Cautionary Tale For the Use of Facebook Ads and Boosts from @dochappycamper #WWoW

Welcome to Tammy's Tidbits. This is the feature that morphed from the Writer's Words of Wisdom posts I've done over the last three years. It started out as a group project between four of us that has since fallen by the wayside. All of us have been so busy and have tried to share what we've learned with our fellow authors along the way, but it's been hit or miss. I'm hoping to change that!

If you've been a follower of my WWoW posts, you may recall my advice about trying out Facebook ads and boosted posts. I've shown you that you don't have to go with the recommended budgets that Facebook recommends. In fact, you can choose to boost a post or create an ad or as little as $1/day. With that being said, I've found Facebook isn't so kind to those of us on a tight budget. They don't like give promotional opportunities away for peanuts or free.

Let's face it. Facebook is a business and as such they desire to make money to keep their investors happy. It's why you see so many ads on the sidebars and in your newsfeed. As an author, you too desire to make money. Part of your profits come from what's left over after paying for your editor(s), cover artist, and other fees. Your marketing budget is part of those "other fees" category. Using Facebook and other social media to help promote your work, without being spammy, can be a difficult when faced with the sites in question blocking you from being able to use the ads and boosts.

I write erotic romance and erotica under 5 of my 6 pen names. There's BDSM, LGBT romances and ménage. These topics are not considered "family friendly" according to Facebook guidelines so more often than not, any ad I create will be dismissed because the cover models are showing too much skin, the book promotes "alternate lifestyles that many find offensive" or...get this...the ad has too many words relative to the photo and other elements in the ad.

*blink blink*

Yes, you did just read that. Too many words will get you into trouble as much as too much skin. I've been able to get around most of this by choosing images that feature models with clothes on or objects that can pass by as "non offensive". Unfortunately, my House of Taboo page for my pen name Lia Michaels is BANNED from being able to do any ads simply because of the "promoting alternate lifestyles" bullshit Facebook rule.

I let that go because I'm not changing what Lia writes or promotes on her ADULTS ONLY page. It's set up so only 18 year olds and older can see it no matter who shares it. This doesn't matter in the eyes of the FB Morality Police. Still I let it go until my 89 year old great aunt posted about a post that popped up in her newsfeed from a PORN site showing full on genitalia. She reported it to Facebook as offensive and received a response that blew her mind.

The genitalia post did not violate any of their rules or Terms of Service.

*blink blink*

A photo of a fully naked body showing genitalia is okay to put up in the newsfeeds but not a book cover that has a couple with bathing suits on?

Can you guess why the porn site was allowed to slide past the Morality Police?

MONEY

They paid the big bucks to be able get those sponsored ads for their porn site to show up in the newsfeeds of 89 year old great grandmothers. To test out if my theory was correct, I agreed to so a Facebook ad promoting my Sassy Vixen Publishing page. Facebook has continued to hound me to do it and even created an ad that I just had to agree to. I chose a budget of $1/day for $10 days. This is 1/5 what they suggested I pay.

I clicked the "promote page" button to finalize the ad and it went live. No review process at all. They simply sent the ad live and waiting for a click. As soon as someone liked the page, they charged me the $1 for the day....and then they pulled the ad.

"Your ad wasn't approved because it doesn't meet Facebook's ad policies by advertising adult products or services. We don’t allow images or videos that show nudity or cleavage, even if it’s portrayed for artistic or educational reasons."

Click HERE to see the "offensive" page.

 

There isn't anything on that page that hasn't been there from it's inception, and it's the same page Facebook continues to ask me to promote for $5/day. The original logo for my company was of a scantily clad Vixen. She is clothed but sexy. Facebook never had issue with her before.

The new logo doesn't have a human in it at all. The only logical conclusion here is that Facebook wants more money from me and will enforce their rules in order to get it. Meanwhile, they allow blatant violators slide by because of their bribe....errr....higher advertising fees.

Honestly, as a writer of adult fiction, I'm getting used to not being allowed to use marketing tools available to others. Honestly, it's their loss. I cater to a large market of ADULTS who wish to see this content. I follow all of their rules to the letter to make sure my pages and posts are not seen by under aged individuals, and yet still get shoved in the basement away from the eyes of those who may be offended by a photo of a side boob.

My advice still stands for ads and boosted posts. Use them! Don't give them the price they suggest. Start off small to find your target audience. If you write adult fiction, find alternative photos to use. Instead of an ad for your book, boost a post about your blog instead. Any kind of increase in the number of people who see your posts will drive more traffic to your page and to your book.

Don't give up! If Facebook still declines your ads and boosts, ask your friends and fans to comment on the post. Have them share it on their walls too. The more it's shared, the more Facebook shows it to others. I share almost all of my page posts this way. After five author pages share a post, I can go from 11 people viewing up to nearly 300.

Keep trying out different things to find what works for you and your brand. What works for me, may not work for you so don't be discouraged. It takes years to build your brand. Take the time to find out the best way to promote you and your work and you'll be happy you did!

Until next time,


Tammy

#WWoW: How to Use Facebook Boosts to Your Advantage #MyWANA #Promotip

Welcome to another edition of Tammy's Tidbits here at Not Enough Time in the Day. This week I'd like to share a new booklet written by a fellow author K.L. Silver. Besides writing, Ms. Silver has an extensive background in marketing. Through trial and error, she's found a way to use Facebook boosts in order to help with her book promotions.

With the new guidelines, Facebook is making it harder and harder to get our posts in front of the people who like and follow our pages. By cutting the organic reach, it forces us to pay to get our posts in front of the very people who wish to see it. Some people have decided to leave Facebook because of this, but why give up something that you've worked so hard to build up?

Why not find a way to use the tools to your advantage WITHOUT breaking the bank to do it?

Get Your Copy NOW

Juice Your Boost is a must have guide for every author who wishes to use Facebook as part of their overall marketing plan. Ms. Silver puts it all out there, step by easy step. No longer do you have to go with the suggested boost dollar amounts. You can get a surprisingly high reach with a boost as low as one dollar.

That's right. ONE BUCK.

Don't believe me? Give it a try yourself. Create your a promotional post on your page. Click the boost button and choose the audience you wish to see it. Don't choose your current followers and friends. They're already targeted albeit in low numbers for now. Trust me, the more people who see this boost, the more your current fans and followers will see it too.  Set your budget for only $1 and then let it go. This will be your test run to see how it works for you.

By using the techniques in this book, you'll be able to tailor your posts and the target audience to get the most bang for your buck and for any additional dollars you wish to add to the campaign. Gone are the days you have to start off with $20 in the hopes your post will get in front of a couple thousand people.

The first time I did it, I spent a total of $3 and my post reached over 2,000 people. Of that 1900 of those were paid reach but over 100 were purely organic...from my own followers. If this post wasn't boosted, it would've only been seen by 10 to 20 people at the most and the page this post was on has over 1000 followers. 

Facebook told me my $1 would only get me 100 to 200 reach at the most. At $3 they said 500 to 600 if I was lucky. As you can see, I did much better than they predicted AND I used their boosted system to do it.

What are you waiting for? Grab Juice Your Boost today and see for yourself how easy it is to use Facebook to your advantage once again.

#WWoW Creating Ads on Facebook

Welcome back once again to Writer's Words of Wisdom. This week I thought I would share my latest promotion experience. Not too long ago, I received an email from the Facebook advertising team offering me a $50 Ad Coupon to help me get started creating an ad for one of my pages. 

As soon as your fan page gets to 50 likes, Facebook will email you a coupon code offering you the start up funds to create an ad campaign. The first two I received I more or less blew them off. I got busy and forgot about them until they expired. This time, I made the effort to create the ad and I couldn't be happier.

Since the second book in my Now and Forever series is due to be released next month, I've been looking for additional ways to promote book one and get people prepared for book two. I decided to make an ad promoting my Tammy Dennings Maggy author page. That is one area where I discuss the Now and Forever series and have my blog and twitter accounts linked to post there automatically as well.  Since I started the ad on 9/29/12, the number of folks who've visited my page has gone from 115 to 22,703.  That's right. From less than 150 people to over 22,000.  Twenty-two new visitors "liked" my page and sales of my books on Amazon have started to climb again. The number of sales I received have outnumbered the clicks by over 2 to 1.  Whoohoo!

Create your own ad now!

Creating the ad is very easy, but you do have to set up the account with a credit card or PayPal before you can actually use the coupon they give you. That was the only part I wasn't fond of at the time, but I went ahead with it.  To ensure my "backup" account wasn't dipped into, I made sure I set up the lifetime budget for the ad to the $50 Facebook sent to me. 

Part of the set up process helps you pick what kind of audience you wish to see the ad. I set up the usual for me: romance, erotic romance writers and readers, over 18 years old, etc. I also chose target countries of the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. Just these parameters alone set my target audience at over 1.3 million. Whew!  

Now based on that, Facebook gives you a range of what they think you should bid on your ad space. The bid helps you get up further in the ad space line. The more you bid the higher you will be on the list. For me, I chose to be charged each time someone clicks on any part of the ad. There is a "like" button there in the ad, so they can just click that or the link in it to take it directly to my page.  Now remember what I told you before? I got twice as many sales as I did clicks on the ad AND I got more likes for my author fan page. Exposure baby!

Initially, the suggested bid for me was between $0.80 and $1.40. Yeah, no! I set mine at a quarter a click. I got a few clicks with that so I raised my bid a few days later to $0.40. Again I got a nice spike in the number of views. I jumped to $0.65 a two days ago and this is where I plan to stay. Even though it's less than the suggested amount, I've achieved my goal. I've extended my reach in one more area and have not spent $14 yet of my $50 budget.  My ad will run through 10/29 and at that time I think I will put up another one focusing on the new release. The timing couldn't be any better!

So if you've been thinking about trying out a Facebook ad for yourself, go ahead and do it! You don't have to have an unlimited budget.  You can use the ads on Facebook to your advantage and not break your pocketbook, especially when they start you off with $50.   Click HERE to take you to the help page for Creating an Ad or Sponsored Story. You won't regret it!

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