are doing it now, too.
I've put everything I learned into a class that I teach at Lawson Writer's Academy because my approach complements Margie Lawson's writing techniques (she's an amazing teacher and I recommend her to all writers who want to create stories readers can't resist).
The class covers what to put into your ad to make it compelling and clickable (images, ad copy), strategies to make ads effective (ad styles, audiences, freebies etc...), and the technical how-to of setting up ads. Then there's the ongoing discussion group that students can join.
What students tell me they find most helpful are:
-The method for selecting images
-Ad copy for authors and reader psychology
-How to find and build audiences
-How to control costs until the ROI is there
-Avoiding flags and pitfalls on the FB interface
-The personal feedback on their homework
In terms of genre, most of my direct experience is with contemporary and paranormal romance and urban fantasy, and examples for the class come from those genres. However, all these techniques will work for any genre so long as you understand what your target readers' expectations are.
I am not a fan of expensive pay walls and I've worked hard to keep the class affordable and accessible at $150. I have taken all the expensive classes, and while most were well intentioned, they didn't help me or cover the things that actually ended up making a difference.
There's also a misguided notion out there that you need a huge budget to run ads, which I think is used to justify high class costs. However, my approach to ads takes very low ad spends and turns them into four figures. In fact, I started testing some of my ideas at $2 a day and brought in three figures with that low of an ad spend. To hit four figures, I just layered in more cheap ads.
The point being: success is achievable by authors on even tight budgets. It's just no one else will say that out loud (or no one else is as cheap as I am! One of those!).
Of course, there's more to it than how much you spend. It's selecting the right images, creating compelling ad copy, knowing your audience, marketing psychology, understanding Facebook's interface, algo, and how audiences work on their platform etc... All things covered in the class.
Note/Disclaimer: This is an intense class for authors who are ready to work and assimilate some new-to-you big ideas. Ideally you've poked at ads and boosts, participated in groups to connect with peers and readers, set up a page, know how to edit a post. It's just the ROI that's not clicking.
I've had authors sign up who never used FB and they were very lost and then very mad. So heads up...if you are a never FB user, this class will drown you. Get your feet wet first, then take the class.
Here's a video that previews a bit of the class: https://youtu.be/SruLj5aUgg8
If you'd like to be notified when class registration opens up, you can leave your email address here: https://forms.gle/kzKX2jsK3GrHantc6
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