SFA 027 – Successful Book Launches, Facebook Ads, and Marketing Funnels with Mal Cooper

Non-fiction author Mal Cooper (who is also science-fiction author MD Cooper) joined us on the podcast today to talk successful book launches, Facebook ads, marketing for authors, and lots more. She’s written Help! My Facebook Ads Suck, and has two new marketing books forthcoming: Help! My Launch Plan Sucks and Help! My Marketing Strategies Suck. (It’s clear authors need a lot of help.)

Mal previously appeared (as Michael Cooper) twice on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast, and you should check out those episodes for lots more information, especially on Facebook ads:

Here are some of the questions we asked Mal today:

What do you have lined up for this year, and how do you plan to attack your own launches?
You mentioned making use of Goodreads for book launches. What do you do there?
Are there any specific challenges to launching a new book in a long-running series that hasn’t had an installment in a while?
The rapid release launch tactic has been working for authors for several years now. Is that something you talk about in your book, and are people still seeing success?
How can authors launching a book a year get it to rank well and keep selling beyond the initial boost?
How do print and audiobooks factor in to your launch plans?
We’ve had a variety of different recommendations for launch strategies in the past, but increasingly it seems the consensus is that spreading your promotion out to steadily build rank rather than spiking it on day one is a winning strategy. Do you agree?
Any tips for launching into a new genre when you’ve got an established readership in another one?
How can an author get started with Facebook ads, and what are some best practices?
You mentioned liking that you can advertise on Instagram through Facebook. How can we do well there?
How do you feel about Facebook’s dynamic ads?
How long is your ad copy now and how much do you experiment with it? Do you see or hear of other authors having success with longer ad copy?
Because advertising can be an art as much as a science, what with the massive differences that tiny tweaks in visuals and ad copy can produce, presumably it’s possible that someone can break from the common wisdoms of advertising and stumble upon a winner from time to time. How much experimenting with the formula would you suggest, and how should people assess success to see if it’s a worthwhile change?
What are the differences between clicks and interactions?
Matt Staggs asks: For wide authors, what’s the best place to link to? Is it better to link my US ads to Amazon because I sell better there, and Kobo for my CA ads? Or link to my website that links to all stores?
Vania Margene Rheault asks: Can you go into a little bit more about choosing an audience? I do some ads that barely get any impressions or engagement, and I think it’s because my audience isn’t on target. Especially since not all authors are available to be targeted.
Vania also asks: Can you explain the difference between an ad and a boosted post?
Beyond Facebook ads, what are you doing for marketing that’s still working?
How much advertising do you do in between launches and where do you put your focus (including and outside of Facebook)?
Since time is frequently as much of a bottleneck as money, are there marketing tactics that have better bang for their buck for folks struggling with finding time to write and advertise?
Marketers throw around terms like “getting people into your funnel”. Could you talk about what that is and how it applies to authors?
You’ve mentioned liking Facebook videos. What’s the perk and how can authors take advantage of them?
You also seem to be a fan of Reddit, which has traditionally been inhospitable to advertisers. What’s changed, and what should authors be doing there?
Sally Rigby says: I’d like to hear more about the merchandise Mal sells and how it all works, please.
Jeff Nine says: I would love to hear more on the different types of Facebook ads, specifically video and carousel image ads. The ad I’m running most now is carousel with each book in the series with a slide. Is that best, or should they focus only on book 1?

Thanks to Mal for answering our many questions! In addition to the websites mentioned above, you can visit Mal and her wife on The Writing Wives. They do author trainings and retreats, and if you purchased the first edition of Help! My Facebook Ads Suck, you can download the new one for free there.

You can also check out Mal Cooper’s (under Malorie): How Wearing Leggings Changed My Life, a transgender woman’s journey of self-discovery and how she learned to live without walls.

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