Stacking Promotions

It's become common and there's lots of talk about stacking book promotions recently.

It was shortly after In the Beginning Baby Girl Book I went perma-free that I started making a list of advertisers that got results. Each week or so I bought an ad somewhere and kept track of the sales data -- free downloads vs. sales of my other books. Spacing the ads at least a week apart gave me data. Remember I'm a science person and want to test only one variable at a time.

In the process of scheduling ads, collecting data, and determining which companies got my book results I accidentally scheduled two ads together. Uh oh! I kicked myself because the data would be skewed. What I found as is common with so many accidents while testing was my book soared for a longer period of time but I lacked data on which company got better results. I scheduled each at a later date on non conflicting schedules and got that data.

With my accidental discovery I used the data and companies to stack book promotions for the release of The Vampires Next Door and it worked like a charm. Stacking promotions wasn't all I did it was actually step 2. However, armed with data I implemented a plan and it worked.

If you're considering stacking promotions first get data that tells you where to go. Don't jump in blindly. The best advertisers take an approach that sends your book to readers who want it, your genre, not a blanket approach. 

Why is a genre specific approach good? It's simple. Your book goes to readers who are going to purchase, enjoy and come back for more. It's like sending an email. If you don't address it the email goes no where but once you put it the recipients name the email goes directly to that person. Targeted ads get the best results.

Once you know where to schedule ads then start stacking.