Ad Results August 2023

Let’s take a look back at ad results for August 2023.

First, let’s look at Facebook ads. Here’s what I got back for every $1 I spent advertising a series on Facebook ads:

THE GHOSTS: $3.12

CLOAK GAMES/MAGE: $3.62

FROSTBORN: $4.39

Having a complete series also in audiobook really, really helps with the profitability of an ad. Like, for August 2023, it looks like about 38% of the FROSTBORN revenue came from the audiobooks, and for GHOSTS it was about 36%.

The challenge, of course, is that having a complete series in audiobook, especially when you write long series like I do, is an enormous amount of time and expense. It can also take a long time for the audiobooks to earn back their investments. Like, Brad Wills narrated FROSTBORN #6 through #15 for me, and so far #6 through #11 have earned back what I spent on them. I’d have to double check the math, but for the eighteen GHOSTS books Hollis McCarthy narrated, I think about seven of them have earned back the investment. (I do have complete confidence they will all earn out in a few years.) It very much helps that, at least for my specific business circumstances, audiobook production counts as a tax deduction.

I didn’t really do anything with Amazon Ads in August because DRAGONSKULL: SWORD OF THE SQUIRE was an Amazon monthly deal in the UK, but I expect I will do more with it in September once SWORD OF THE SQUIRE goes back up to $4.99 USD.

As always, thanks for reading (and listening to the audiobooks)!

-JM