One of the best ways to let the right people know about your book is through digital marketing. Paid advertising on such platforms as Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads and Amazon can be extremely beneficial. Here’s why.

With more than 1.7 billion people using Facebook every month and over 300 million users using LinkedIn, these platforms should be part of your marketing plan. The features that LinkedIn and Facebook offer are the following:

LinkedIn and Facebook sponsored ads travel with the user. Meaning readers view them on their computer, iPad and cell phone.

Facebook ads and LinkedIn combine text and graphic elements in their ads. These ads can be posted on the reader’s sidebar, on the top of the page or as sponsored posts. Facebook offers to place video ads or text ads in the potential users feed where they view all their posts.

Both advertising platforms target potential users based on user preferences, interests, demographics and location. This is a very powerful tool if you are advertising your event, webinar, kindle countdown sale or virtual book tour. You are able to reach your target audience whose interests may be webinars; specific books or they like to attend conferences and events.

Some things that you need to consider before you place your first advertisement.

Do analyse who your target audience is before you place your ad. LinkedIn Ad’s are especially good for business related subjects. Non-fiction books with business or technical subjects do well with LinkedIn. LinkedIn profiles center around business. LinkedIn groups attract businesses, authors and speakers.

Don’t place an ad on LinkedIn if your target audience is young adults. Facebook is a great platform for youth and everyday users. While Linkedin is known to attract a more mature audience.

Do test your ad on LinkedIn or Facebook before you place it. You can post it for free where it will appear in your feed and you can check the total views of your post. Also, you can track the website clicks to your particular post. If you click your post on Facebook you can see post details that holds such information as how many friends shared your post, how many people it reached and negative feedback.

Don’t place your ad without researching for effective keywords that describe your chosen target market; their interests, behaviour, demographics and psychographics. When choosing these keywords, check the estimated daily reach which is located in your Ads manager.

Do think of your headline as a hook. Make you title a clear call to action. Use discounts, time-limit factors, and language that will target your audience.

Finally! Do consider Facebook’s video ads. Video ads appear in your target audience’s newsfeed; they are engaging and can be created to look like short TV commercials. Remember that 85% of videos on Facebook are now viewed without sound so use lots of text.

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