Make it a lucky dip💰

... and turn a challenge into an opportunity.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Hey, Once you get an ad working for you – selling books and bringing in money – you might think you have cracked the Facebook code. However, the sales tend to dry up eventually; often sooner than you might like. Margins for success are tight and it doesn't take a big dip in performance to turn a winnning ad into a loser. Experienced advertisers tend to know when such a dip has begun… and what action to take. While it can take some time to develop those instincts yourself, today I'm going to give you several pointers so that you can start to tell when an ad is getting tired and some tricks to refresh it. Right after a word from this week's sponsor. Sponsor: Grace Burrowes Grace Burrowes has kindly sponsored today's newsletter. Grace is a prolific New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and if you read historical romance I recommend checking out her website: If you are a romance reader, Grace has lots and lots of books to check out. Looking for a place to start? The Rogues to Riches series has over 10,000 reviews on Amazon alone - although it's worth noting that Grace's books are widely available. You can even buy direct from Grace herself. Spotting The Dip The most obvious way to tell if a Facebook ad has taken a dip in performance is through your sales reports – but it's not always that simple. Some retailers and distributors don't report with anything like the speed of KDP (and if you think that's bad, consider your brethren in the world of traditional publishing!). Also, often you have several things in the mix – swaps, promo sites, email blasts, ads – and you need to be sure the ads are causing the drop in sales because you don't want to mess with a winning campaign if something else is the culprit. There are a couple of things to look out for in your Facebook dashboard that can be indicative of a problem. The very first thing I check is that the ads are actually serving, of course, and that nothing is caught up in review by Facebook, or any payment rejected, or anything like that. But assuming the ads are serving, these are the three metrics I immediately examine. 1. CPC – rising CPC is a sign that readers are becoming less responsive to your ad. There can be other reasons for CPC to increase – this is an auction for eyeballs, so increased competition can push up CPCs as well. But rising CPCs can be a sign that the audience is becoming exhausted – i.e. you are reaching the end of your effective audience. Keep in mind that audiences are generally smaller than the numbers Facebook reports, not least because everyone isn't logged into Facebook 24/7. 2. CTR – falling CTR can also be a clear indication that readers are becoming less responsive to your ad, often again because you are reaching the end of your effective audience. But as there can also be other reasons for CTR to change, I then check… 3. Frequency – this can be a strong indicator of audience exhaustion as it tells you how many times on average your target audience has seen your ad over a given period. Note: this is an estimated metric so you can't take it to the bank, according to Facebook themselves, but in my experience it's quite useful. For example, if the Frequency of an ad goes well above 2 over a period of, say, a week, I find that audience is starting to become exhausted. We aren't selling cars or sofas, I don't think someone needs to see a cheap/free offer several times to be convinced. To put it plainly, if they aren't sold on a second ad viewing, I don't think a third or fourth will get them to pull the trigger. (Note: I recommend reviewing this email on how to set up your Facebook dashboard to get the right data front-and-center instead of the irrelevant or misleading data that Facebook pushes instead). If I don't see obviously rising CPC, obviously falling CTR, and a higher-than-I'd-like Frequency, I tend to let the ad run, but just monitor it a little more closely – unless it's obvious it is not converting, of course. But assuming you are seeing red flags everywhere – high CPC, low CTR, excessive Frequency – then what do you do? Kill the ad? Find new eyeballs? Switch up the creative – i.e. gin up some fresh ad text and/or a new graphic? Well, any of those actions could be appropriate, depending on your circumstances, so let's run through the three of them. Kill The Ad? It's okay to stop the ad campaign completely. You can resurrect old ads at any point in the future – either by starting them up again, or just by duplicating them. This is especially useful – and strongly advised – if you want to test some tweaks without messing with your previous winner. I know there's a lot of pressure to be constantly pushing your books, but that's not the only approach to book marketing – something I covered in this newsletter on burst marketing. Either way, audiences will refresh over time, so you can simply wait and hit the audience again further down the road – and generally get similar results. But what if you want to keep things going now? What are your options? Find New Eyeballs Before you start pointing your ad at new people, I strongly recommend that you duplicate your ad rather than simply adding in new audiences. This point is important enough to keep repeating – indeed, I might do it again in a moment to ensure it sticks. The new audience you are testing may not cut the mustard, so it's good to keep the old targeting etc. intact so that you can easily revert to it when the audience has refreshed. It also keeps your interface organized, and your data easier to read – you may be coming back to all these campaigns later on and if you keep changing up the targeting on the same, existing campaign it will be exceedingly difficult to parse the data later. Keep each test separate, and you can see the performance of each targeted interest easily. Over time, after you have unearthed several such winners, you can combine them into a supergroup of interests – something I recommend doing as it can improve the performance of your campaigns further. Giving Facebook a bigger audience to chew through will only improve its ability to find the best matches in your target audience. Meaning cheaper clicks and more sales for your allotted budget. Remember, you can keep all that precious social proof if you don't make changes at the ad level – i.e. to things like the destination URL, the ad text, the image, the headline, and so forth. As valuable as that social proof can be, sometimes it can be very useful to tinker with those things too. Attack The Creative Often you get a sense that there is juice to squeeze from the same lemon – a sense you will develop over time when targeting the same audiences again and again over successive campaigns. For my most reliable targets (and my warmest audiences, like my custom audiences), I like taking at least a couple of bites from the cherry. This involves duplicating the existing, flagging campaign and then freshening up either the ad graphic, the ad text, or both. Switching up the ad graphic can be really easy if you generated a few different options when creating your ad images. But in case you don't have an alternate, you can just use the same image with a different background – or perhaps different color buttons/price tags. As for the ad text, if you went with a price-focused ad text the last time, this time you could focus on social proof, really double down on the niche, or excavate a tasty quote from your Amazon reviews. You will lose all your social proof by making any of these changes – be warned – so once again it is strongly recommended to duplicate your existing campaign before making any changes. Once you get a little experience doing this, a nice trick I like using is to have two different ads in the same ad set – and then Facebook will automatically test them both and decide which is more effective based on real-time results. The beauty of doing this is that when you hit saturation with Ad A, the system will start serving Ad B more and more – and you can even force the issue yourself by turning off the ad which has dominated the serving (there is usually one clear winner – Facebook doesn't do grey areas here). I often like to do one letterbox-shaped ad and one square-shaped ad – in the same ad set – so that I can come at the audience in slightly different ways. Another possibility is to come at them with something totally different like a Carousel ad – which I often find useful as well. Especially for core audiences like custom audiences, or your go-to interests which have proved reliable over time. That's it, I hope all this helps you spot when your Facebook campaigns are starting to tire… and what you can do about it. Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Sinead O'Connor at the 1989 Grammys with Mandinka. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​