How we helped Col. Chris Hadfield’s First Novel “The Apollo Murders” become a best seller in the United States in 3 Months

We were approached by Canadian hero and astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield’s team with a challenge: to support the promotion of his very first novel, The Apollo Murders, for the US market.

PUSHING LIMITS AT THE FINAL FRONTIER

Our mission: to help this Canadian legend break into the US publishing market. Our obstacle: A post-Thanksgiving week launch meant directly competing with some very famous names also launching books at the same time.
It was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on a Digital Marketing Strategy Plan.

LANDING (PAGE, NOT SPACESHIP)

To help guide the audience on to their preferred retailer when purchasing the book, our Web and UI/UX department developed a new landing page dedicated to The Apollo Murders. It was important to highlight the most popular retailers, while also making sure that the user experience was seamless, and that the design matched the book’s branding.

AIMING FOR THE MOON

We tested ads for several platforms and concluded that Facebook ads performed best, not only for conversions but as well as for cost per result.

Once we decided on the platform of focus, it was then time to run some tests: different visuals, ad formats, copy, location and interests targeting were tested against each other to find the most efficient way to reach potential readers at the lowest possible ad spend.

Ad optimizations were performed 3 to 5 times a week to ensure the best possible results for our client.

WE HAVE LIFT OFF

After a 3-month Campaign, our results were much more than just the 8,000+ copies sold on presale, or the 5,387 total checkouts initiated from ads – not humble bragging, these are INCREDIBLE results, but the recognition and free promotion received from the book retailers is even better:

The Apollo Murders entered the Best Seller lists for Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and The Globe and Mail.