Promotion Blues...

I attempted what I thought would be a better promotion campaign on Facebook. I tweaked my previous Facebook ad campaign, dropped the Kindle book prices, and increased my cost of advertising per day. When someone clicked my ad, they would go straight to my Amazon author page instead of to this site as with my previous ad. At first the results were promising. I was getting five times the clicks, but oddly nearly no sales. It could be that the lower the price of an item, the cheaper the quality appears. I really can't say. I do know that those who have responded after giving my work a read seem to have enjoyed it.

But I had to put an early end this current campaign, which was supposed to run from July 1 to August 15 as a "summer read sale." Over two weeks into the campaign, I received a message that my ad, after a review, was disapproved because of the image(s). The images were the book covers, and they were the exact same images on my previous campaign. I could only assume that these images would be all right now if they were all right then. The other problem I have is that before your campaign starts, you receive the message "Your ad is approved" from Facebook. Why was it initially approved, then (like NFL on television) "after further review" disapproved? Well, I deleted the cover images for BLOOD SACRAMENT and STILL WATERS, which negated the slideshow effect, and was left with the single image for THE 4TH MANIFESTATION. Suddenly, the ad was again approved, but the clicks dropped significantly with the "safer" and far less interesting image. I thought that was that. But after another week I received another Facebook message. You guessed it: "Your ad is disapproved." It took only a few minutes of pondering before I decided to end the promotion and stop losing more money. What would I be left with? The image from the cover of VISITATION RITES? My picture? Neither fits with my ad copy message "Your next thrill is a click away."

Needless to say, I can't see doing a Facebook ad again, unless it's one meant to send viewers to this site. In the meantime, I'll give Amazon Marketing Services another go in August.

Also, more focus on my present work-in-progress, which is coming along nicely. More on that soon!