Web ads. Ugh. Flashy, annoying pop-ups and distracting sidebars; exhortations for products you don’t really care about; “targeted” pitches for lard clarifiers and chimney collars and one weird trick that will extend your life indefinitely in exchange for your first-born child. We all kind of hate online advertising, and yet internet ad revenues have reached $11.6 billion in the first quarter of 2014, according to one report. Eleven billion dollars. Eleven. Billion. So I guess someone must be clicking on them, right?

With the launch of Dark the Night Descending, I wanted to see if maybe I could expand my audience beyond the current reach of my small (read: tiny) social media presence. I chose three different publicity methods: Facebook newsfeed ads, Goodread sidebar ads, and a Goodreads book giveway. I’m here to report on my results and answer that burning question: is it worth paying for advertisements?…