Solved: Best Marketing Videos to Increase Ebook Sales?

Hi there,

Thanks for your enquiry!

I've had a look at the details and wanted to share some thoughts. It's a common problem: people create something great like an ebook and then hit a wall when it comes to actually selling it. You mentioned you've been trying AI video makers for TikTok and Instagram and they've not really worked for you. Honestly, I'm not surprised. The problem is almost never the tool you're using to make the video. It's almost always a deeper issue with the strategy, the audience, or the message itself.

It's a bit like trying to fix a car engine by changing the air freshener. The AI video maker is just the air freshener. The real work is under the bonnet. I'm happy to give you a bit of a look under there and show you what a paid ads expert would check first before even thinking about what the video should look like. A lot of this might seem a bit counterintuitive, but it's what we've seen work time and again for clients selling digital products like courses and software.

We'll need to look at your customer, not just your audience...

Right, first things first. Forget about "making marketing videos to post". That's jumping way too far ahead. The first question I'd ask a client in your position is: "Who are you actually trying to sell this to?" And if the answer is "people who like reading ebooks" or "people interested in [your ebook's topic]", we'd have to stop right there. That's not a target audience; it's a vague description of a crowd.

This is probably the biggest mistake I see people make. They define their audience with these broad, sterile demographics. You know, "women aged 25-40 who like yoga". That tells you absolutely nothing of value. It leads to generic ads that speak to no one and get scrolled past.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, expensive nightmare. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. What's the deep-seated frustration that your ebook is the perfect cure for? What keeps them up at night? What problem are they so desperate to solve that they'd actually pull out their credit card and give you money?

Let's make this real. Imagine you wrote an ebook about managing personal finances. A bad ICP is "people who want to save money". A good ICP is "a 30-year-old freelancer who is constantly terrified they won't have enough money to pay their tax bill at the end of the year and feels like a failure because all their friends with 'real jobs' are buying houses." See the difference? One is a wishy-washy desire, the other is a gut-wrenching, specific fear. Your ads, your videos, your entire message needs to speak directly to that second person. You don't sell "personal finance tips"; you sell "the confidence to never fear a surprise tax bill again."

You need to do this work first, or you have no business spending a single penny on ads. Think about who feels this pain most acutely. Where do they hang out online? What podcasts do they listen to? What influencers do they follow on TikTok or Instagram? What specific Facebook groups are they in? This isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy on Meta (Facebook & Instagram). This is how you find them.

I'd say your offer needs to be built to solve their pain...

Once you've got a crystal clear picture of your customer's nightmare, the next bit is making sure your ebook is positioned as the perfect solution. This is where your messaging comes in. A lot of the time, campaigns fail because the offer just isn't compelling enough, or it's not communicated in a way that creates urgency.

Remember, you're interrupting someone's mindless scrolling on Instagram. You have about two seconds to grab their attention. You can't do that by listing the features of your ebook. Nobody cares that it has "12 chapters" or "30 downloadable worksheets". They care about what it will *do for them*. They care about the transformation.

The best way to structure this is using a framework we call the Before-After-Bridge. It's simple but incredibly powerful.

• Before: You describe their current world. You twist the knife on that pain point we just talked about. You show them you understand their nightmare because you're describing it perfectly.
• After: You paint a picture of their dream world. What does life look like after their problem is solved? What's the feeling of relief, confidence, or success they'll experience?
• Bridge: You introduce your ebook as the simple, quick, and easy bridge to get them from their 'Before' state to their desired 'After' state.

Let's go back to our freelancer with tax anxiety. The ad copy (which you can then turn into a simple video) would sound something like this:

"(Before) That sinking feeling when you look at your bank account in January and have no idea how you're going to pay your tax bill? The constant worry that you're one bad month away from serious trouble? (After) Imagine knowing your exact tax liability, every single day. Imagine feeling complete control over your finances, free from stress, and confidently planning for your future. (Bridge) My 'Freelancer's Finance Fix' ebook is the simple bridge to get you there. In one afternoon, you'll learn the dead-simple system to automate your tax savings and never fear a deadline again."

That message is a million times more powerful than "Buy my ebook on personal finance". It sells a transformation, not a product. This message should be the foundation of any video you create. Your AI video maker couldn't come up with this because it doesn't understand your customer's pain. You do. That's your advantage.

I remember one campaign we worked on for a client selling an online course. We helped them shift their messaging from talking about the course modules to focusing on the career transformation it would provide. That campaign drove a 447% return on ad spend in just one week. It wasn't magic; it was just getting the message right for the right person.

You probably should rethink your campaign objective...

Okay, this is a big one, and it's a bit technical, but it's probably the single most costly mistake beginners make. You mentioned you want to "post on social media". I'm assuming you're either just posting organically or maybe hitting that tempting little "Boost Post" button. Both are, for your goal, a terrible idea.

Here's the uncomfortable truth about platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram). When you just "Boost Post" or run a campaign with the objective set to "Reach" or "Video Views," you are giving the algorithm a very specific, and very unhelpful, command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price who will watch this video."

The algorithm, being the ruthlessly efficient machine it is, does exactly what you asked. It seeks out the users inside your targeting who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever pull out a credit card. Why? Because those users are not in demand by other advertisers. Their attention is cheap. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product.

You MUST run a proper campaign through the Ads Manager, and you MUST select the campaign objective as Conversions, with the conversion event set to Purchase. I can't stress this enough. This tells the algorithm: "I don't care about views, I don't care about clicks. Go into my target audience and find me the specific individuals who, based on their past behaviour, are most likely to actually buy my ebook. I am willing to pay more to reach these specific people."

Yes, your cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) will be higher. Your cost per click (CPC) might be higher. But your cost per *sale* will be infinitely lower, because you're actually fishing in the right pond. Optimising for anything other than your actual business goal (a sale) is the digital equivalent of setting up a market stall in a library. You might get a lot of eyeballs, but nobody's there to buy anything. Your results will look something like the chart below. You'll get fewer "results" with a Purchase campaign, but they're the only results that actually matter.

You'll need to calculate what you can afford to spend...

Before you even launch a campaign, you need to know your numbers. The most important number is your target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), or in your case, your target Cost Per Purchase. How much can you afford to spend to sell one copy of your ebook and still make a profit?

The calculation is simple. It's your ebook's price minus any platform fees (like from Gumroad or Stripe) and then deciding what profit margin you're happy with. For digital products, the margin is high, so you have some flexibility. Let's say your ebook is £20. Fees are about 5% (£1). That leaves £19. If you want to make £9 profit per book, your maximum allowable CPA is £10. This number is your north star. It's how you judge whether an ad campaign is working or not. If your CPA is consistently below £10, you can scale up the budget. If it's consistently above £10, you need to either fix the ads/targeting or turn them off before you lose too much money.

What can you expect? The truth is, it varies wildly. For a client selling software signups, we've seen costs as low as £2. For another B2B client, we saw CPLs of $22. For an ecommerce store, the cost per purchase can range from £10 to £75 depending on the product price. For a low-priced ebook, you'd want to be at the very low end of that scale. You'll only know by testing, but going in with a target CPA is absolutley essential.

So, what should your ads actually look like...?

Right, now that we've sorted out the audience, the message, the campaign objective, and the budget, we can *finally* talk about the video creative. See how it's the last piece of the puzzle, not the first? When you have a solid foundation, the creative becomes much, much easier.

You don't need an AI video maker. You don't need a fancy production. On platforms like TikTok and Instagram, ads that look too polished often perform worse because they scream "AD!". Native, authentic-looking content usually works best.

Here are a few simple, effective video ideas you can make with just your phone:

1. The "Talking Head" Video: This is just you, talking to the camera. Use the Before-After-Bridge script we worked on earlier. Speak with passion and empathy about the problem. Look directly into the lens. Be a real person, not a corporate spokesperson. This builds trust like nothing else.
2. The "Screen Record" Teaser: Open your ebook on your computer. Record your screen as you scroll through the most valuable, impactful page. Maybe it's a key checklist, a mind-blowing statistic, or a crucial template. Talk over it, explaining why this specific piece of information is so powerful and how it solves the customer's problem. You're giving them a taste of the value inside.
3. The "Text on Screen" Story: Find a simple video editing app on your phone (like CapCut). Film a simple, visually interesting clip (e.g., you typing, you drinking coffee, a time-lapse of the sky). Then, lay text over it, one sentence at a time, that tells the Before-After-Bridge story. Add some trending, non-copyrighted music. These are super popular on TikTok and Reels and are very easy to make.

The key for all of these is to grab attention in the first 2 seconds (the 'hook'), deliver the core message quickly, and have a clear Call to Action (CTA) at the end, like "Tap the link to get the ebook and solve [problem] today."

We've run campaigns for clients that have generated over £100k in revenue from simple, authentic videos. One client in the elearning space generated over $115k in course sales in just a month and a half. The ads weren't Hollywood productions; they just spoke directly to the student's problem in an authentic way. The tool is irrelevant. The message and the strategy are everything.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot to take in, and it's a compleatly different way of thinking than just "how do I make a video?". But this is how professional campaigns are built. I've put the key steps into a table for you to see it all in one place.

As you can see, there's a fair bit to it. Getting all these peices to work together—the right audience, the right message, the right technical setup, and the right creative—is what separates campaigns that make money from those that lose it. It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's a process of strategic thinking, testing, and optimisation.

This is where professional help can make a huge difference. An expert can help you nail down your strategy, avoid the common costly mistakes, and get you on the path to profitability much faster than you could on your own. We do this day in, day out for our clients, from software companies to ecommerce stores.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can look at what you've done so far and give you some more tailored advice. It might be exactly what you need to get things moving.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh