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Both paid social ads and influencer marketing can be excellent ways to help market your book and get it noticed. However, it's important to note that each approach has pros and cons you'll want to explore. Before you make a decision on which one will give you the biggest benefits, you'll want to take some time to see what they have to offer and how you can use them to your advantage.
By doing that, and considering any downsides of these options in your specific situation, you can get the best kind of marketing for your needs and goals. Not only does that help you sell more books, but it can increase your brand awareness and authenticity in the eyes of your intended audience, too. Here's what to consider, so you can get your book's marketing off the ground the right way.
One of the biggest pros of influencer marketing is the authenticity and trust provided. When you work with an influencer who has a strong following, and they talk about your book, their audience trusts the information they're receiving. Since the audience members already feel like they have a relationship with the influencer, they're more likely to trust recommendations.
Organic engagement is another great pro for working with an influencer. Since they already have an audience that's in your book's target market, you can get your book in front of readers who are looking for your particular niche, style, or genre. When you work with influencers to build long-term relationships, which is another pro for influencer marketing, members of the influencer's audience may become fans that eagerly await your next book release.
You can't always make the selection you want, because not all influencers will want to work with you or help market your book. Even if you reach out politely and they're a good fit for the book's intended audience, they still might not be interested. You don't have control over that, and you also won't have control over the exact language or information they use if they do agree to market your book.
Engagement with the influencer's audience can really fluctuate, too, and it can be difficult to make a direct connection between what they're doing and the ROI you're receiving. That depends on the key metrics you're looking at, but you may not be able to quantify the work they're putting in or measure how it's helping you see more book sales.
Cost and transparency can also be cons for working with influencers. Quality influencers with large followings can be expensive to work with, and you also want to make sure they're being transparent about paid advertising for your book, so you don't break any social platform or FTC rules. In short, you need to feel confident that everyone is above board and getting a fair deal before you sign any contracts or agreements.
A big pro of paid social ads is the measurable results you'll receive. You'll have a lot of specific data to look through, and that can help you determine how well the ads are working and what kinds of changes you need to make. If you see something that's not serving you well, you can make adjustments without needing to talk it over with the influencer you hired.
Scalability is also easier with paid social ads when compared to influencer marketing, and you can choose to scale up the number of ads you're placing or even scale back if you're not seeing the results you want. You control the narrative, and that can increase your peace of mind and help you focus on the ads that are doing well and the locations that work best for them.
Brand awareness is a big part of social ads, too, since you aren't relying on an influencer to tell their audience about you. That gives you more control over how you market your brand and ensures that you're not being tied to an influencer, where you're only noticed if they're talking about your book.
Promotional tones are the largest con with paid social ads. In other words, it's clear that what you're showing the audience is an ad, and a lot of people just skip over things that are overly promotional. Limited engagement can be a problem, as well, since not everyone is going to stop and look at your ad. Even if they're in your target market, they might not see the ad you've placed or they might scroll past and never notice what you have to offer.
Also, consider that many people have issues with attention fatigue. There are so many things in daily life that demand a person's attention that they might not have anything left to take notice of what you're offering. Even if you have a great ad, and it's on the right platforms for your target market to notice it, you're still gambling as to whether they'll see it and stop to engage with it.
It can be difficult to get started with social ads because there's no guarantee that they'll work. You don't want to put money into something that won't be successful, and you might not be sure which platforms to target for maximum effect. However, there's a solution to the issues you're facing. With Ingram iD you'll have dramatically increased odds of success because you're using our consumer-facing brands, such as Bookfinity and Page & Pairing.
This means you're accessing verified, engaged readers looking for their next read, so they're already interested in what you have to offer. In addition to ads, iD email newsletters get your title right into readers’ email inboxes, where they can take a look at the great books you're offering and choose what they want to read next. It's an easy and convenient way to make sure you're connecting with actual readers, and not just placing ads on social media platforms while you hope for the best.
One of the ways you can see the most success is by combining paid social and influencer marketing. It's common to use influencer assets to run social ads, and this can be effective because the influencer already has an audience that trusts them. That gives your ad more credibility and ensures that you're working with an audience that's at least part of your target market.
Most influencers sell the rights to use their assets for 30 to 60 days, which is a significant period of marketing time if you're ready with the kinds of ads you want to run from the very beginning. Make sure you look at any contract you enter into with an influencer and see if all raw assets are included, so you know exactly what you're getting for the money you're paying.
Both ways of marketing your book can see incredible benefits, but you need to understand what you're looking to get from your marketing strategy before choosing one method, the other method, or a mixture of the two. Figuring out which is the best option to get the results you want is the key, and that requires a good understanding of both influencer marketing and social ads. With the right knowledge and support, you can take your book's marketing to the next level.
