The Empty Bowl by Rikki West is a powerful memoir about a lifelong search for truth, faith, and self—only to find answers in the most unexpected place. We were thrilled to team up with the author and Mamie Sanders, the founder and consultant of MVL Marketing, to help promote this unforgettable book. It’s truly a testament to the idea that it’s never too late to embrace your authentic self.
West’s journey is one of faith, identity, and resilience. Growing up with an alcoholic father, she searches for meaning through religion, psychedelics, and spirituality. As a lesbian single mom, she builds a career in Silicon Valley—only to lose it all in the dot-com crash. But when she finally lets go of everything she thought she knew about life, she discovers the answer she’s been seeking all along. Dr. Richard S. Marken, author of Controlling People: The Paradoxical Nature of Being Human, calls it “a brilliant and brave memoir about facing emptiness. The prose is intelligent, taut, and disarmingly honest while the nuanced reflections are Proustian. A wild ride to satisfaction.”
The campaign featured banner and native ads (created by us!) and targeted Buddhist readers, as well as readers of progressive nonfiction, self-help, and spirituality books. We also reached audiences interested in philosophy, holistic health, spirituality, self-reflection, LGBTQ+ media, self-help podcasts, and addiction recovery resources. Comp authors included other inspiring writers like Tara Westover, Brené Brown, Paul Kalanithi, Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga, and the Dalai Lama. Keywords included terms and phrases like books for trauma survivors, spiritual reads, LGBTQ+ memoir, and sobriety and spirituality.
The campaign outperformed the native / banner benchmark by nearly 4x, achieving a 0.66% CTR! Top-performing demos and traits included LGBTQ+ allies & activists who are nonfiction book buyers (4.30% CTR!!), our AdBiblio proprietary genre read-alikes (1.70% CTR), personal development influencers and followers who read nonfiction books (0.73% CTR), and nonfiction readers interested in holistic health (0.66% CTR). The ads ran on top tier sites including SELF, The Atlantic, BBC, The New York Times, The Cut, Parade, and Vanity Fair.
If you’re looking for a diverse memoir that will inspire and enlighten, The Empty Bowl is a must-read! Grab your copy here. And when you’re ready for your next campaign, you know where to find me—marybeth@adbiblio.com.
You said:
