[Onedayatatime]

I will update this post in a few days to let everyone know if the ad helped past the first 24 hours.

I bought a bookbub ad for one of my chick lit books. It has been on sale for about a year and only sells about 5 copies a month on average. I have had the book at $0.99 and $2.99 and have recently tried changing the cover.

I decided to try a bookbub ad to see if I can get any traction on the book and tried to get listed in the romance category for $0.99.They responded to my email and changed it to the Women's Fiction category, which was cheaper but had a much lower headcount. I agreed and the ad went out yesterday.

Sales for the month before the ad: 5
Previous Ranking: 162,000 ish

Sales 1 day after the ad for the month: 220
Current ranking: 713 paid in kindle store and #90 in contemporary fiction

I needed 86 sales to break even on the price of the ad. So by all accounts this has been a very successful ad for me. I have no new reviews and I don't know if sales will last but it is still early days. I will update this post again in a few days.

Update

End of Day 2
I now have 250 sales and my current rank is 1112. No new reviews as yet.

Update

Day 5
I now have 289 sales and my current rank is 5,388. No new reviews.

 

[lewaters]

That's great! Thanks for sharing and I hope my bookbub ad does as well

 

[David Anderson]

What's bookbub?

 

[54706]

Thanks for sharing.  I was wondering if BookBub was good for paid ads.  I know they worked for a promo I did last month.  Got a sudden uptick in downloads and couldn't figure out why until I checked my emails.  There was my book being recommended top of the list on the email.

 

[Caddy]

That's great!

 

[JRTomlin]

I will update this post in a few days to let everyone know if the ad helped past the first 24 hours.

I bought a bookbub ad for one of my chick lit books. It has been on sale for about a year and only sells about 5 copies a month on average. I have had the book at $0.99 and $2.99 and have recently tried changing the cover.

I decided to try a bookbub ad to see if I can get any traction on the book and tried to get listed in the romance category for $0.99.They responded to my email and changed it to the Women's Fiction category, which was cheaper but had a much lower headcount. I agreed and the ad went out yesterday.

Sales for the month before the ad: 5
Previous Ranking: 162,000 ish

Sales 1 day after the ad for the month: 220
Current ranking: 713 paid in kindle store and #90 in contemporary fiction

I needed 86 sales to break even on the price of the ad. So by all accounts this has been a very successful ad for me. I have no new reviews and I don't know if sales will last but it is still early days. I will update this post again in a few days.

Those are excellent results. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[Dan Harris]

Nice, thanks for sharing. Good to know it can have a significant effect. I need another 8-10 reviews before they'll have me (I was told 15-20 reviews was the minimum level of critical acclaim for them to take a book on.)

Congrats!

 

[BrianKittrell]

Ah, I guess I'll give it a try. It seems like a reasonable service, and the risk is very small compared to the exposure.

 

[Mike McIntyre]

I needed 86 sales to break even on the price of the ad.

I'm glad your ad has been effective, but I'm confused about one thing: The BookBub site says it currently charges $100 for an ad for a Women's Fiction book that costs under a buck. (The price increases to $130 after 12/23.) Since your book costs $0.99, Amazon pays you $0.3465 per sale. So, wouldn't you need to sell 289 copies to break even, not 86? Or did BookBub sharply discount its fee? In any event, continued success!

 

[Margo Karasek]

I'm glad your ad has been effective, but I'm confused about one thing: The BookBub site says it currently charges $100 for an ad for a Women's Fiction book that costs under a buck. (The price increases to $130 after 12/23.) Since your book costs $0.99, Amazon pays you $0.3465 per sale. So, wouldn't you need to sell 289 copies to break even, not 86? Or did BookBub sharply discount its fee? In any event, continued success!

I believe the Women's Fiction ad used to cost $30 before BookBub raised the price to $100 (quite suddenly, I might ad). The OP probably paid the old price.

 

[Onedayatatime]

Yes Margo is correct. I only paid $30 for my ad.I guess I got it just in time.

That shot up by a lot!

 

[quiet chick writes]

That is awesome to hear! I saw that women's fiction was pretty cheap to buy, so I was definitely thinking about trying one.

And yes, they have definitely raised their prices, because I remember it being much cheaper when I checked a couple days ago. Damn, I should have bought one then!

Does anyone know if they might lower their prices again once the holiday season is over?

 

[SRecht]

I got the impression that the prices were going up permanently due to their increased number of subscribers.  Meanwhile, they've turned me down twice because I don't have enough reviews, so it will be a while before I can, hopefully, promote through them.

 

[Wansit]

That is awesome to hear! I saw that women's fiction was pretty cheap to buy, so I was definitely thinking about trying one.

And yes, they have definitely raised their prices, because I remember it being much cheaper when I checked a couple days ago. d*mn, I should have bought one then!

Does anyone know if they might lower their prices again once the holiday season is over?

What SRecht said. The prices have gone up as subscribers have gone up. I'm expecting the YA price to rise with the rest of the categories. :-/ They've turned me down once because I need more reviews. They will take books with a smaller number of reviews but it's usually for a new debut from well-established authors.

 

[dalya]

Yes Margo is correct. I only paid $30 for my ad.I guess I got it just in time.

That shot up by a lot!

Therefore, if you'd booked it just last week, you would have lost money on the ad.

 

[Margo Karasek]

I'll add my BookBub results to this conversation so that people might make the best possible decision for them. I ran my ad about a week ago. My book, like the OP's, is chick lit. However, I chose to run my book under the literary category (instead of women's fiction). The ad cost me $130. Therefore, I needed to sell about 372 books to break even. I sold more than 400 books on Amazon. The difference for me, however, was in how many books I sold on the other retailers. On B&N, for instance, I moved 150 additional copies. To me, then, BookBub seems to make most sense for those books out of Select. If you just have your book on Amazon, you run a far greater risk of not making back the investment. Food for thought.

 

[valeriec80]

Oooh... YA is only $25-$30. I'm gonna try that.

 

[quiet chick writes]

I got the impression that the prices were going up permanently due to their increased number of subscribers. Meanwhile, they've turned me down twice because I don't have enough reviews, so it will be a while before I can, hopefully, promote through them.

Ah, that makes sense. And you've got more reviews than I do, so mine would certainly be shot down.

I'm hoping they return your payment if they're turning you down for a listing. Or do they keep it? Yikes, that would suck!

I'll add my BookBub results to this conversation so that people might make the best possible decision for them. I ran my ad about a week ago. My book, like the OP's, is chick lit. However, I chose to run my book under the literary category (instead of women's fiction). The ad cost me $130. Therefore, I needed to sell about 372 books to break even. I sold more than 400 books on Amazon. The difference for me, however, was in how many books I sold on the other retailers. On B&N, for instance, I moved 150 additional copies. To me, then, BookBub seems to make most sense for those books out of Select. If you just have your book on Amazon, you run a far greater risk of not making back the investment. Food for thought.

Good point! Thanks for sharing this!

 

[PhoenixS]

I've been advertising with BookBub since March. They have raised prices every single month, so if you're hoping to see a price break, you probably won't.

Books that normally do well anyway and have already proven they're successful do well with the BookBub audiences. (I'm discussing their ads for paid, not free, books - I haven't personally purchased one of their ads for a free book, though I will never say never.) There are Steel Magnolia books I wouldn't even try to advertise with BookBub because I know they would not earn back the ad costs. It's not for every book. Be sure you understand the audience and the results before jumping in.

Of the couple of dozen books that have been advertised through BookBub where I've been privy to sales, all but two have fallen in rank just as quickly as they rose. Those two outliers? Are just that - outliers. They hang high because even without the extra promotional oomph they got from BookBub, they would have hung out at a decent rank anyway. BookBub is a quick-churn engine that's excellent for what it was designed to do. But NEVER use it as the only event in your marketing plan. Pack not just one but multiple chutes for when your book takes its inevitable swan dive from the 36-hour bump BookBub gives it. My nickel's worth, YMMV, and all the other caveats that go along with advice here .

Oooh... YA is only $25-$30. I'm gonna try that.

Valerie: That $30 to run a Teen/YA ad for a FREE book. It's $60 if you want to run an ad for a 99c book...

Ah, that makes sense. And you've got more reviews than I do, so mine would certainly be shot down.

I'm hoping they return your payment if they're turning you down for a listing. Or do they keep it? Yikes, that would suck!

You pay them only after they accept your book. Then, once they have your payment, they'll schedule it.

 

[Becca Mills]

Wonderful!