A “Relevance Score” Boost for Your Book

My guest blogger today is Victoria Lancu from BooksGoSocial. Have you ever wondered why your Facebook and Amazon ads are not doing very well, then read on...

When you run ads on sites such as Facebook or Amazon for a book, the ads algorithm these sites use decides whether to show your ad to browsers on their sites. Whether your ad is seen or not is not just based on the bid you set for a click.

It is also based on the relevance score each algorithm applies to your book.

The algorithm in each case decides to show your book ad to browsers not just because you bid higher than others, it also assesses how relevant your ad is for the audience, with a different analysis formula in each case.

Facebook and Amazon want to show ads to their site visitors that are likely to be successful and the ones that are, are the books with a high relevance score for the viewer. Just because an advertiser bids high to be placed in front of an audience does not mean the ad will be seen more.

Your book’s relevance score decides if your ad will be seen.

Neither Amazon nor Facebook want to show ads that are irrelevant and unlikely to be clicked on. They only earn money when an ad is clicked so they have to get this right. Showing a book about American history to someone who only buys romance novels is one example of an irrelevant ad unlikely to succeed in getting clicks.

So how can you improve your relevancy score?

Let’s break it down by ad platform:

Facebook Ads

The Relevance Score for a Facebook ad is shown on a scale of Average or Above or Below Average on three separate scales:

Quality ranking: How your ad’s perceived quality compares to other ads in competition for your audience.

Engagement rate ranking: How your ad’s engagement rate compares to other ads in competition for your audience.

Conversion rate ranking: How your ad’s conversion rate compares to other ads in competition for your audience.

If you improve your rankings your ads will be shown more often and cost less per click. To do that:

1. Improve the quality of your creative assets (pics/video) or target an audience more likely to perceive the ad as high quality.

2. Improve the call to action (Order/More button) of your ad or improve the book page where people buy, or target a more likely to buy audience.

3. Change your ad to be clearer about the book you are advertising.

4. Change your ad on a regular basis for images/video, headlines, and text as ratings can diminish over time.

5. Adjust the frequency that an ad is seen by the target audience. According to Facebook, the optimal ad frequency is between 1 and 2 exposures during the length of the campaign with a tipping point of 3.4, after which an ad loses its effectiveness.

6. Monitoring the three ranking scores for each ad set on a regular basis, once they achieve 500+ impressions, will help the success of your ads.

Negative comments on an ad will also impact the rankings. Reducing the Retargeting window, if you are doing retargeting, and offering lead magnets, such as a free eBook, can help.

Victoria Lancu

www.BooksGoSocial.com