As I am just starting out, my podcast audience is rather small. So how to build an audience? This is a question that keeps me up at night. I’m sure it might be keeping you up as well if you write lesbian romance books and would like to sell them. This blog post might help! Today, I’m discussing paid ads.

There are many articles out there about self publishing, Amazon rankings, social marketing and so on. But what if you’d like to consider ads? There’s nothing wrong with using ads to reach your audience, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.

These days, it’s relatively easy to be your own (digital) marketer. You don’t have to hire anyone. It does require a bit of budget to spend, some creativity and using new software shouldn’t be scary to you. Up to the task? Then read on!

This post is also useful if you are an accomplished author with a publisher. You might have some questions about the marketing your publisher suggests. This article can help you to ask the right questions.

What are my ‘credentials’ on this topic?

Let’s first discuss my ‘credentials’. No, I have not built my own successful online business that provides me with a fulltime income (yet). I have, however, worked for many clients and brands as a digital marketing consultant. I’m a freelancer specialised in advising general marketing managers on how to spend their money online.

This is the first time I am using this knowledge for my own project. I decided to share these marketing thoughts with you, since I think you will often have the same questions and challenges. Today, I’ll discuss if you should be using paid ads and if so, for what? The next article will be about what type of ads you can consider.

Should I be using paid ads?

It depends. Please don’t throw money at Facebook or Twitter ads without taking a step back first. What do you want to do with your money? Make sure people get to know your book? Make sure people get to know you as an author? Or do they already know you and now you want to convince them to buy your book? You can use paid ads for both. But you need to decide what you want to achieve first. What does success look like?

Once you know what success looks like, you should consider if you have the tools to measure success. Will you be able to know when your ads have an impact? How will you know if a book sold because of the ad, rather than organic traffic,  for example? This is especially important when you’d like to drive sales on a site, rather than promote you or your book.

I know this is all a bit daunting, but even the smallest budget can be a big waste if you do not consider these questions. It’s better to go out and have some fun with those 50 dollars than throwing them at useless ads that aren’t doing what you need them to do. Ask yourself the same questions if someone is offering you ad space on their site, podcast or other platform.

Here’s a list of questions you can  start out with:

What is my goal for this ‘campaign’?

For example: Make sure lesbians around the globe know there’s a new lesbian fiction podcast in town! Or: make sure my previous readers don’t forget about me.  Or: increase the sales of my book.

How I do I think I will achieve this goal?

For example: Confront lesbians all around the world with the first episode of the fiction podcast. Or: give my previous readers updates on the new book I’m writing. Or: drive people to my online book shop.

Who do I want to reach and where do they hang out online? 

You really want to go fishing in the right pond. As you know, ‘lesbian’ is a pretty broad keyword. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up advertising to a large fan base of straight men.

For example: Reach lesbian fiction loving women since they might also like the podcast. They are very active on Facebook, Twitter and some websites. Or: My previous readers are on my Facebook page and I also talk to them on Twitter. Or: my audience is googling and looking for books. 

How will I approach them on these channels? What content can I use? 

For example: a video message on Facebook announcing the new podcast. Or: I will post updates on Facebook about the new book, and build an emailing list. Subscribers will get an exclusieve preview of the next book. Or: I will create ads on Google pulling them to my book site. 

How will I measure success?

For example: I will check how long people watch the video and if they’re interested. I will also track other types of interaction that indicate people are getting to know the podcast. Or: I will measure how many people respond to my posts and how many people register for my email list. Or: I will track how many people that come from a Google ad actually buy my book. 

There you go! You have now thought like a true marketer! Starting with ads is not that difficult, but you do need to think things through first. Write down your answers to these questions.

Really try to start with the first question. Don’t start with ‘I want to do something with Facebook’ or ‘They say I have to do something with Twitter!’. This will distract you from your real goal and chances are you’ll realise later that you’ve put a lot of effort into something that’s not serving your real goal.

Aren’t paid ads too aggressive?

This too depends. The good news: it’s mostly in your own hands. Facebook, Twitter and Google let you control how frequently you target your audience. Compare it to a friend who’s posting on Facebook 50 times a day. This too is annoying. You don’t have to be paying Facebook to bother and annoy people 😉

So, no, paid ads don’t have to be aggressive or ‘too commercial’. You don’t have to buy annoying banners. You don’t have stalk your readers on Facebook. You don’t have to stalk your readers with emails. You probably don’t want to either since they’ll start disliking you.

There’s another reason to push aside the fear of paid advertising or being ‘too commercial’. You are a player in a major content battle! Your readers are out there, but they are getting bombarded with status updates, news articles, videos, … Organic reach on social networks is becoming very low. At some point, you might actually have to consider paid advertising.

What’s next in Marketing Thoughts?

In my next post, I’ll discuss the benefits of Facebook ads, Twitter ads and Google ads. These are the three you are most likely to consider.

In another future post I will also discuss banners on relevant sites and content marketing. And who knows what other questions pop up in my mind and thus end up here?

Why are you sharing all of this?

Because sharing is caring. No, honestly, I like to help you out with things that I know and do every day. I have seen many professional marketers struggle with online marketing, and they’re actually in the business of marketing!

There’s some good advice out there on how to get your books sold on Amazon and your own website, but they’re very sales focused. And before sales comes marketing 😉 You have to get people to discover you first. And preferably do it without depending completely on Amazon.

The lesbian fiction world is getting more and more crowded. So you’ll have to make sure people keep finding you. Luckily, there are many ways. I’m trying them all out, and will share my thoughts here with you.