Why Facebook Ads?
We believe that sustainable marketing through Facebook is a great, affordable way to boost downloads via Kindle Unlimited, get reviews, and possibly get more sales. If you have a Facebook Author Page, Facebook ads can also help you gain more followers and newsletter subscribers. See below for more on Sustainable Marketing.
While Red Adept Editing does not promise a return on your ad investment, we work hard for the success of your book.
To qualify for this service:
Your book must be in Kindle Unlimited.
Your cover must look professional.
Your description must be engaging and error-free. (If there’s an issue, we will help you fix this free of charge.)
If you have reviews on Amazon, you must have a rating of 3.5 stars or higher.
Payment method linked to your Facebook account (We will give you instructions if needed.)
Two-Factor Authentication set up on your Facebook account (This is to protect your account from hackers and phishing. We will provide instructions if needed.) You should also add login alerts.
You will need to add Red Adept Editing staff members as Admins on your Facebook Ads Manager and your Facebook Author Page (if you have one).
Recommended:
Facebook Author Page (If you do not have one, we will run your ads via our Red Adept Editing business page.)
A-Plus content on your Amazon book page
Blurbs in your Editorial Reviews section and before your book description
Pricing
Note: Prices do NOT include the actual money spent on the ads. You will choose your ad spend (minimum $30/month), and ad costs will be charged to the credit card you have on file with Facebook.
Ignite: $150 (Earn 10 Red Points)
Ad Setup + One Month Monitor
Includes: Full ad setup for one book, including at least 3 images* and at least 3 text options for testing. Monitoring of ad for one month, which begins when ad goes live. Monitoring includes adding new images and/or text as we deem necessary to get a lower cost per click and adjusting spend as needed.
Ground Control: $ 40 per month (Earn 2 Red Points per month)
Monthly Monitor Subscription
Only available with or after purchase of Ignite. Only available for ads created by RAE. After your first month of monitoring included in the Ignite Package, you will start a monthly subscription. Each month, we will continue to monitor one ad. Monitoring includes adding new images* and/or text as we deem necessary to get a lower cost per click, adjusting targeting, and adjusting spend as needed.
Ground Control Plus: $ 10 per ad per month
Only available with purchase of Ground Control. This is an add-on for monitoring additional ads.
Booster Pack: $100 (Earn 5 Red Points)
Only available if you’ve already purchased Ignite or with active Ground Control. Full ad setup for one additional book, including at least 3 images* and at least 3 text options for testing. Monitoring of ad for one month, which begins when ad goes live. Monitoring includes adding new images and/or text as we deem necessary to get a lower cost per click, adjusting targeting, and adjusting spend as needed.
**Once a service is purchased, you are placed in a queue for ad creation. Your monthly monitoring does not begin until the ad goes live.
Sustainable Marketing
Thousands of books are published on Amazon every day. Just publishing a book doesn’t mean you will get sales. If no one knows your book exists, they can’t buy it. Marketing is a way to let people know your book is on Amazon and ready to be purchased.
Sites like BookBub and EReader News Today have given many authors the wrong idea about marketing. While those sites are great for short boosts, Amazon rankings no longer give that “long tail” (lots of sales for many months) after a short burst of sales.
When you sell a lot of books in a few days, like with a BookBub ad, your Amazon ranking will rocket. However, unless you continue selling books, your ranking will drop very quickly.
Sites like BookBub and EReader News Today are great for giving a book a jumpstart or running while your ranking is already high from Facebook ads. But by themselves, they won’t continue to provide sales.
Instead, authors need to turn to sustainable marketing to keep their books moving and to create a fan base. When you sell books over time, your ranking rises and remains stead for longer. That’s why running ads continuously can slowly help your books gain momentum and find an audience.
Facebook ads are not a short burst to try to make money fast. The best way to start is to have low ad spend, and as you make royalties, reinvest those royalties by raising your ad spend. Keep doing this until your book(s) gain momentum and Amazon is working for you.
Once you start an ad, you should never stop it. You can always go down to the lowest daily rate of $1. But keeping it going helps it to maintain its momentum and click rate. It also ensures that your Amazon ranking doesn’t fall into the “dungeon.”
Marketing is a marathon, not a race!
For this type of marketing, we have found that authors receive more reviews and make more money from their ads if the book is in Kindle Unlimited. When a book is borrowed (not when it’s read), the Amazon ranking goes up. The higher the ranking, the more people will see it when shopping on Amazon. You get paid when people read the book.
Keep in mind that Kindle Unlimited readers can put up to 20 books on their Kindle Bookshelf. Because of this, you may get a lot of borrows, causing your ranking to rise, but it can take time for people to read so that you get the page reads. You want your book on thousands of readers’ shelves.
One of the biggest lessons I teach when it comes to marketing is:
Don’t spend what you can’t afford to lose!
On the order form, you will be asked how much you want to spend on your ad per month. This is in addition to the fee(s) you choose above.
When figuring out your marketing budget, add the fees from your choices above plus how much you can afford to spend on your Facebook ad(s). Keep in mind that with sustainable marketing, you may or may not break even in the beginning. It takes time to build the targeting and get the ad moving.
The minimum ad spend is $30 per month. That’s the minimum Facebook will allow, and we want your ad to run every day.
For the Ignite, we will start your ad at $1/day to see how well it does and monitor which images and texts are performing best. Once the ad is doing well, we will take your ad spend minus whatever we’ve already spent and divide it by the number of days in the month. Note that your ad will stay at $1/day until we feel the time is right to raise the amount. The period for this can vary greatly from book to book. Just know that we will strive to get the most clicks for the least amount of money spent.
You can request that we raise your ad spend at any time. Alternatively, we will contact you if we feel it’s a good time to raise your ad spend, and you can make a decision as to whether or not to do so.
How Will I Know If My Ad Is Working?
Obviously, if your book is earning royalties, that’s a good thing. However, when it comes to Kindle Unlimited, you have to take other factors into account.
Watch your Amazon ranking!
When you sell a book on Amazon, the ranking goes up. (For this purpose, when we say the ranking goes up, we actually mean it will have a lower number. A book ranked at 1,000 is way better than a book ranked at 200,000.)
When readers borrow your book through Kindle Unlimited, your ranking is affected. However, ranking is not just based on your book’s sales/downloads. It’s based on how many sales/downloads your book gets compared to other books on Amazon. So a ranking that goes up is great, but a ranking that holds steady is also good.
You don’t see royalties until readers begin reading pages. Then you get paid by the pages read.
Amazon doesn’t tell us when a book is borrowed, but you can watch your ranking to get some idea. The rank will fluctuate, since it’s not based not only on how many sales/downloads your book gets but also on how many sales/downloads other books are getting. You could get some sales/downloads one day and your ranking slip a little because all the books in the list around yours had more sales/downloads that day. But as long as it’s going up or staying in a range (holding somewhat steady), you can assume people are downloading your book to their Kindle Unlimited shelf.
Kindle Unlimited readers generally don’t immediately start reading every book they put on their shelves. Prime members can have 21 books on their shelves at any given time. So a reader could borrow your book and not read it for days, months, years, or never (if they change their mind and return it without reading). But even if they read three pages, you’ll get paid for those page. And if you ever take your book out of Kindle Unlimited, the reader can still read their borrowed copy, and you’ll still get paid for their page reads.
Getting new reviews is another way to know your ad is working. Keep in mind that the more your book is read, the greater the likelihood of your book getting some bad reviews. Don’t worry about it. A good spread of star ratings can actually help sell your book.
As part of our monitoring, we watch your ranking and reviews. We may also occasionally ask for a screenshot of your royalty dashboard to help us make ad spend decisions.
Be patient!
This type of marketing is not speedy, but it works well over time. Slow and steady wins the race.
Does RAE Guarantee Sales or Downloads?
No. We can’t guarantee you will get sales or downloads. However, we will do our very best to get you as many as possible. We want you to succeed!
Tips
When buying Facebook ads, you should have all your books in Kindle Unlimited for the best results. Once a reader borrows your book, you want them to be able to borrow all your books.
Facebook ads work best for a series by having one ad for the first book in the series. Every click is an opportunity to sell or get downloads of every book in your series.
If you only have one book, Facebook ads are a good way to get new reviews and grow your fan base, which can later lead to more sales/downloads.
If you have more than one book in the same genre, choose a book with the highest number of reviews. That one is likely to get the most sales/downloads, which could lead to sales/downloads of your other books.
Refund Policy
Ignite: There is no refund for this package. All sales are final.
Ground Control: If you cancel your subscription within the first 3 days after the monthly payment, you will get a full refund. If you cancel your subscription within 15 days after the monthly payment, you will get a 50% refund. If you cancel after the 15th day, there is no refund.
Booster: There is no refund. All sales are final.
*Some ads we create may contain AI images.