Marketing Tests: Free Book Promo Part 3

And what I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for – the part where I talk about what I’d do differently next time.

1. Only run it for a single week
2. Set dates beforehand with Amazon
3. Keep promos to days 4-6
4. On the 2nd or 3rd day post-free book week, have another promo

Of course, some of this is more experimental. I can’t be sure that the spikes in sales would fall the same, but if they did, I’d see the bulk of increase without promotions / advertising happening within the first 4 days of it being free.

Rather than a leveling out on day 5 and on, promotions should keep it spiking on days 4-6 with some natural carry-over into the last day and beyond. I’d schedule Freebooksy as my last promotion. It had the most clicks, and from what others have said, it has the most carry-over post-sale. While I can’t be sure of this, I’d like to see (i.e. the experimental part).

Having an additional post-sale promotion would help with the switch-over dip that happens. From what it seems, free book sales do very little for your ranking once your book is no longer free. Makes sense – this is exactly why Amazon separated the two. Best way to minimize the drop in visibility which happens with a lower ranking would be to add another promotion to catch it and make sure your last promotion is likely to carry over as your price returns to normal (incrementally or immediately varies).