Overview
Having been immersed in digital marketing from the very outset, I am still motivated and excited by the opportunities that it represents for all projects, large and small. With many years of experience in lots of different sectors, I aim to combine that knowhow and expertise to support SMEs in other fields, and artists, writers, publishers and others in the book sector.
It is my belief that digital marketing is easy to do, but not easy to do well. A bit like most things: including writing (I have never written a book!).
But when done well it can be a very powerful thing and it doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive. Success always begins with small victories, insights that can be scaled and the creativity to identify opportunities that we may not have imagined at outset.
In advertising I am technically very proficient and can navigate around the ad platforms' "AI" powered features - which are otherwise sometimes designed to maximise returns for the platform. We apply robust marketing principles too, to ensure the impact of ad campaigns is maximised and make use of detailed insights to keep driving those campaign strategies.
I work across all the main digital channels, such as Google, YouTube, Meta, and so on, but also can propose and manage DOOH, Streaming Audio, Amazon Ads and even TV where the objectives allow.
Love testing too. So whether we're planning and scheduling organic social media content, or potentially other web-based content - or if we're testing variations in ads to different groups of readers - I aim to make sure the insights are actionable and shared across other activity. I love spotting the unusual or unexpected, and that's sometimes where great nuggets of real-world value lie.
Services
Non-Fiction
Fiction
Certifications
- MiniMBA in Marketing
Work experience
Self-employed
Projects
The Cundill History Prize
Reaching across the US, Canada and UK we have supported the planning and delivery of ad campaigns to promote the Cundill History Prize, organised by McGill University in Canada, helping extend the reach and awareness of the candidates, shortlisted titles and authors, and then winning titles .
Primarily across paid social channels in collaboration with the Prize's UK based PR team, but also at times reaching across targeted display and search activity too.
With limited budget spread across three large territories (US, CA and UK), we agreed to focus on very specific audience targeting, and weight spend according to the size of those audiences, reaching primarily students, academics and those with keen interests in historical non-fiction content.
The Campaign delivered successful shortlist announcements, video content featuring the panel of judges, and winner announcement to help promote the book and author's profile in relation to the prize. Images and Video provided my the PR agency.
Seven Rules of Trust - Jimmy Wales
Campaign to support the promotion of Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales' Seven Rules of Trust in 2025. The brief was from the Australian publisher, with the aim of promoting sales at three specific retailers: Dymocks, Booktopia and QBD.
We were briefed to use Google Display Ads and YouTube, and were able to define audiences of Business and Tech people by utilising the custom audience and segments available, based on search history and recent content behaviour, and deliver the ads on high-quality / mainstream web content only to eliminate the more wasteful ad placements across mobile apps and unrelated web content.
The Publisher (Bloomsbury) reported good results and being pleased with the performance, although specific sales numbers are rarely shared. Publisher provided the visual assets.
Yellowface
We supported the UK publisher (HarperCollins) over an extended period, from HB pre-order to PB publication through price promotions and special editions, providing campaign planning and optimisation throughout in order to maximise the commercial success of the biggest book of 2023 (and into 2024!)
Activity primarily ran across Meta ads, but included tests and tactical campaigns across Pinterest, TikTok and other ad channels from time to time as we sought to increase the incremental reach of the campaign activity and further adapt it for seasonal moments like Mother's Day gifting, Summer Reading and similar moments throughout the year.
Striking brand visuals proved to be a valuable asset, and with the extent of it's success we were able to test and experiment with different styles of messaging, such as critic and reader reviews, animations and different ad formats, to attract different groups of reader over the whole period.
Thunderpaws
Promotional activity for a self-published independent author seeking to build community and begin to build a following for their first book in an anticipated short series.
We planned and delivered advertising in UK, US and Japan albeit all in English language, promoting book sales as well as some related merchandise.
During an initial brief to simply "start to build an audience" and with no strong expectation to drive positive return, our optimisation and early stage rationalisation of campaign activity delivered a campaign that through later extensive analysis of direct sales, ebook, audio and physical sales through Amazon, we could demonstrate a positive ROI on ad spend.
We also managed to generate insights that would help with future strategy and campaign management
- 15% of sales were tracked through regular click tracking
- 85% of sales derived from untracked or post-impression behaviour
- Although ads directed to author's own website, around 50% of sales occurred on Amazon (being the user's search engine of choice for books)
Detailed case study available for review
Jeffrey Archer - End Game
Briefed by the Publisher (HarperCollins) and working closely with the marketing team to deliver paid advertising campaigns that stretched from cover reveal, awareness building through the summer, pre-order activities and then post-pub sales activity.
Included many different promotional strands to reflect price discounting by primary retailers, and special editions available at specific retailers. Activity spanned 4-6 months in total, varying in intensity throughout to suit the sales period and offers at the time, always being managed fluidly to respond to sales momentum.
End Game was published as HB in 2025, and followed the PB release of 2024's An Eye For An Eye which I also supported with ad planning and optimisation across Meta, allowing us to build on engagement from those earlier campaigns while also identifying new audiences and balancing reach and response objectives to drive sales.
Throughout the campaign - and for the last few years - we have come to recognise how the regular and predictable patterns of pricing by retailers has affected the purchasing behaviour of avid readers, and activity is often increased once price promotions are available. More specific audiences are attracted to the special edition HBs and we have developed repeatable tactics to capitalise on these among an author's strong and avid readership.
Visual assets provided by the publisher, copy drafted and edited between publisher and us, and then targeting, planning and campaign management done by me.
