Ep125: When Should I Start Using Ads?

Announcements:  Shared Lodging ticket [AND a private ticket] just opened up for the retreat for a woman-identified person wanting to share a tipi with two twin beds. $650 for all food and lodging, coaching, instruction, and retreat time. Group Coaching Sept 12- Dec 12 $500 for 3-months (works out to $165/mo and my 1:1 weekly coaching is $500, so you can see the price difference there) Go to valerieihsan.com/shopping BOOKS: I'M READING: Just finished:  Rich as Fuck by Amanda Frances, A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales, and Eliza Starts a Rumor by Jane Rosen Wildwood Magic by Willa Reece and I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi and At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber Erick's Reading:  Roni Stinger's Fuzzy (Rewind or Die series) The Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton On Fire Island by Jane Rosen Duma Key by Stephen King The Ophelia Killer by Valerie Geary Rick Rubin The Creative Act: A Way of Being Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket Show Notes: Know what your ROI is. Do the math. Are you breaking even? Are you making any money on the ad?  Book 1: loss leader, Book 2-4 can run ads Lose money on purpose for mailing list growth. Ads are like gambling. Only use $ you can lose.  Ads for services. Google Ads for business. (Organic traffic as well as new ad traffic.) Cost per click (long term ads) based on criteria. 30 cents may be the norm, depending. Erick does $10/day. Looking for a lower click rate. Give google keywords. Target the right audience and decide when to run the ads. Drive down the cost per click (goal) by finding the sweet spot with the keywords--like with your books on Amazon.  Niche keywords can cross over with bigger keywords. Can start with $5/day or $2/day for a week, see how they perform and then add a keyword or change the interest, etc. Eventually they plateau.  3 or 4 hours/week at first; 3 ads just running, check every morning to see organic vs paid traffic; paying to have someone run, tweak, and report on the ads Ask established authors. Don't hire a big firm. Find Us: Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor Writer Craft Facebook Group