9 Effective Book Ad Ideas to Build Your Brand as an Author

zulqarnayniOctober 16, 2022Last Updated: October 16, 2022

0 5 minutes read

Book ads can range from complicated videos to minimalist but engaging images. If done well, each advert can attract lots of new readers to your book and brand.

Here are several book ad ideas you can use in your marketing plan. Make sure your creations are varied, but that you don’t bombard people with too many adverts at once.

1. Create an Engaging Book Trailer

A book trailer is an exciting way to represent what your work’s about. Something as simple as a smooth compilation of images and text can draw the eye better than a static advert.

But don’t limit your videos to this image-and-text layout. Online tools authors can use to create book ads have features like animation, voice-over, and live recording. Make the most of these and any other tools you can afford.

For example, if you have the resources, create a full-on live-action video. Hire professionals or get your friends to help produce the best book trailer possible. It’s an excellent way to present the whole story or important parts of it.

2. Introduce Your Book’s Characters

Talking of important parts of your book, the characters are essential. They’re usually what readers connect with, so you can create book ads that introduce them, tell the world about them.

Whether you make videos or images, include a face, name, and set of details, like their background and role in the story’s plot.

The higher the ad’s quality in terms of art and structure, the likelier it is that people will react positively, if at all. So, before adding it to a newsletter or using it to boost your career as an author on Instagram, make sure it’s in the best possible shape.

3. Create an Author Bio

The author is another part of any book that might interest people, which makes it a great idea for an advert.

First, get yourself a nice author photo and combine it with a brief biography. In a static advert, this can be a small block of text or a list of statements. In a video, you can spread your details across slides, but not too many.

Also, stick to the facts, like how you became a writer, what inspired your current book, what drives you as an artist, and what platforms people can find you on. The information you share will reflect you and either motivate or discourage viewers, so choose your words carefully.

Depending on where you put these book ads—your website, Facebook, online magazines—you might have extra room to add a few more details, like links to your social media profiles and the platform showcasing your writing portfolio.

4. Showcase Your Book Cover

A book’s cover can make it or break it, so be sure yours is high-quality, whether you hire a designer or make it yourself with resources like free sites for book cover templates.

Once you have the perfect cover in hand, you can proudly use it in your book ads, too. Take some stylish pictures or use promo templates where you just upload your cover’s file to a premade mockup. Book Brush is a good platform for these.

With such adverts, you could announce the book’s release date, offer a giveaway, or thank anyone who helped design your cover. If you post the book ad on social media, you can also tag your collaborators and boost each other’s publicity.

If you wrote a good book, you should have plenty of nice extracts to share. Why not put them in an ad and showcase a character’s personality or your skill as a writer?

You wouldn’t even need that much to create this type of advert. Just paste a quote onto an image, adjust its typeface, and mention your book and, if applicable, the character you’re quoting.

These little ads can be versatile. They’re great for enriching your character introductions, as well as your website, giving visitors something else to admire besides your book’s cover.

You can get reviews before and after your book launches. While reading them, find quotable passages you can use to promote your book.

Considering people are more likely to buy something with good reviews, a book ad just containing these will be an asset to your marketing strategy.

Put together an image or video of quotes from your best reviews. For extra credibility, mention where each one can be found and the name of the reviewer, especially if they’re an authority.

7. Showcase Your Book Art

Beautiful visuals can attract an audience better than text, and there are many ways to create images based on your book. Then, you can use them in your adverts.

So, besides the book’s cover art and any illustrations, you can commission pieces from artists, get your creative fans involved with a competition, or make your own artwork.

You don’t have to draw masterpieces to immerse people into your fictional or non-fictional world. A rough map or character sketch can engage viewers just fine. But if you do want something of decent quality that doesn’t cost you as much as a professional artist, consider AI text-to-art generators like Dall-E 2 and NightCafe.

An impressive book ad is even more efficient if the viewer can quickly buy or pre-order your work. There’s no guarantee that they’ll remember later or not give up if they have to search for the book themselves.

While adding relevant links to all your adverts is a good idea, you could create promos that just tell people where the book is for sale and include hyperlinks.

Simply put an image of your book next to a list of your online and land-based retailers. If your rating on Amazon or Goodreads is good, you could also add stars under your book, making it more desirable.

You deserve to enjoy every important milestone in your career as an author. Book ads can help you make an even bigger splash.

For example, if your book becomes a bestseller, hits new markets around the world, is to be featured in a podcast, or achieves anything else exciting, you can create an advert that invites people to participate or just celebrate with you.

Don’t forget, however, that balance and humility are key. Avoid overwhelming your followers with book ads and making your promos too loud. You want to take people on a fun journey, not brag and chase them away.

Make Sure Your Ads Reflect a Great Book

Assuming you’re self-publishing your book, write it to the best of your abilities, and save up for a professional editor and designer, at the very least. Bring your work to the best possible condition and watch the positive reviews pile up.

Creating effective book ads should then be much easier as all you’ll need to do is point people in the right direction and keep them engaged with updates, artworks, and more. Your book will charm them in its own way.