Is It Worth It To Buy Twitter Ads to Promote Your Substack? No
And statistics!
This isn’t a food blog recipe, so I’ll cut to the chase. It is not worth it to buy Twitter ads in order to grow your substack. I spent $40, got 57 link clicks, and 2 free subscribers.
My base rate of free subscriber growth is somewhere between 3-5 a day organically.
Overall, the ad process to set up the pixel and create the ad was quite easy. The best part was that substack basically confirmed Twitter’s metrics, as seen below.
And here is the ad that ran:
Comment below if you have had any advertising results (good or bad) since this was more of a mini-test.
Restack and forward this to other substackers as well, and maybe we can all help save each other a little money.
Other site stats for the month:
Free Subscribers: 8977
Total Cash Payout: $537.50
Total Stories Submitted: 182
Appendix
Short Story Substack Winners (Paid Subscription Unlocks All 31 Stories)
Less - Only keep things that spark joy.
A Gentleman of Sterling Character - Character can’t be bought.
Exit Duty - Old teaches young and young teaches old.
Becoming Cheyenne - Identity, friendship, and human nature.
The Imposter Carla Cluckins - Not all stakes must be huge.
Epilogue - It is only through evil that good can be known.
The Magnifying Tongue - Cult and subtext.
SIDESHOW - How many choices do we really have?
It’s Just a Rattlesnake - Magical realism in the desert.
Smiley’s Tavern - On listening and understanding what we hear.
Sweeter Than Honey - Love and magic and art.
One Brief Shining Moment - Conspiracy theory or conspiracy fact?
Ten Seconds - The Devil only wants ten seconds of your life. Do you take the deal?
Bear - Simple and beautiful love between a father, his daughter, and a stuffed bear.
Mr. Harold’s Gift - Not all gifts that are given are well received.
The Mummer’s Parade - Love that is real and true is often messy.
The Garden Club - The power of rumor to destroy. A story that is both fictional and educational.
Depression Séance - Magic is real in the eyes of a child.
Abrama’s Endgame - Sci-Fi look at artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and the struggle to survive.
Do-Over - What happens when you get to re-do your life? What does that answer say about the life that was lived?
Goodbye, Debbie Sue - Freedom on your own terms.
The Pawnshop of Intangible Things - The most valuable things aren’t physical.
Make It a Double - Comparison is the thief of joy.
Worms - Creeping horror.
Do Not Resuscitate - Life’s complex choices in end-of-life care.
I Hate Killing People in Kansas City - An action-packed story better than most movies in the past 20 years.
Sometimes, People Just Have Things They Have To Do - Getting the band back together.
There’s Not Much I Don’t Know - Fatherhood and the instinct to protect.
No Greater Love - Sacrifice in the face of slavery.
Oil On Canvas - The future, and regret, always come.
Blues For Rashid - Music turned into story.
Tools
Webster's 1913 Dictionary - Inspirational dictionary that appreciates the art and beauty of words.
Hemingway App - Online tool that will tighten your writing.
One Look Thesaurus - Wide-ranging thesaurus that goes beyond simple synonyms.
Free Online Short Stories
How To Tell A True War Story - Tale of violence and what it means to know the truth.
Good Old Neon - A look at life and death from a different perspective.
Hills Like White Elephants - One of the best uses of subtext ever.
The Egg - Mind-bending sci-fi look at the reason for humanity.
I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream - Sci-Fi horror about a malevolent AI.
Flowers For Algernon - Looking at the limits of intelligence and love.
To Build A Fire - Tale of survival in the bitter cold.
The Cask of Amontillado - Revenge.
The Garden Of Forking Paths - Spy thriller set in WW2.
Rikki Tikki Tavi - On courage in the face of danger.
Thank you for sharing. I am not surprised. Across all platforms, social media is limited to how many of your target market are on that platform and reachable. I have also thought of Twitter as being over hyped by its audience and even then with a bias towards politics and current events not literature. I would expect that original posts would be as or more effective.
Years ago I posted a survey to several LinkedIn groups related to my topic (higher ed careers), and I had great results at building a list from this. Part of the key is not being salesly. Another part is asking interesting questions. For example, asking questions about what subjects or other elements of short stories do people enjoy or asking whether people write and/or read short stories.
An interesting demographic question for your readers would be how many of us are readers versus writers. That would help you know who your audience is and who to target with paid or organic efforts.
Hi Michael, have you tried anything that has worked outside of Substack, either through Reddit, forums, newsletter aggregators, etc.? There's a growing desire to market fiction outside social media, but nobody has landed on anything that works consistently.
Reedsy has quite a few marketing services listed, all pay to play, but I suspect the ROI is similar.
As for the Lunar Awards, nothing comes to mind. The largest number of subscribers I ever received came through a recommendation because the Substack recommending was doing an eBook giveaway list that went sort of viral. Something to chew on.