Let's Talk About Amazon Ads...

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.