Turn YOUR book cover into 👉 a killer Facebook Ad 🏆with Canva 🎨 (The Image Workshop - Ep. 1)

[@DavidGaughran]

To all those people pointing it out... yes, I should have just used the pipette in Canva itself to pick the color. I'm never entirely sure what is a Pro feature and what isn't, so tried to play it safe. For example, there's a handy background removal feature in Canva now but it's only available to Pro subscribers, last time I checked. And in fact it's not as good as the third-party site I recommend, and often doesn't remove the background as cleanly. In this specific case though, yes, for sure, use the feature right there in Canva instead! I'll try and remember it's there next time...

[@annmalleybooks]

You did GREAT! Thank you. I've had Canva pro forever and just learned about the pipette feature. LoL Keep the tutorials coming, please :^)

[@JaneNewAuthor]

I've done quite a bit of photography. To get the background image to fit properly, use the Rule of Thirds. Not the space to explain it here, but the the dog cover worked because his eyes were at an intersection of the thirds grid. For the tower one, the tower was on one of the grid lines. Liked the banner idea! Canva is great, I subscribe. So easy to use and reasonably priced. Paying gives you a LOT more options.

[@markhood]

Love what you did with my ‘War of the Worlds’ sequel! Thank you so much for the inspiration and all the tips and tricks you shared.

[@DavidGaughran]

I'm not done with it, I reckon. Think I'll be revisiting it next time for one very quick tweak...

[@RoxanaArama-r6t]

Thank you so much for the stunning ad for The Exiled Queen! Going to create the ad now and try it out :)

[@lifegardenpublishing1880]

Love the diminishing dollar tip 😂

[@VSGThriving]

Love the Norse Queen looking at the book!

[@kathystrobos9451]

Thanks so much for making an ad for My Book Boyfriend! I love it!

[@EmmaBennetAuthor]

I was so excited when I saw your cover!

[@kathystrobos9451]

@@EmmaBennetAuthor Me too :)

[@MKpurplequeennl]

This doesn't just teach you FB ads design, but how to use Canva. I"ve been paying for Canva for over 4 years, but there are so many things that I didn't know or hadn't used! LOL Brilliant as always David. Thank you. (btw you can also right click to move things forward and back)

[@DavidGaughran]

And now I learned something. Thank you back!

[@aggiestevens4418]

Welcome back, David! Overjoyed that you've returned with your excellent, clear & immediately useful info. You're the best!

[@heatherwebber537]

Thanks, David… as always, informative and fun!

[@kcjuliusauthor]

Thanks, David! I've just put these principles to work in a new FB ad... let's see how it rolls!

[@ashlynnantrobus5029]

"Red means danger, like fire, or blood, or a redhead on the warpath" 🤣🤣🤣

[@DariellePettem]

Thanks, David - very helpful!

[@carolineboxallauthor]

Thanks so much for this - I'm going to try it right now!

[@kathystrobos9451]

Love the way you centered the dog. Not sure about the dollar sign being smaller, but it looks good to me. I agree about the quotes.

[@jaxx8536]

Wow, really helpful. Great if you could advise on free fonts for genres.

[@DavidGaughran]

Definitely talking more about fonts in the next episode

[@authorlaineydavis]

in addition to everything being amazing, this was really valuable for me to see what the book pages look like when someone logs in from Europe. I sometimes forget to make my prices "pretty" in other currencies on Amazon and I need to really do that!

[@DavidGaughran]

Don't worry too much about the prices I see. Keep in mind that different customers see different things. I see the US price, converted into Euros, with local sales tax added (which can be different in each European country). Also, I am in Europe but my Kindle is attached to the US Kindle Store because I originally purchased a Kindle back in 2011 when Irish customers were served by the US store. These days, Irish customers are served by the UK Kindle Store. There are lots of similar quirks leading to different international groups seeing different prices for your books... in the US Kindle Store. That's all a sideshow though, the only thing you need to think about here, perhaps, is making your European prices neat in the local Kindle Stores in Europe - although local sales tax can mess with that too! Just make sure you are advertising correct prices in any local markets - would be the only big thing here, I guess.

[@PanarchyInTheUK]

Fantastic video David, really enjoyable with your trademark humour and good nature.

[@helyndunnauthor]

Hey thanks for this great tutorial! I'm excited to revise my current ad. You are easy to listen to ... and easy on the eyes as well! 😍 Have a lovely day.

[@hettycrane9131]

Super helpful and informative! Thanks so very much! Love your videos, they are the best! 😍🤩🏆🏆🏆✨

[@henrikc3]

thanks for the video! Fingers crossed to be picked for a future one :)

[@elizabethbellauthor]

I do like your making the dollar sign smaller! It feels less "grabby," less "give me your money now!" and more like an offer I'd want to click on. I was also thrilled to see my novel (Necessary Sins) in your Canva dashboard. I'm waiting on tenterhooks, hoping you'll create an ad with it in a future workshop! 🤞

[@VSGThriving]

This is extremely helpful...

[@authorjessicaahoopes]

It is so easy to use the color picker right in Canva to get exact color matches.

[@DavidGaughran]

I have so many different color picker tools and wheels - I had to look outside Canva a few years ago because they didn't have those features. Now Canva has so many features I don't know half of them. But the external tools are still useful - sometimes better!

[@ReviewsbyJanice]

Loving all the tips and making notes! Thank you

[@arbrador]

So useful and even a great Canva tutorial. Thanks!

[@DavidGaughran]

We'll get more into different Canva features in future episodes - and some more Facebook tips. I hope this is a nice backdoor way of learning both Facebook and Canva.

[@katiem7142]

Loved this - picked up some great tips and love your dry humour 😊

[@tanyaewilliamsauthor]

Thanks so much for this David! Super helpful.

[@charlesbesondy-author8793]

Extremely helpful. Thank you.

[@ChrisDodds-z2b]

Do you always recommend adding the book cover to the ad? The ad I’m currently using doesn’t feature it but uses elements of it.

[@DavidGaughran]

I find that if you don't use the book cover, you often have higher CTR but far lower conversion - and I suspect that is because you get a lot of clickers who don't realize it's an ad for a book. When I use a book cover image, I usually get lower CTR but might higher conversion, which works out better. But feel free to test both yourself - just make sure that you factor in conversion.

[@ChrisDodds-z2b]

@@DavidGaughran Thank you for explaining - I will give it a try. And thanks for showing us how to create these ads. Your step-by-step video is very helpful.

[@Word_Dust]

This was amazingly helpful. Thank you!

[@KC-fg3oe]

Why not use the eyedropper function in canva to match the pink?

[@DavidGaughran]

Because I'm a dope!

[@e-care-books9867]

Super helpful.

[@TheStephanieAnnFoster]

I learned a great deal-thank you!

[@TheCourseResource]

Super helpful! Many thanks.

[@delorispackard]

great video. just wondering if you realize every time you say cover, the corresponding text says COVID.

[@jackiemorrison2706]

Thanks for this! I love Canva and look forward to trying out some of these tweaks!

[@DavidGaughran]

To submit your book for the Image Workshop treatment, sign up to my mailing list here (and get a bunch of cool freebies too!): davidgaughran.com/newsletter

[@distinctauthors9300]

Hi David, Great video. If we're already a subscriber to your newsletter is there a way to submit our cover?

[@MuzMURRAY]

NORSE QUEEN: I favour her looking inward to the book, rather than off the page.

[@DavidGaughran]

​@@distinctauthors9300 Reply to any of my newsletters with 1) Your book cover, 2) Your cover art without the lettering (ask your designer if you don't have it - should be easy for them to provide), 3) Your genre, 4) A link to Amazon

[@PanarchyInTheUK]

David, if you're advertising book one in a series would you ever mention the rest of the series? For example: Book 1 in a 6-book series. Or (and this is probably not a good idea, but anyway) show all the covers in the series, with Book 1 the focal point/largest image? I know a lot of readers want to immerse in a series and are reassured when they see that the rest of the books are already published and they don't have to wait. Speaking as someone who's just sold their entire 12 volumes to one customer on their Gumroad store, I am keenly aware of the power of the series.

[@DavidGaughran]

I don't usually mention it in the image. I often do in the ad text. In a future episode we will cover box sets and series page ads too.

[@PanarchyInTheUK]

@@DavidGaughran Fantastic!

[@stylyfred5802]

Great: how can I buy your FB services to run a campaign?

[@PianoBrianPlays]

Interesting point about the smaller dollar sign. Not sure it makes me think it's cheaper, but it certainly looks nicer. My historical cozy mystery series covers are all text-based, with a small illustration. Love to know how you'd deal with that? I'll submit one to your workshop. Cheers for the great vid!

[@SueHollowellBooks]

I agree. I also write cozy and would like to know how to deal with the text. I found on one if I zoom in and put the banner over the text in one case it works ok. But that's the case with most of my covers

[@DavidGaughran]

We'll be covering more text-based and "difficult" covers soon - either the next episode or the one right after that. But if you can get the designer to send the assets they used to generate the cover, you could find a use for them in the design... or you might have to reach for another solution, like perhaps stock photos, or creating your own background from scratch in Canva. We'll cover all of that at some point.

[@writerbyluck]

You are so helpful and always have been.

[@DavidGaughran]

LIES

[@msmariannetierney]

Nice work today David. The only thing I had issue with was the slightly rotated price sticker. It gave ‘summer student doing a half arsed job in Waterstones’ vibes. I loved the design choices you found ‘cool’ and of course the ubiquitous ‘let’s make it pop’ using complementary color. Other than that your video was very entertaining for this graphic designer. We should double up. (I could be your design whisperer?)

[@DavidGaughran]

Aha, it does indeed. I would probably walk that back before finalizing. And happy to hear from an actual designer! When I started out advertising on Facebook, I commissioned all my ad images - but that's not really practical, especially if you want to test variations etc. So I began asking my cover designers to provide "blank" graphics where I could drop in price tags and buttons. And then it was a short step from that to actually taking the cover art and trying to compose a not-terrible design from that. Thanks for tolerating my amateur stumbling. I'm sure there were plenty of eyeroll moments for any pro there, but the central idea is to take this lovingly designed book covers and really make them shine in our ads... instead of butchering all that lovely work, which happens all too frequently.

[@msmariannetierney]

@@DavidGaughran Not at all, you gave some very solid design advice that I will be implementing for my very first BookBub ad.

[@asherscott3151]

Commenting to boost engagement 👍

[@DavidGaughran]

how very dare you

[@adaddinsane]

Yeah, one of my covers is a Jeff Brown 😆

[@adaddinsane]

David, hope you see this, I'm trying to apply this to a an omnibus of novellas although it's a decent cover, it doesn't communicate the genre (murder mystery) instantly. I have created an image (rather than use the cover) for the background which is better but still a bit ambiguous. Unfortunately nor can I find any quote from reviews that tells anyone the genre while praising the book. (I have loads that say how brilliant the main character is, but that doesn't help). So, what would you recommend? My best idea right now is to just say it in the lower text - "Read the entire crime/thriller series" ('cos I also need to communicate it's a series). Aaargh.

[@DavidGaughran]

We will talk about that in the next episode, but as I quickly touched on here, it's not essential to have a genre-focused review quote, that's just my personal preference - especially when the niche isn't immediately obvious as it helps dial that in for the reader. But you can do something else too - a tagline is often great (especially if it helps square the genre), or any kind of positive review quote can work well too, or any other form of social proof (like an award, bestseller status, etc.), or a call to action as well. Some designs might not need or want a banner like that, but you have options if going that direction, even without suitable review quotes.

[@litchick89]

I'm curious, is there a reason you used an outside HTML colour picker instead of the Canva integrated picker?

[@DavidGaughran]

I find Canva's a bit funky sometimes. Maybe this is because I got used to using external tools for color picking, color matching, background removal, and then Canva (helpfully) incorporated all those things over the last few years (some in Pro, some in free), but I still often prefer the outside tools. Plus I'm trying not to use the Pro features so much so anyone can follow along on the free plan. Maybe I should play around with both tools in an upcoming episode and show some differences.

[@MuzMURRAY]

I agree with you, Dave, regarding the quotes around the review snippets. And I'm very happy to know I can see all the filters at once. But I don't understand how you get the backgrounds separate from the book titles. You show it as a given. But I can't get that. How do you do it?

[@DavidGaughran]

Simply ask your cover designer for the cover art without lettering - then upload it into Canva with your cover.

[@MuzMURRAY]

@@DavidGaughran: Ah, thanks, I see. However, I AM my cover designer. 😂 I thought you were getting hold of other people's designs.

[@harryfondren1051]

Love what you are teaching. Where do you put the URL Button> to ebook?

[@DavidGaughran]

Do you mean where do you put a CTA button on the ad, or how you link it to Amazon on Facebook?

[@nellgoddin348]

Thanks for the great Canva tips! So you are running ads to Amazon? Traffic ads?

[@DavidGaughran]

I generally run Traffic ads to Amazon but not always.

[@cathbilson]

Thank you so much, David! One question - would you recommend using a book mockup like one of the ones in Bookbrush or at diybookcovers, to make it more obvious that the ad is a 'book' rather than anything else?

[@DavidGaughran]

Plan to cover that in the next episode - I used to use those a lot, but not as much these days, but I do still do it occasionally.

[@vickynewham5545]

Would you still add the price if the book is in KU (so: free)?

[@debzeb6899]

I'm not in KU, I but books. They are not free.

[@DavidGaughran]

Absolutely - you will be targeting lots and lots of readers who don't use KU. There's no KU targeting option on Facebook and I strongly doubt there ever will be, so this is still valuable to include.

[@fionawebster1983]

Thanks David. 🥰💞💓💗💖💝💘💙💚💛🧡❤❤‍🩹❤‍🔥❣

[@egyptianmetaphysics9890]

Hey Dave great video, where is the link to the colour picker tools you mentioned?

[@DavidGaughran]

Check the description for any links I mentioned (several of them are on that 12 Free Design tools post on my site linked to above)

[@jeangrant5956]

Do you always use the book cover as the background? What if you have additional artwork that goes with it that can be the background?

[@DavidGaughran]

Covering alternative backgrounds in the next episode!

[@treilly4220]

Thanks for this. Very helpful.

[@Cujo80]

Are we allowed to use quotes from our reviews without the author of the reviews permission? Or is it considered public use?

[@DavidGaughran]

I think it's fair game once it is out there publicly. Although if I was going to start plastering someone's name everywhere, rather than a couple of their words, I'd probably message them first.

[@anitafonte4679]

Thank you so much for this video. I have a nonfiction self help book and would love to see an ad featuring nonfiction books. I’m in the how-to and guide. I’m a subscriber how can I add my book to your image workshop?

[@DavidGaughran]

Doing some non fiction in the next episode as we focus on finessing backgrounds more, as they often present a different design challenge

[@DavidGaughran]

Oh and to submit your book, reply to any of my newsletters with 1) a high-res version of your book cover, 2) the cover art without lettering and, 3) the genre/link

[@LFGabel]

Nice stuff, David! I've never used Canva, but looking at the layers list it appears that you could drag the layer order visually. Can someone confirm?

[@DavidGaughran]

You can indeed! I... did not know that lol.

[@LFGabel]

@@DavidGaughran 👍 Glad it worked! Regarding making the currency sign smaller, depending on how granular they typography controls are in Canva, you might be able to change the font size and baseline height just by highlighting the currency sign. Might save some time.

[@DavidGaughran]

@@LFGabel Yeah you can do that, but I often find it a little quicker just grabbing the corner of the box and judging it by eye.

[@andrewwarren3849]

Very cool, thanks for tackling Talon the Slayer! Quick question... Do you always put the price in the ad?

[@DavidGaughran]

Always if it's cheap or free, if it's higher priced I test with and without - but always factor in conversion

[@dougbarnes5739]

I have a cover for one of my books but it has text on it. I can't get a version without text. Any suggestions on how to create an ad in this case?

[@DavidGaughran]

Did a designer make it for you? If so, they should be able to provide the cover without text quite easily. If that's not an option, you must get creative. You might notice that in some of these designs, I could have easily used the actual cover as the background as well, as I've zoomed in on the part without any text - that's option #1, and one I've used quite a bit in these situations. Option #2 is to use something else for your background, like a block of colour, perhaps with a design or a pattern to break it up, or a stock photo. We'll be covering that in future episodes because not all cover designs lend themselves to being good backgrounds anyway!

[@dougbarnes5739]

@@DavidGaughran Thanks. The cover in question was done by a designer in 2018 and I don't remember who I hired. I'll keep an eye out for your future episodes for ideas.

[@juliahuni-author]

The tiny dollar sign didn’t do anything for me. That Cooler tool is awesome.

[@DavidGaughran]

@@juliahuni-author Take that back! #TeamTiny

[@juliahuni-author]

@@DavidGaughran 😂😂😄😄

[@levijacobs2084]

Hello algorithm, this is a positive comment

[@DavidGaughran]

*bleeps in code*