(Note: This is copy-pasted from a post I made originally on WebFictionGuide, and realized it might be of some value to the local Guild. While the content herein was intended to be specific to the WebSerial author community, I trust and hope it will be of use to my fellow guild members. Please comment and reply if you have any of your own statistics to add and compare re: Marketing on Facebook.)
Budget: $35.00 ($5.00/day for 7 days)
People Reached: 1055
Page Likes: 32
Cost per Like: $1.09
Facebook advertising is extremely cagey about presenting its stats in a standard advertising way, which doesn’t inspire much confidence in me. However, the response results weren’t terrible:
My response rate was 32/1055, which translates into 3%. Compared to Reddit and Google, there’s definitely a lot more engagement per impression.
Unfortunately, almost 90% of those engagements came from Mobile users, which means that if you’re going to use Facebook for a webserial, make absolutely sure that your site works well on mobile devices.
User demographics were particularly revealing:
18–24
5 Likes
261 Impressions
$1.19 Cost per Like
$5.95 Total Spent
—
25–34
3 Likes
242 Impressions
$2.18 Cost per Like
$6.55 Total Spent
—
35–44
7 Likes
263 Impressions
$1.04 Cost per Like
$7.26 Total Spent
—
45–54
9 Likes
168 Impressions
$0.93 Cost per Like
$8.34 Total Spent
—
55–64
8 Likes
121 Impressions
$0.86 Cost per Like
$6.86 Total Spent
Gender Breakdown:
Female: 22 Likes, 709 Impressions, Cost per page like: $1.09, Engagement 3.1%
Male: 10 Likes, 336 Impressions, Cost per page like: $1.08, Engagement 2.9%
Country Breakdown:
Canada: 1 Like, 134 Impressions
United Kingdom: 3 Likes, 257 Impressions
United States: 28 Likes, 665 Impressions
All 32 engagements were on mobile devices. No Likes at all occurred on PCs. 25 of the 32 likes came from Android smartphones!
Analysis:
The numbers provided are of a limited and low-confidence sample base. As such, some interesting artifacts of data are easy to dismiss as error bars, while other insights provide reliable feedback on the performance of Facebook ads.
The biggest surprise to me was the gender disparity in engagement on Facebook. More than twice as many women as men are clicking on From Winter’s Ashes, despite the advertisement being deliberately as gender-neutral as possible.
Age of engagement wasn’t as surprising: Facebook appeals to an older demographic, and that shows. While they’re more likely to have disposable income, they are less likely to engage in modern payment methods, such as PayPal and Patreon. Of the 32 Likes, only two resulted in conversions to Patreon clicks. None of them became Patrons.
Of greater value in this advertisement, if not financially, was that 32 people with Likes on Facebook are 32 people who see each update notice posted to Facebook.
Demographically, engagement was especially high with Christian women of color ages 40-65, with notable spikes in engagement in Alabama and Ohio.
Monetarily, the higher expense of a Facebook Like will only trade off if you’re using Facebook effectively to engage your audience. Your content will definitely matter; Facebook demographics overall are skewed towards women ages 35+. If you believe your content would appeal to that demographic, Facebook might work for you.
Overall, I’m not sure that Facebook’s high cost-per-engagement is a fit for From Winter’s Ashes, or most webserials. I’m wondering if most of my readers are, in fact, engaging the story with mobile devices. (If so, then designing for mobile presentation is critical.)
Comments, questions, insights? I’m glad to help however I can.
