FB Group Marketing Update

I know all of us are trying our damnedest to find the magic formula that will sell books.  I don't have one.  What I do have is a list of Facebook Groups that I market to**, in the hopes that someone getting the feed from those groups will be interested in the books I'm advertising.  This sale I'm having (today's the last day) has born out the necessity for using this tactic.

The sale started last Tuesday.  The paid ad didn't go live until Thursday, but I wanted to get a jump on knocking those Amazon rankings down to a more acceptable level, so I started first thing Tuesday morning with FB Group posts.  By the time the ad went live, I'd sold 16 books (4 complete sets) using only those posts.  And my rankings for all four books had dropped from the stratosphere down to the 110Ks.

Then the ad went live.  Right now, I don't FB market on the days my ads go live - because I want to see which sales are almost certainly directly relatable to those ads.  But Friday, I started up again with the ads.  I should've hit the ground running and started with the ads first thing, when the rankings were at their lowest point, but I lazed and only ran half the posts at 6:15a.  The other half got posts around 3p.  Got some residual sales then.  I took Saturday off for the most part and only posted to one new group.  Saw a couple sales that day.  Bright and early Sunday morning, I posted to all the groups.  No sales on Sunday, but I woke up to five sales this morning.  By the time you read this today, I will have done a final push.  Fingers crossed it brings in additional sales.

I'll post more about the actual sales numbers on Wednesday.

As for the groups I post to, the list has grown and here it is:

Amazon Kindle Goodreads
Indie Authors International
Self-Published Crime Fiction Writers*
Crime, Thriller, Mystery Readers' Cafe*
Kindle Unlimited
Thriller Mystery and Suspense Book Club*
Thrillers, Killers, & Suspense*
Kindle/Book Club
Mystery and Thriller Publicity Book Club*
Indie Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Promotion
Free Kindle Books*
Kindle Krazy!  Authors Actively Seeking Readers
Ebook, Book Ads and Self Promotion
Book Reviews and Promotion
Shamelessly Promote Your Books
Free Kindle Books UK*
Kindle Readers and Authors (new)
Promote Your Books Here (new)

* Not used during this sale because the genre or the price didn't fit.

If you remember the list from before, there are a few missing.  For one reason or another, I left those groups and made a note to not rejoin them.  Also, I have two groups I've requested membership to but they're still pending.  If they accept me, I'll put them on the next list.

As always, if you use the above groups, please pay attention to their rules.  For instance, the owner of the Indie Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Promotions Group has a strict rule about 'no romance / no sex'.  Not that books can't have those things, but they'd better not be the primary storyline in the books you promote there.  Unfortunately, people keep trying to break his rule and it seems to irritate the crap out of him.  Do not irritate the people you're trying to market through.  Seriously, don't.

And the Free Kindle Books UK isn't a group.  It's a page and if you want to have your books marketed there, you have to send a message to the page's owner.  She's been prompt and pretty cool, but don't push it.

Of course, posting to these groups can be a drudge.  Picking the image, creating the verbiage, and then posting posting posting...  Blerg.  But for the time I put in on Tuesday/Wednesday, I made about $10 and that ain't bad.  Plus, it was worth it to help boost ad sales.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, so if you have any questions, ask away.  And whatever your marketing efforts, good luck!

** For free.  Posting to FB Groups doesn't cost a dime.  Shhh, don't tell FB or they'll find a way to charge us for it or something.