How To Boost Book Sales With Paid TrafficAre you an author hoping to increase online sales of your books? Paid traffic is a powerful tool. Unlike organic traffic, which can take several months to kick in, paid traffic can start working the day you turn it on. In this article, I give you tips on how to run paid traffic for strong results.  What is paid traffic?Paid traffic is online visits received from advertisements that have a financial cost. For example, if an author buys an ad on Facebook, when users click it and land on the Amazon page for one of the author's books, the visits would be considered paid traffic. What is the difference between paid and organic traffic?Organic traffic is online visits received that did not directly come from advertisements with a financial cost. For example, if an author sends a website link to email subscribers, when readers click the link and land on the Amazon page for one of the author's books, the visits would be considered organic traffic. Paid and organic traffic - examplesPaid traffic examples Website visits from these sources, among others, would be considered paid traffic:
Organic traffic examples Website visits from these sources, among others, would be considered organic traffic:
Paid vs. organic traffic - which is better?Neither traffic source is purely "better" than the other. Many authors leverage both paid and organic traffic together, to serve specific purposes within their broader funnel strategy. For example, authors may use paid traffic to generate leads, then email those leads links to website posts for several weeks, creating a steady flow of organic traffic. Paid and organic traffic each have pros and cons: Paid traffic - pros
Paid traffic - cons
Organic traffic - pros
Organic traffic - cons
 How much do online ads cost?Not all paid traffic costs the same, or is it paid for the same way. Different advertising sources have different rates and charge models. What determines ad rates?Some key factors that ad rates are based on:
How are you charged for ads?Different platforms charge for ads in different ways. The three major charge models:
How can you boost book sales with paid traffic?Before you invest in online ads, you should first map out a funnel strategy. In case you're unaware, a funnel is a series of marketing tactics that turn people into loyal buyers...  Paid ads can be effective at all four levels of the funnel. Here's an overview of each level and how paid ads can be leveraged at it:
Below, find some tips on how to effectively apply paid ads to your funnel to boost sales. 1. Know your key funnel financial values How many books do you have out? What do they cost? How much money, on average, are you paying per click for your paid ads on each platform? How many of those clicks are converting to sales? To track all of this, consider the tool ClickMagick. Ideally, what you are spending on ads will lead to more in earnings. However, don't expect this to happen right away. Often, for you to see a profit on ads, readers will need time to finish the book you are advertising, and then go on to buy other books from you. This may take several months. 2. Identify your funnel strengths Are you already doing really well at a certain funnel stage? For instance, possibly you have a large social media following and are already driving a ton of awareness. Investing your advertising budget into awareness ads may not have as large of an impact as ads aimed at converting your existing audience into buyers. On the other hand, let's say the Amazon page for your book has a high-converting book description, however, not a lot of people visit the page. An Amazon Ads campaign, aimed at driving traffic to your page, can be a great investment. Whatever the case, when you're first starting out - and may not have an enormous budget - you should be selective with your spending. 3. Choose an effective advertising platform and destination Once you've identified where in the funnel you want to improve performance via paid ads, you'll need to select a platform to advertise on. Though you can experiment with multiple platforms at once, if you're first starting out, I'd suggest focusing on one at a time. Can you use a certain platform to reach the relevant segment for your selected funnel stage? For example, Facebook lets you easily advertise to people who've already visited your website, however, other platforms don't. Does this platform offer an advertising format that fits with how you plan to promote? For instance, video ads are a good fit for certain platforms, and image ads others, though there is certainly some overlap. Destination refers to where people will go after clicking your ad. Many author paid ads drive traffic to the Amazon page for a book. However, this isn't always the case. For example, if you happen to be running paid ads to grow your email list, you might want to send traffic to an email opt-in page that you create. Whatever the case, you want your destination page to be appealing to visitors so they take intended actions, like buying a book or signing up for an email list. For sales, be sure you have an optimized Amazon page. For email sign-ups, you should create a specialized page, known as a landing page, that will encourage visitors to sign up for your list. This post contains an affiliate link.
1 Comment
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