After running a free eBook offer, I’ve generated a few download numbers, and some reviews… was it worth it?
My first try…
First, I ran a giveaway for Rocket Summer, the YA Novel.
I ran the offer for 3 full days.
I created a Facebook Event for it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/196311580803381
Then I invited a bunch of people to the event. Friends, family, followers.
I also posted about the event on my personal Facebook account, on my Twitter account, and my LinkedIn account.
And in a couple of writer/illustrator groups.
I got a very few people actually ‘registering’ for the FB event, since they could just click through to the Amazon page and grab their free book.
RESULTS
120 Downloads
1 New Review
I found this a little disappointing… at first, I was thrilled with 120 downloads. Then I made some inquiries to a Facebook authors group, and learned that some authors see many hundreds of DLs for their free giveaways. They do some additional promotion, including issuing a Press Release, and ramp up several days to a week ahead of time with teaser posts, but their approach is largely similar to mine, with measurably better results.
This could be attributed to them having more followers of their pages, more friends and family on their social, etc.
Lastly, the ranking… I didn’t make note of the ranking before the offer (duh), so I don’t know if I’ve seen an improvement. But here’s the results after:
My second try…
Then, I ran a one-day event for the launch of the picture book, Angelico Goes To The Store.
I took the same steps here, with a Facebook event, posting to my various accounts, etc.
Here’s the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/291939601199585/
In this case, I even paid $10 to get a little extra reach on Facebook, by promoting the event to a specific audience.
RESULTS
25 Downloads
3 New Reviews
I found this even more disappointing; While it was only one day instead of three, I’d really hoped to generate at least a third the number of downloads (40) and a better review-to-download ratio than this, given that it only takes a second to click, and a few minutes to read the book.
I’m still hoping the reviews will continue to trickle in.
Rankings:
Again, I didn’t measure first, so my bad. But here the rankings seem to be better, all things considered. ALSO, I’m now second in the results when searching Amazon at large – sitewide – for the word “Angelico”, which ain’t bad since it’s shared across a lot of categories and products. And I’m first if searching “Angelico” in children’s books, for whatever that’s worth.
Of course, people aren’t likely to be searching that term for my book, so what matters is getting to page one rankings in your chosen target categories. At #579, I’ve got a way to go.
Next Steps
Yes, I’ll try the giveaways again, as we lead into the holiday season.
But I’ll do a better job of measuring, and theming the giveaways to the season in the form of “gifts” and so on.
I’ll share more results as they come in…