Hey,

There is nothing more frustrating than a Facebook ad which gets lots and lots of clicks but no sales.

Okay, okay, maybe getting stuck in an elevator with two crypto bros trying to sell you jpegs might be more frustrating, but I digress.

Getting clicks on your Facebook ads is only the first hurdle but it’s a modest challenge in comparison. It's also quite straightforward to troubleshoot - you cycle through changes in the image, text, or targeting until readers start clicking.

Conversion is much trickier on all fronts - especially with troubleshooting. If I had to guess, it's probably where most authors get stuck with Facebook ads.

The Stock Answer

There is lots of advice out there on how to create arresting ad images, craft compelling ad text, or navigate Facebook's tricky targeting interface – both in my own resources and out there in the wider world.

The topic of conversion gets far less coverage, and the few remedies suggested are generally unsatisfactory to me.

Authors are either advised to simply keep iterating their ads until lightning strikes, which can be an expensive process, or they are told their landing page must be the issue - i.e. the audience response to seeing their cover, blurb, title, price, etc. on Amazon.

To be clear: this isn't bad advice. But it's only part of the story.

If you don't take a wider view, you could miss the real issue - and throw the baby out with the bathwater too.

I get emails all the time from authors who are despondent about their ads, who have been given the standard advice that poor conversion is a landing page issue, and who then spent time or money redoing key elements like the cover, or the blurb, or messed around with pricing.

More often than not, the problem is something else entirely.

Again, let me repeat, this can be a tricky problem to solve. Sometimes a small tweak can revolutionize your conversion rate. Other times it's… complicated.

The Road to Damascus

This is the process I usually go through when faced with this issue.

1. Low Value Placements

Experienced Facebook advertisers know that Facebook's News Feed is where it's at - now just called Feed in Big Tech's endless love affair with the mind-numbingly generic.

Why do ads in the main Feed convert so much better?

Perhaps it is the increased real estate, bigger ads which are hard to avoid. Maybe it is because they feel less spammy than those interrupting a Messenger chat between friends. Or it could be that they are less intrusive than an unskippable ad before a video plays.

In the case of the Audience Network - the lowest value placement of all - it is quite likely that a lot of those clicks are either accidental, or come from other dubious sources with little intent to buy anything. And with regular Traffic campaigns to retailers like Amazon, Facebook can’t optimize for conversion – only for clicks – and it often doubles down on those low-quality clickers, a mistake which you pay for, of course.

It's more expensive to advertise to Feed-only, but those clicks will convert at a far higher rate. Some people see more value in non-Feed placements than I do – and that’s totally fine. My recommendation is to pare things back, eliminate Placements as a variable, and fix your conversion issues.

Once your ads are converting again, then you can test new Placements if you like, and then follow the data.

2. Bad Traffic

If you show your ads to the wrong people, your ads won't convert at all – that’s our contribution today from Captain Obvious.

But the real danger is less apparent. There isn't much margin for error here. Showing your ads to an adjacent, not-quite-right, audience can sometimes depress conversion enough to push your ads into the red. If you are targeting multiple interests/authors especially, consider paring things back to targets which you know are more likely to convert.

Eliminate targeting as a variable, and then you can try new targets again once you have a more pared back and converting again.

You might notice a theme here. Reduce the variables, identify the issue. Then you can spread your wings again.

3. Unclear Image

Some people love ad images with no book covers in them, some people hate them. I'm more in the latter camp... but more fundamentally believe that you should make these decisions yourself based on your own data, from your own testing.

I'm not trying to reignite that argument, just gently suggesting that you make those calls factoring in conversion, and not just clicks.

And if you have a conversion issue, if you are getting lots of clicks on your ad images without book covers but very few sales, then I would suggest trying new ads with book covers in the ad images, and then comparing results.

Following advice from others can help you take some shortcuts with something like Facebook Ads, but ultimately you should follow your own data.

4. Broken Promise

Sometimes we make a promise with our ads - i.e. with the images and text - that we don't quite keep with the landing page.

This is often accidental; I'm not suggesting deviousness here. I recommend checking you aren't inadvertently making any claim, or giving some false impression with your ads and images, that you don't fulfill when readers get to Amazon.

5. Surprise Pricing

This is an example of a broken promise - from a certain angle perhaps. But worth highlighting separately anyway.

In simple terms, if you mention your book's price in your ad image/text then that can reduce clicks... but increase conversions.

And if you don't mention your book's price, that can increase clicks but reduce conversions.

This phenomenon tends to be more pronounced at higher prices is but remains surprisingly noticeable even with heavily discounted books.

For example, if your book is $4.99 - and you don't mention pricing in the ad - this can result in a lot of abandoned shopping carts, in other words, lots of clicks and a poor conversion rate.

Even with a book priced as low as 99¢, you can still witness this phenomenon, which is especially obvious in the US market. Facebook users in America, particularly, seem to expect a book to be free, if no price is mentioned.

I generally see better results overall by being upfront about pricing.

Mentioning price tends to result in less clicks, a lower CTR, and a higher CPC - but will really help conversion.

As with everything, feel free to test both approaches and see which works better for you. But don't forget to factor in conversion when analyzing results.

Book sales, and dollars in the bank, are what ultimately matter - not the highest CTR or the lowest CPC.

6. Ad Mismatch

This could be considered another example of a broken promise or even an unclear ad image, but it's nuanced enough to demand separate treatment.

Sometimes I see authors using an eye-catching image (or video) which doesn't totally match what readers see when they click through to Amazon - like an awesome illustration or cool stock photo, which might be genre appropriate, but doesn't match their cover art.

I usually default to using my cover art - or some aspect of it - in the background of my ad images to avoid this. But if I can't do that for whatever reason (some cover designs make that difficult or impossible) then I work hard to make sure it matches - tangibly in terms of colors, and intangibly in terms of vibe.

Don't use something just because you like it - or even because you know it will resonate with your target readers. If they click through and see something different... they will often click away.

Remove The Variable

I'm not saying it's never a landing page issue - it can be. But when your Facebook Ads are really cooking, I feel that things like your blurb matter less than you might assume.

Besides, your book's packaging - the cover, blurb, sample etc. - should all be in excellent shape before you advertise or indeed run any kind of promotion.

Aside from anything else, it removes your landing page as a variable. Then you can run through the six things above, identify the real issue hurting your conversion rate, and then start turning those losing ads into winners.

Sound good?

Dave

P.S. Writing music this week is Labi Siffre with Bless The Telephone.