Figuring Out How to Create a Facebook Ad, This Week

Tulip time at our house
Photo by JQ Rose

Hello and welcome! Spring is in the air and while we are basking in the cool spring weather and enduring Mother Nature's tantrums, my thoughts and prayers are with those in other parts of the US who are enduring tornadoes and floods.

Figuring Out How to Create a Facebook Ad

Last week I tried something new and failed. But it was a good learning experience.

I decided to advertise on Facebook. My updated e-book for girls, Girls Succeed! is on sale for 99 cents through Wednesday. So I tried to "boost" a post on my J.Q. Rose Author page about the sale. I sweated over every detail--gender, age group, dollar amount to spend on the ad. Then I used my new book cover for the image. 

Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women
Inspiring and empowering girls.

The ad was rejected because I had too much text on the image. Say what? It's the book cover, for Pete's sake, and the ad is all about the book's special price. I shook my head in disbelief. 

FB has a "grid tool" to check to see if the image is too wordy, so I uploaded the file and discovered I had 64% text on the page--way beyond the maximum of 20% text. 

I opened my trusty canva.com to design a less wordy image for the ad. I tried five times before I finally caught on.

After the book cover, I pared down the words,
but it didn't pass because too much text covered the space.

So I decided to make the font smaller. But still too much coverage.

I finally decided to just put the words at the top instead of using space at the bottom. And it worked!  I have to keep the words, Girls Succeed, so close to the top because I can't lower the second line or it will be in another box on the grid and put me over the 20% text allowed. 

$$$$

My next hurdle was to decide how much to spend on the ad. FB is recommended for advertising because it has the ability to make choices on the targets or audience for the ad's message. One day costs $5.00, so I decided to be wild and crazy and spend $10. for two days, but when I put that amount in, it said I could get 3 days for $3.33 a day. Hmmm, does that mean I get fewer ads for $3.33 a day, but more days for my $10.? I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm sure somewhere in their support information I could find the answer. But at that point I was just too frustrated to continue or even think about wrestling with the process again. 

Have you noticed how they are paring down views on your author page when mentioning your books or blog posts? Yes, they want you to boost the post. And honestly, $5. is very reasonable. It just strikes me as odd how a picture of my tulips will get hundreds of views! 

Have you tried using Facebook to advertise? Please share your experience with FB. 

Feel free to include your FB page link in your comment so we can like it. Here's my link to my J.Q. Rose page http://facebook.com/jqroseauthor

This Week:

Wednesday, May 4--Join in The Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop. Visit  100's of writers' blogs for inspiration, fun and wise advice.

Romamce Readers Want to Know
Every Thursday on the J.Q. Rose blog

Thursday, May 5--Southern author Gail Brannan answers reader's questions. You're invited to come back and ask her about her writing process.