The Big Three: Where Authors Should Really Be Advertising Their Books

Facebook and Amazon may dominate, but there’s a third platform you cannot afford to ignore

Most of us start with Facebook when we first dip our toes into book advertising because that’s what everyone says to do, right? Or we try Amazon, because that’s where we sell most of our books.

But the truth is that the most successful authors rarely stick with just one approach. They spread their advertising across platforms, which both diversifies the risk and opens up new opportunities to reach different kinds of readers.

There are three platforms worth your attention: Facebook, Amazon, and BookBub. Each one plays a different role, and learning how to use them together is often what separates steady sales from breakout growth.

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Facebook Ads

Facebook is where users are scrolling. They’re there to catch up with friends, laugh at cat videos, or join discussions in groups. They’re not shopping. This means our advert is interrupting their enjoyment, so we need something compelling enough to make them stop and look - the power of the creative.

The upside is Facebook gives us relatively detailed targeting so we can reach people who like certain authors, genres, or even specific behaviours.

Why Facebook works: Ideal for visibility, building our mailing list, and running promotions with eye-catching images or video.
Watch out for: We’re interrupting rather than serving intent, and costs can rise quickly without careful testing. And Facebook is taking away some of the best targeting options for books while focusing on AI systems.

Amazon Ads

Amazon feels like the natural next step. Here, people are already looking for books. They’re searching, browsing, and comparing covers. Unlike Facebook, we aren’t specifically interrupting them. Our ads are showing up at the moment they’re deciding what to read next. Amazon Ads work best when your book already looks the part with a strong cover, blurb, and reviews.