BTS050, More Experiments with Ad Stacking
BTS050, More Experiments with Ad Stacking
Hello, Writers!
So, I decided to list Suspicion for free and promote it using various newsletter book promotion services ahead of the release of the second book in the James Lalonde series. The promotions I booked were with AuthorsXP, Fussy Librarian, Kobo, and Free Booksy. Altogether, these promotions cost me £176.67 or US$209.96. I used the Google exchange rate from the 19th of November, just in case you’re interested. So, in this behind-the-scenes author diary, I’m going to discuss the results of my experiments with Ad stacking on my first-in-series novella or short novel.
But first, let’s discuss my expectations.
My Expectations
To be honest, my expectations were relatively low in terms of download numbers. Still, I did expect around 2,000 downloads from the Free Booksy promotion only because of an experience in the past. But I was hoping some people would download Suspicion like the store and either follow me on Amazon and buy the next book when it’s released or even purchase the preorder. Even though I was hoping for these things, I was pretty pessimistic about the results and knew it was more of an experiment. On top of this, I was terrified that I would receive more harsh reviews or low-rated positive reviews, thanks to my experiences with BookSirens. I was starting to think this third edition was crappy, and as a result, I was a crappy writer. But that’s a story for another time.
Without further ado, let’s get into the episode.
About the Episode
Just to let you know, this episode was recorded on Thursday, the 2nd of February, so this show is primarily me looking back at November 2022. And, if you’re new to this podcast, I want to say a huge thank you for stopping by and trying out my show. To those of you who have been faithfully listening, thank you for regularly listening in and supporting me; your support means more to me than you know.
Daily Deal with AuthorsXP
The price of the promotion was £17.45 or US$20.00. Originally booked for the 3rd of November, but that day was booked, so the organiser moved the promotion to the 5th of November. For this reason, I cannot split up the download numbers and explain which downloads came from a particular promotion.
Free Mystery eBook Promotion on The Fussy Librarian
The price of the promotion was US$76.00 or £66.12 and was scheduled for the 5th of November.
The Downloads
Because these are both email newsletter promotions, I’ll share the downloads for the day the promotion was sent out and the day after.
Downloads on the 5th
- Amazon: 1,558
- Kobo: 156
- Apple: 104
- Google Play: 48
- B&N: 43
- Direct: 1
Downloads on the 6th
- Amazon: 242
- Kobo: 36
- Apple: 38
- Google Play: 9
- B&N: 8
- Direct: 1
Interesting Findings
On the 5th of November, Suspicion was:
- 69th on the Free Kindle charts on Amazon UK
- 111th on the Free Kindle charts on Amazon US
On Amazon UK, Suspicion reached the following positions in the Kindle store:
- #1 Top 100 Free Action Thriller Fiction
- #1 Top 100 Free Men’s Adventure Fiction
- #2 Top 100 Free Crime Action Fiction
On Amazon US, Suspicion reached the following positions in the Kindle store:
- #1 Top 100 Free Crime Action Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #1 Top 100 Free Action Thriller Fiction
- #2 Top 100 Free Private Investigator Mysteries (Kindle Store)
Suspicion didn’t fall out of those #1 sub-genre positions in the UK and US stores until the end of the day on the 9th of November.
And, as of the 19th of November, Suspicion is sitting in these positions in the free stores.
- 2,410th on the Free Kindle charts on Amazon UK
- 1,078th on the Free Kindle charts on Amazon US
On Amazon UK, Suspicion reached the following positions in the Kindle store:
- #13 Top 100 Free Men’s Adventure Fiction
- #24 Top 100 Free Mystery Action Fiction
- #27 Top 100 Free Crime Action Fiction
On Amazon US, Suspicion reached the following positions in the Kindle store:
- #2 Top 100 Free Crime Action Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #8 Top 100 Free Mystery Action Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #18 Top 100 Free Private Investigator Mysteries (Kindle Store)
To be honest, I’m pretty shocked that Suspicion was in a higher position on the free kindle charts in the US than in the UK store. Mainly because of the large audience in the US store.
Reviews and Ratings
By now, you’re probably wondering whether all these downloads resulted in reviews or ratings from readers. The answer is yes. Suspicion received the following ratings from readers on Amazon across all the stores.
- 6x five-star
- 6x four-star
- 3x three-star
My average star rating on the US store is 4.2, and on the UK store, it’s 4.1. The reason it’s lower on the UK store is I have a couple of low-rated harsh but somewhat positive reviews from BookSirens published on Amazon. But that’s an issue that I’ll leave for another day.
Kobo Free Promotion
The free mystery ebook promotion on Kobo cost me £6.00. Unfortunately, I can not share the price in USD because Kobo shows you the price in your local currency, which is nice. Over in the promotions tab, I selected the option for the book to be promoted from the 7th of November to the 13th of November
Downloads During the Promotion Period
- Kobo: 69
Interesting Findings
More downloads in one day from the AuthorsXP and Fussy Librarian promotions which are sent out by email, than paying to sit closer to the front in the free books slider on the Kobo store. Email marketing seems to shift books more effectively than listing them for free in the store, possibly because it makes the free books easier to find for the reader. All they have to do is open the email.
Free Booksy Promotion
The mystery eBook promotion with Free Booksy costs £87.10 or US$100.00, and it was scheduled for the 10th of November. And it ran on that day with no issues. Below are the download statistics across all the stores for Suspicion. And you’ll notice that I’ve only included the numbers for the day of the promotion and not the day after.
Downloads on the 10th
- Amazon: 1,769
- Apple: 116
- B&N: 90
- Kobo: 84
- Google Play: 0
- Direct: 0
Interesting Findings
As of the 10th of November, Suspicion is sitting in these positions in the free stores.
- #360 on the Free Kindle charts on Amazon UK
- #521 on the Free Kindle charts on Amazon US
On Amazon UK, Suspicion is sitting in the following positions in the free charts:
- #2 Top 100 Free Men’s Adventure Fiction
- #6 Top 100 Free Mystery Action Fiction
- #7 Top 100 Free Crime Action Fiction
On Amazon US, Suspicion is sitting in the following positions in the free charts:
- #4 Top 100 Free Mystery Action Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #5 Top 100 Free Crime Action Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #9 Top 100 Free Private Investigator Mysteries (Kindle Store)
Final Results
Listed below are the total downloads of Suspicion from the 1st of November to the 30th of November:
- Amazon: 4,447
- Apple: 349
- B&N: 212
- Kobo: 711
- Google Play: 113
- Direct: 2
- Tolino: 1
- Total: 5,835
Reviews and Ratings
Across all the stores on amazon I received 11 new ratings from readers who loved Suspicion on Amazon. For some reason, I didn’t list the rating in statistics in detail. Unfortunately, I’m unable to go back and figure this out.
Over on Goodreads, I received the following:
- 5x five-star ratings
- 1x four-star rating
- 2x three-star rating – one of which was from someone who read an earlier edition (either 1st or 2nd)
- 1x two-star rating (from someone who has a 2.67-star average rating across 916 ratings)
My average rating was brought up from 3.59 to 3.75 after I received a series of low reviews from BookSiren before the promotion began.
As a result of these downloads and the ratings from readers who downloaded and read my books, I’m starting to feel more positive about the quality of the novella. This is partly because these new readers haven’t sped read my book or felt compelled to write a review or want to be seen as a serious book reviewer and thus be more critical out of a belief that criticism is more valuable than simply enjoying the book. I’ve come to this conclusion because I have received more positive reviews on BookSprout than BookSirens. But I’ll leave that thought here because I’m going to turn this author diary into something that it’s not.
Concluding Thoughts
So, that’s all of the things that I can discuss in terms of my experiments with Ad stacking. Also, I’m thinking of setting up a Discord chat for listeners of my podcast, so let me know in the comments section below if that’s something you’re interested in.
If you have any questions or tips on book marketing that you would love to share with me, please come over to the blog post and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Thank you for listening, and happy reading and writing, everybody.
Your coach,
Amelia xx
* DISCLAIMER: This blog post contains affiliate links (marked with an *), which means if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. The commission helps support the blog and allows us to continue to make content like this. Thank you for your support. 🙂
Have you found the blog and podcast useful? Wish you could buy the host, Amelia D. Hay, a cup of coffee. Now, thanks to Buy Me a Coffee, you can!
I’m Amelia. When I’m not hosting the Authorpreneur Podcast™️ and the Book Nerd Podcasts, I write Mystery Novels under the pen name A. D. Hay. And, I’m the author of Suspicion, the Lawn, and the Candidate.
On this blog, I help new writers to finish their first draft, prepare their manuscripts for professional editing, and when they get stuck in the first draft phase or are confused about the revision process.
Right now, I’m editing and preparing my soon to be published mystery novels, Suspicion, Duplicity, 24 Hours, and Immunity for publication.
This was super helpful Amelia, thank you so much for your time. I was wondering if you had more people join your newsletter following these promos?
Also, interesting observation that people reviewing on BookSirens may want to be more critical just to be seen as “serious reviewers”. I don’t have experience with booksirens yet, but I’ll keep that in mind.
Once again thanks for your time in sharing your experience.
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog.
No, not since I switched to the double option. There seems to be a few people opting in but not clicking the second confirmation——I’m wondering if it’s a Mailer Lite and Bookfunnel issue. My observation about the reviewers is the only thing that makes sense to me other than saying the reviewers appear to go to lengths to search for things wrong with the story, whereas regular readers don’t do this. But I suspect it’s more complex than this.