#PublishingReinvented 276 The Power of Persistence - An Example via Ads

I have been running a series of Facebook ads for my Roman series. Not big budget stuff. Roman era novels are not big sellers.

I sure know how to pick my genres. I blame Gladiator I.

So I went through 5 weeks of losses, not huge, but spending $10 a day and often making $3 or $5 or $2 or $6 a day in royalties.

Not encouraging. You might be familiar with the feeling.

And I went through 5 different images and pitches, over 5 weeks, going from one theme or hook to the next. The hook was used in the text overlay on the image.

These were the themes/hooks used and why:

1. Real Historical Figure as Protagonist
   ➤ Readers love stories that reimagine the private lives of great figures.

2. Power Struggle / Rise to the Throne
   ➤ A reliable engine for conflict, drama, and action.

3. The Woman Behind the Man
   ➤ Seen in The Paris Library, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Red Tent.

4. Enemies Within
   ➤ Works in stories involving courts, war councils, or high command — e.g., Julius Caesar, House of Cards.

5. Before-They-Were-Famous Story
   ➤ Think Young Caesar by Conn Iggulden or Becoming Marie Antoinette.

I then went back to #4, the best performing so far, and redid the targeting, expanding it, and creating a new text over the image. See it below.

This one is in profit from day one. None of the others had this impact. I am sure there will be variations in the return, but I am happy putting in $10 a day and getting back $15 to $25 each day on average.

For as long as possible.

Further ad variations will follow. Someone I know says it took him about 20 to get into profit.

Would you have the patience for that?

This is the ad that is finally working on Facebook:

Our Facebook ads program is available to you at this link. We test multiple ads for both the $450 and $750 packages.

But it can take patience and grit to keep going when ads appear to be losing money.

What do you think of this process for getting a book to sell? Try, try, try, try, try, try again.

#PublishingReinvented is the Book Marketing Substack you’ve been looking for.

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