Let’s talk about Amazon ads. I see a lot of mixed information on the dos
and don’ts of running ads on Amazon.
More often than anything I see people saying they haven’t had much luck with
the ads. In my research I found that most
of the people who haven’t done well with ads attribute that performance to the
fact that they don’t understand how the Amazon algorithm works. Well, that makes two of us. However, I’ve still managed to get the ads to
work for me—at least a little bit. Okay,
maybe my success depends on the angle you’re looking at it.
For anyone who doesn’t know what Amazon ads are, it’s
basically a pay per click promotional tool offered by Amazon. On your ads dashboard, you can monitor your
ads exposure, it’s spending, and how many people are actually clicking on your
ads. Whether or not your ad is displayed
is set up in an auction kind of arena. You
can set your bid limit per keyword (words that potential buyers use to search
for a product). You can populate
keywords automatically, but I would recommend researching the best keywords for
your product (500-2000 keywords works best in my experience.) If you have a higher bid for that keyword,
your book/product will be displayed at the top of the page to the potential
buyer. You are only charged for your bid
if the potential buyer clicks on your ad.
Simple, right? The only downside is,
the click you just paid for does not guarantee a sale. That’s where this turns into a gamble. Amazon ads are an extremely useful tool to an
independent author, but the key is knowing how to use it, and having the time
to keep an eye on them.
My first attempt at running Amazon ads wasn’t a complete
failure, but it was a near miss. I
didn’t know what I was doing. I assumed
I could add my book link, enter my search keywords, use the recommended bid
amounts, and viola—I just sit back for the next month and let the sales roll in! Nope.
That’s just a good way to throw $50 at Amazon. Sure, I had a couple sales, and a lot of page
reads to show for it, but the margins were completely wrecked.
Let’s cut straight to this—most likely, you are going to spend
more money on clicks that do not result in sales than you are ones that do. Make sure you account for non-sale clicks when
you set your bid budgets. This can be
tricky, but if you know how to budget your bills at home, you can figure this
out too. If you’re having trouble
budgeting bills at home—erm, I really don’t know if I can help you with
that.
In order to soften your budget and not let the bidding-train run
away with you, I recommend checking in on the ad’s performance at least two to
three times per day. You need to keep a
running log of which keywords are preforming (making sales) and which ones are
just making clicks (no sales). The ones
that don’t bring about sales, I would suggest cutting the bid amount back, if
not removing the keyword all together. (Don’t
be too hasty on deleting keywords, because a keyword that doesn’t work one week,
may deliver results the next week.) When
it comes to the keywords that make sales—you got it, focus your budget more toward
them. There are also negative keywords—if
your book is and slow burn romance with a character named, Cook, you might put “Cook
Books” as a negative keyword so as not attract the wrong buyers. That might be a poor example, but I think you
get the idea. Negative keywords are
essential to making sure the algorithm works for you. For instance, besides Amazon ads, amazon will
periodically recommend products/books to suited customers.
On the Amazon’s Ad Dashboard, you will find a page which
displays each keywords performance—how many clicks it’s had, how much money you’ve
spent on it, and how many sales it has resulted in. With this tool it isn’t a difficult thing to learn,
it’s just time consuming, and unfortunately costs a few bucks in the beginning
to find your groove. There are so many people
searching for books/products on Amazon each day, and each of them are looking
for something different, and each of them are using different keywords.
I would like
to share more about my experiences with Amazon ads, and other promotional tools
as well, so look for those posts in the future.
For now, here is just a short punch list that may help on your own advertising
journey:
·
First and foremost: Make your book/product page is spotless! Once you get a potential buyer to click on
your ad, all the work you put into your ads goes out the window, and your
book/product needs to speak for itself.
Make your pitch something that will grab the buyer’s attention, and sway
them to click that order button. Revise
your product description—check for grammar, spelling, anything that might look unprofessional. If your page looks unprofessional, or sloppy,
a potential buyer may assume the book/product will be the same. Ask for feedback, not only from friends and
family, but, if possible, from your peers as well.
·
Make sure your cover is the best it can be. Does it attract attention? Does it stand out on a shelf surrounded by
five to ten other books? Is it a clear
image that can be made out if it is shrunk to 1 inch wide by 2 inches
tall? Because that is how your ad is
going to be displayed. Your cover will
most likely be the focal attention grabber to potential buyers. Make it pop!
·
Research a list of keywords suited to your
book/product. Remember, when making this
list, stick to the basics at first. See
what works, then add and remove as needed.
There is a learning curve, but I know you can sort it out. Also, just because Amazon recommends a keyword,
that doesn’t mean it’s suited for you.
If Amazon recommends an author’s name who they believe writes similar
books as yours, research that author and make sure. The last thing a horror writer needs is to have
their ads being displayed to buyers looking for uplifting spiritual writers. Make sense?
·
Determine your bid amounts and be sure not to
use your entire profit/royalty from a sale to make the sale. It’s easy to find out how much you stand to
make from each sale. If it’s only $1.05,
you shouldn’t place a bid for $2.
Furthermore, set your daily budget to something that fits your lifestyle
budget. Set it to something that won’t put
a huge dent in your bank account at first, and slowly raise it if you feel you
can. If you can afford $20/day in ads,
more power to you! But you must set
spending limits, or the bidding-train will run away with your credit card.
·
CHECK YOUR ADS DAILY! I can not stress this enough. Set aside 15-20 minutes at least twice per
day to check on how your ads are performing.
It won’t take the full 15-20 minutes most days, but don’t get in a hurry
either. Make sure you study the performance
and make changes as necessary.
·
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see any sales
in the first week. It takes time for
Amazon to do their thing. Be
patient.
·
Finally, don’t fall into the bidding trap. You may get to the point where you see a
keyword preforming well enough that you want to max out your bid in an attempt
to lure in a buyer. You might even justify
this by telling yourself that it is a small price to pay to get the sale and the
result will increase your Amazon Sales Rank.
Or maybe the sale will result in a review that will also draw mor
attention. In my experience, this is a trap,
and it doesn’t work. Remind yourself
that you are already gambling enough with the ads, there’s no need to double
down on the ads. It’s only going to result
in discouragement and regret. If you
have extra cash to spend on promotion, double down with an independent book
promotion site. These don’t always
result in consistent sales, but they are great for exposure which is what the
trap is selling anyway.
