The July Being Emily Marketing Report

The Facebook campaign ran its course, the Amazon sales numbers are in and I can make some educated guesses about what worked for Being Emily sales in July. Long story short: media appearances still rule.

Here’s the long version:

The Facebook ad ran from June 25 to July 13. A total of 118,789 people saw it on average 2.5 times each. I spent $90.34 on the ad.

The Being Emily Facebook page received 211 clicks through the ad and 255 actions:

• 163 clicked a link on the page
• 49 people liked the page
• 22 people liked a post on the page
• And there were 21 other actions (like looking at photos or sharing stories)

Also with Facebook you can really drill down into the data so here are some other cool things I got to see (if I’m reading the data right):

• 11 actions occurred 1-7 days after the person clicked the ad
• 18 actions occurred 8-28 days after the person clicked the ad

That means that people are liking the page and then coming back because they’re interested or because they saw a post from the page in their news feed and clicked that.

Did that cause book sales? Maybe a few, but no boom in sales. There’s definitely some benefit to getting 49 likes (especially at a time when I had few overall likes for the page) and to having people not only like the page but return to it. Is it worth $90? That depends how much money’s in your marketing budget.

So what did drive sales in July? My media appearances. There’s a clear uptick in my Amazon sales after the week I was on local radio, was the guest on a podcast, and had an article in the local paper.

My thoughts of the moment: if you have more money than time, Facebook ads can be useful for getting likes on your page and reaching people you might not find otherwise. If you have more time than money, and if you’re good at promoting yourself, media appearances are a great way to get the word out.

 

Comments

[Louise Marley]

This is good advice from someone who knows! My own experience has been that a blog mention in a significant online publication causes a nice sales spike. SFSignal, in my case, is great for that.

[Tessa@techdealsmag]

The results are disappointing. I have heard people complain before that social media network ads don't convert well and it is supported by the results from your own campaign.

I wonder if there are any writers/ authors who have had success with FaceBook ads and what they did? They would probably be the exception.

I think the problem is that most people who are on FaceBook are just there to have a good time with friends. They aren't as interested in taking action to buy anything.