How Bookstore Owners Can Use PPC Advertising to Drive Traffic And Build Awareness For Their Business
As avid readers ourselves at The Marketing Somms, we’ve seen first-hand the resurgence of appreciation for independent bookstores over the last few years. We constantly see new independent bookstores that are reaching excited audiences through local search optimization and social media.
However, while those are both effective ways to market to your bookstore customers, they do have their limitations. Namely, you are reliant on algorithms you can’t control, and they do largely rely on customers to seek you out, which means that especially if you’re a brand new bookstore, they may not drive as much foot traffic as you’d like initially, until you build a larger audience.
That’s why we want to share a little bit more about pay-per-click advertising for bookstores specifically, and how this additional tactic can fill out your marketing toolbelt as part of a larger strategy to seek out your desired audience instead of making them come to you, and drive immediate awareness and traffic, while you work on your longer-term efforts in the background.
To Level Set, What Are Pay-Per-Click Ads, And Why Should Bookstores Care?
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising simply means running digital ads for which you can control the duration, spend, and targeting, and those ads show to the audience of your choice, and you only pay once someone clicks on that ad. The most popular platforms for this kind of advertising are Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram).
Unlike local SEO optimization and organic social media marketing, PPC ads can deliver immediate visibility for you, and they give you control over who sees your ads, when they see them, and what action they take when they see them.
In addition, they’re a way to advertise consistently, without the time and effort required for something like organic social media posts. You can create campaigns that run throughout the month or that remarket to people who already visited your bookstore website, and you only need to check on them occasionally during the week to monitor performance. And these background campaigns are infinitely scalable as needed. This can free up your time to grow your social media presence or handle other aspects of being a bookstore owner.
On the flipside, PPC ads require a budget, and that’s what usually scares away small business owners, who think they’re only suited for large companies with large budgets. Fortunately, though, even small spends can achieve results through some pay per click avenues, when used strategically. Let’s break them all down:
Different Types of PPC Ads
PPC ads don’t just refer to one type of ad, they’re actually a whole category of digital ads that can fit different purposes.
For example, Google Search PPC ads match your bookstore with people who are actively searching for related terms, helping to drive demand to your website. Then, there’s options like Google Display Ads or Meta Ads, which typically drive awareness of your store, or keep you top of mind. These are ads that show on other websites, or Instagram and Facebook respectively, while users aren’t necessarily seeking you out, but targeting based on their interests, like reading, or watching #BookTok videos, could lead them to click and discover you. Finally, there’s remarketing ads, which could be awareness-, or search-based. These are ads that you show to people who have already been to your bookstore website, or some other trackable event, and then they show up again to that person to help remind them of your store.
How PPC Ads Fit Into An Overall Marketing Strategy For Bookstores
The worst way to run PPC ads is to only run an isolated campaign here and there when you feel like you lack website visits or sales. In doing so, you’ll likely experience inconsistent results and waste your time and money. Like all of your marketing efforts for your bookstore, your ads should fit into an overall marketing strategy that follows how readers actually seek you out and buy from you. We call that, pretentiously, the customer journey.
The journey typically follows the stages of awareness (I want to buy a book), consideration (I should see what stores are near me), and decision-making (I’m going to visit this specific bookstore).
A thorough marketing strategy means that you interact with potential customers at any phase of this journey, and some tactics, like social media and your PPC ads, could help customers skip phases too, and go right to the fun part of shopping with you. Here’s how PPC ads can slot into each phase:
– Social media ads that target people in your city and people interested in books could raise general awareness for your store, so that you’re top of mind when someone decides it’s time to make a purchase. Display ads on websites work the same way, albeit a little less effectively in our opinion.
– Ads for sales and book events with some sort of call to action that someone can perform online are great for the consideration phase. Maybe they were considering buying from you, and this is the push they needed with an easy click to interact with your store.
– Finally, search ads that target book-buying keywords, or that remarket back to people who were previously on your website, but left before making a purchase, can drive foot traffic and sales in the decision-making phase because those people are in “action mode.”
All of these options can deliver a specific result well if you think strategically about your targeting, and the images and messages you use in the ads, but where the real magic happens is when you use these ad types together like a big, beautiful trilogy, to take readers along the entire buyer journey to your store. Like all marketing efforts, though, they don’t exist in a vacuum, so make sure you map your social media posts, website, and email marketing program to the phases of the customer journey as well, and ensure these tactics complement each other and don’t work against each other.
Are PPC Ads The Same As Boosting My Bookstore Social Media Posts?
In today’s social media landscape, where unfortunately the number of followers who see your bookstore posts organically is abysmally low, we encourage post boosting as a starting point for low ad spend that can allow more people to see your posts, and even attract followers. Boosted posts are a great way to ensure the most people possible see your event details, for example, or get local eyeballs on your brand new account to build your audience. However, boosting has limitations in terms of marketing goals beyond social media engagement and follows.
A PPC tool like Google or Meta will have more options for how to target your ads than a boosted post would, and you can choose cool ad formats, specific calls to action like driving people directly to your website, and remarketing capabilities to name a few upgrades. We’re not saying that boosted posts don’t provide any value, we just think they’re only one genre for your marketing shelf and you should include them in a wider strategy.
You Convinced Me, How Do I Get Started With PPC Ads For My Bookstore?
We think the easiest pay per click platform to start with is Meta, so we’d recommend trying that out first. Start small with one goal! After all, most people don’t start off reading chapter books, so you don’t have to start off with a complicated campaign before you understand the nuances, either.
For example, you could run an ad campaign that drives traffic to a specific event on your website to see if you can improve sign-ups. Or, if you’ve got a sale section in your online store, you could run ads telling people to stock up on their summer beach reads through your sale.
We recommend you keep your geographic targeting local at first, before you wade into a nation-wide campaign, simply because it’s more likely that local people know you already and trust your store.
Don’t have a local audience yet? Why don’t you start there, with an ad targeted locally that aims to increase your Instagram followers and build interest for your store.
One note about money: we understand if it feels scary to test and iterate PPC ads because your budget is tight, but we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive clicks can be on platforms like Meta, especially if you target your local area. You can set a budget of only $10 per day for a week and spend less than $100 for your first try. Build from there and you’ll quickly learn how PPC ads are a great, practical way for independent bookstores to increase their visibility and attract new customers.