The traditional way of running Facebook Ads when selling books on Amazon is to use the Traffic objective rather than the Sales objective.

Clearly, we want sales/page reads, but because we can't add the Facebook Pixel (a piece of code) onto Amazon's website, there's no way for Facebook to communicate with Amazon and for Amazon to tell Facebook who has made a purchase.

With direct sales, this is 100% possible and Facebook can optimize to find people who are highly likely to make a purchase from you.

The Traffic objective tells Facebook we want as many clicks as possible for the lowest possible cost.

Although on the surface this doesn't sound too great (I don't want clicks I want sales), it works, very well, provided of course that you create stellar Ads and have a solid book product page.

With the Traffic objective, we can take advantage of:

– Lots of cheap clicks

– Reach a lot of people

– Drive a lot of readers to our books on Amazon

– The Amazon Algorithm can help us make a LOT of organic sales and borrows

But there are authors inside Facebook Ads Mastery For Authors trying a slightly different approach.

For some authors, it's working like gangbusters. For others, not so much.

So, I thought it was about time I tested this strategy for myself.

And today, I'm going to walk you through what this new strategy looks like from a technical perspective and also share our initial (very early) results.

Let's begin...

The Strategy

The key difference with this strategy is that we are optimizing for clicks on a button on a landing page rather than clicks on our Ad.

I've setup a landing page template on Lori's website, which looks like this:

Each Facebook Ad has its own individual landing page with a unique URL/website address.

And every landing page has a button on it which I've added a unique Amazon Attribution link to so that I can track the sales/page reads from each landing page/button.

This is where things get a little technical, so stay with me here...

I set up a Custom Event with Events Manager in our Facebook Ads dashboard which tells Facebook to find people who not only click on the Ad but also click on the button on the landing page.

I used a Wordpress plugin (as Lori's website is hosted on Wordpress) called PixelYourSite to set up this Custom Event, which required the $200 upgrade.

I'm sure there's a way to do this without the plugin, but the plugin makes it so easy and handles so much of the technical headaches that can crop up when dealing with code, I'd rather pay the $200 than spend hours and hours of frustration trying to figure this out on my own.

When building a new Facebook Ads Campaign for this strategy, I'm using the Sales objective rather than the Traffic objective.

Using the Sales objective and optimizing for clicks on the button on the landing page, not just clicks on the Ad, means Facebook is looking at the characteristics of the people clicking on the button and finding more people like that.

The theory is that people who click on the button on the landing page are more engaged and have more intent compared to those who just click on the Ad and go straight to Amazon (which is what's happening with the Traffic objective).

Yes, the button on the landing page goes to the book product page on Amazon, and Facebook won't know if these people buy the book or not, even with the Sales objective selected.

But the people who click on the landing page button have made 2 clicks to get to Amazon rather than just 1 click (1 click on the Ad itself and another click on the landing page button).

So there's more friction involved in getting to the book product page on Amazon; there's an extra step.

And Facebook is looking for people who are most likely to click on the landing page button, not just click on the Ad.

So, theoretically, this should result in Facebook finding higher-quality people.

The Landing Page

I'll be honest, the landing page isn't too hot.

It's ok, but it is pretty bland and I'm working on some alternative designs if this first initial test shows signs of success (we'll get to the results shortly).

The landing page WILL have an impact on the performance of your Ads.

It's important to keep in mind here that most of the people who see your Ad and consequently click on your Ad and see your landing page will be doing so on a mobile device.

This is why you need to optimise your landing pages for mobile first, and desktop second.

Here's what the landing page looks like on mobile: 

The most important thing for me is to get the green CTA (Call-To-Action) button above the fold - I want it to be visible without someone having to scroll down the page to see it. This will dramatically increase the number of clicks you'll receive on the button.

I want to convey trust which is why I added the logo at the top of the page and the various policies/terms links at the bottom of the page.

I like to keep the design of the landing page simple to remove as many distractions as I possibly can to focus people's attention on clicking on the button.

The reason I've touched on landing pages here is because the design, the layout and every little thing on the landing page will impact the performance of your Facebook Ads.

The Results

It's still very early days on this test (I started the Ads on Monday, July 8th) and the first couple of days were slow. Very slow.

It wasn't until day 3 that things started picking up as Facebook found its groove and began finding the right people to click on the landing page button.

The CPCs (Cost Per Click) and CPMs (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions) are higher with the Sales objective compared to the Traffic objective, but that is to be expected.

The conversion rate of these Ads though (in terms of sales/page reads) should be higher. Theoretically.

The big question though is whether these Ads are generating more sales/borrows than the Traffic objective.

Let's look at the results so far...

The short answer... these Ads haven't worked (after running for 5 days). They are performing terribly.

I've spent about £90 ($116) and generated 2 sales and less than 100 page reads. Sure, a few more sales/page reads could come into Amazon Attribution over the next few days, but it's only going to be a handful more than are already being reported in the dashboard.

Wrapping Up

Based on these initial results will we continue running this strategy?

Honestly, I don't know. I was hoping for slightly better results than we achieved here.

The issue is that there is an extra variable at play... the landing page.

If you get the landing page wrong, the Ads won't work.

I've clearly got the landing page wrong here because the content of the Ads is essentially the same as I use with the Traffic objective. And the Amazon book product page hasn't changed at all.

The only difference is the landing page.

So there's more testing to do, without a doubt, specifically on the landing page.

Using this strategy isn't for everyone.

For a start, it's more expensive to run these types of Ads (using the Sales objective) and requires more technical setup on the backend to get everything in place.

It also takes more time to set up the Ad because you'll need to create a separate landing page for each new Ad. Plus, you'll need a unique Amazon Attribution link for every landing page.

From a conversion standpoint, is this strategy worth it?

From these initial results, no, absolutely not.

Look at the conversion rate difference between these Sales objective Ads and my typical Traffic objective Ads:

Sales Objective Conversion Rate: 0.5%

Traffic Objective Conversion Rate: 2.5% - 3.5% (average) 

Unless you have the budget and time to work on this Sales objective strategy I've discussed here, I recommend using the Traffic objective when sending people from your Facebook Ads to your books on Amazon.

Some authors have made this strategy work, so it's certainly viable. Just keep in mind the additional time, expense, and testing required to get it working.

Hope this has given you some food for thought.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

To Your Success
– Matt