Online Ads

I've never really done much with online advertising, as it has never appeared worth the money sunk into it. But, this month, I'm testing two different venues.

First, I'm trying a "long tail" version of Google Ads. I've got about two dozen very basic book title ads that direct to the book detail pages. They are running primarily on the content networks, at a fairly low cpc (usually $.10-.20). The ads are not optimized for click-thru, as I really don't want everybody and their mother clicking on them; I'm just looking for serious clicks. I've been getting 50,000-60,000 impressions a day at my current per diem budget, with a very low ctr that still usually manages to reach the daily budget. I get very few impressions on the Google search -- not happy about that, but Google has a money-grubbing scheme that apparently doesn't allow search impressions from low bids, even when there are no other impressions showing up on search.

My second venue is Project Wonderful, which has an interesting advertising methodology, but appears to be focused mostly on a community of webcomics and the like. Right now, I'm bidding one book ad (skyscraper for Historical Bigfoot) on a single webcomic, Real Life.

I won't know if there's any positive outcome from these until end of month, to see if there has been any spike in sales numbers. Of course, I readily admit that my book title detail pages are not optimized for best click-thru's to Amazon. But, it's an interesting experiment.

Update

I'm still plugging away at several mystery titles, hoping to have them finished by January 1.

I've been fooling around with Facebook, created a page for Coachwhip, (only a few covers on it right now), but haven't added a link from the main site yet. Maybe this weekend.

Online Sales Categories

I'm still in procrastination mode (need to tie down some final text edits and photo licensing for Eight-Legged Marvels, and haven't quite gotten in the mood to finish Boss Snakes, though I've got the sightings layout done), so just a quick glance (generic musings) at how I think we can categorize online booksales, particularly with POD.

Directed (informed) purchases: running along a scale from low need to high need, these are the niche-specific sales for someone who has done their homework and is specifically looking for a book on a certain topic. The higher the need (along with other factors, like few competing titles), the better the chance for an online sale.

Casual (recognized) purchases: running along a scale of low value to high value, these are the sales within a community-based niche, where any new title will have a decent chance of being noted, and where purchases are based on past experience (how well previous titles were written), market saturation or over-saturation, and similar factors.

Impulse (triggered) purchases: these sales run along a scale from low stimulus to high stimulus, and involve individuals who might otherwise have no real interest in the subject. Factors include cover appeal, and marketing approaches to the title, subject, and scope of the book.

A single book can be marketed to each of these purchase categories, but the methods are different. And, of course, a given title may not appeal to certain categories.