Steal the Best FB Ad I’ve Ever Run
I've run more than 10,000 ads for books on FB. But none have performed as well as one that I'm currently running for a Billionaire Romance that has been available in KU since last summer. While I can't share the exact creative with you, I can give you enough of a description that you can recreate your own.
Here are the numbers:
Spend: $1,131.41
Clicks: 16,505
Cost Per-Click: $0.07
Attributable Sales (per Amazon Attribution Links): 36
Attributable Borrows (per Amazon Attribution Links): 408
Conversion Rate: 2.7%
Cost Per-Unit: $2.52
It's not the best-converting ad I've ever run. And it's not the best selling ad I've ever run either. But the fact that it's weathered 16k clicks and is STILL holding a $0.07 CPC is astonishing. I've never seen anything with that kind of longevity. And since the breakeven CPU for this book is $7 based on calculated readthrough, this ad is just printing money. And that's not even the most surprising thing about it. The most surprising thing, to me, about this ad is that it isn't even a feed ad...
It's a reel.
A REEL!
The Scene:
This ad was made to resemble the user-generated content that frequently goes viral on Booktok. In fact, it was originally a TikTok post that we borrowed from the author’s profile. I just stripped the branding from the video and replaced the music.
It follows a pretty standard Booktok formula. Filmed with a cellphone camera, you see a woman's hand (presumably whoever is filming themselves) holding a closed book, edges facing the camera so that the front and back covers and spine aren't visible. You can see rain falling on a wooden deck in the background.
The Script:
A second-person POV script starts to roll in the middle of the screen. I’m going to paraphrase here to preserve anonymity:
“When you’re a [Female MC Trope] and your [Male MC Trope] says [something not nice].
So you [do something dramatic].
But then [some time passes] and [he shows back up in a dramatic twist].
[Barbed dialogue is exchanged back and forth].
“Did you just [do something surprising and inappropriate?]” you gasp.
He glares at you: “[Accusatory question that reveals another big plot twist].”
And then the video cuts. The hand DOESN’T turn to reveal the cover of the book. There’s no branding that appears on screen. There’s not even a caption with the book title in the final few seconds. It just cuts after the final line of the script.
I wish I could be more specific, but if you’re familiar with TikTok you can probably surmise how this template works and how you can apply it to your own book.
The Audio:
I couldn’t use the original audio that went with this video so I replaced it with one of the royalty free tracks from Adobe Express. The track itself kind of builds with a techno-alt-rock beat that sounds vaguely like Linkin Park of yore. I honestly only picked it because it had some rain sounds in the background. But it conveniently does have a beat drop that I was able to time right as one of the big dramatic moments in the script appeared in the captions on screen.
The Ad Settings:
The ad is running on FB and Instagram reels only. The length is a little over 30 seconds. The primary text field for this ad is just the blurb of the book. I didn’t use any optimizations or enhancements. I disabled multi-advertiser ads. I disabled optimize text per-person. The call-to-action is “Get Offer.”
I was originally spending $50/day for this and 4 similar ads in a set. I turned off the other ads upped the spend to $80/day.
The Audience:
The Audience is a modified version of my go-to audience for Romance. Multiple books using this go-to audience have hit #1 in the Kindle store. You can steal it as well:
Women in the US. 21+. Interests: Danielle Steel, Sylvia Day, Nora Roberts, Diana Gabaldon, Contemporary Romance or E.L. James
Why It Works:
This is something I’m still trying to figure out via testing. But if I had to hypothesize, it would be for a few reasons:
1. It Looks More Like User Generated Content than an Ad. So far, the data I’ve gathered suggests that ads that appear to be User Generated Content perform better than ads manufactured using spliced stock footage. Something about the authenticity of an amateur recording which resembles popular Tiktok posts may lead people to believe that an ad is more credible than a video that is clearly trying to sell something.
2. There’s a Mystery. Sure there’s a link and a caption with the author’s page at the bottom of the screen. But the actual title of the book doesn’t appear anywhere on the ad. Curious viewers have to click through the ad to see what is actually being advertised.
3. The Music Fits. Royalty-free music can be tough to work with. But this track has a solid buildup and a big drop that feels impactful when timed with a big twist or reveal in the script. It’s dramatic and emotional and not inappropriately cheerful or offbeat.
So there you have it. The best ad I’ve ever run is actually something pretty simple and straightforward. So go ahead and steal it – and steal my audience too while you’re at it. Go test the template for yourselves – you’ll get better results if you test a few different scripts and music combinations - and let me know if you’re able to produce a winner for yourself.