Tags
ads, advertising, Amazon Marketing Services, AMS, book marketing, Book Marketing Results, Pearseus
You may remember my recent posts on my experience advertising with Amazon Marketing Services (AMS). It turns out I’m either a slow learner or an incurable optimist since I had another go at it in April. And guess what? This time, it worked!
I followed the same strategy as with my Facebook ads, and only advertised a high-cost title – in this case, my $9.95 bundle of all my works. As you can see above, during the first few days I ran the ad, I had 126 downloads, only 3 of which were of said bundle. Because of the high value of the title, however, that accounted for the majority of my earnings in that period.
The ad cost me some a total of $13.36 and I made $30.53, so it had a pretty decent ROI of over 200%.
The main takeaway, which is worth repeating here: bundle your work and advertise it as a high-cost title. That has been the only way I’ve found so far to make ads work.
Now, if I can only scale these numbers up. Perhaps the following tips by Amazon will help.
Amazon’s Tips for KDP Authors to Improve Ad Performance
Q: How do I increase impressions to my ad campaigns?
A: Review the core components of your campaign including:
Targeting- If you are using interest groups, are there other interests you can target? If you are using product targeting, try targeting popular books and authors in your genre.
Bids- Are you bidding competitively? If your maximum bid is close to the average CPC (cost-per-click), consider increasing bids.
Pacing- Update the campaign pacing to deliver impressions as quickly as possible.
Q: I am getting a lot of impressions, but I want to increase clicks. What can I do?
A: Review your campaign from the eyes of a reader and check:
Targeting- Is the targeting relevant to the book’s genre? If not, try changing the target interest group.
Headline- Is the headline enticing and well-written? If not, try improving the ad headline with relevant book content.
Custom Teaser- Are the cover art, title, and text aligned to form a cohesive message? If not, be creative and try the custom teaser to share some insights on the book.
Q: Any additional tips you can share?
A: We see the most successful book campaigns running simultaneous Product Display campaigns to target similar books as well as interest areas. Targeting other popular related books offers the opportunity for like-minded readers to see your book, while targeting multiple interests will enable broader reach on Kindle e-readers.
Don Massenzio said:
Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog and commented:
Here is a great post on the subject of Amazon Marketing Services
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coldhandboyack said:
I’ve been hit and miss with these. My last one sold one book. I’m learning that my sales seem to be more seasonal, and “summer” isn’t my time.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s a good point. Summer seems to be everyone’s slow season. I guess people prefer the beach to staying indoors and reading…
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Illuminite Caliginosus said:
Nice tips for when I finally get around to self-publishing- thanks! Reblogged on Illuminite Caliginosus.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thank you so much for the share 🙂
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Pingback: A Third Look at AMS: Success! | Illuminite Caliginosus
Annette Rochelle Aben said:
Good stuff here, thanks for sharing and trying, just one more time!
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kimwrtr said:
Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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Pingback: Friday Roundup -20th May | Stevie Turner, Indie Author.
John Fioravanti said:
Reblogged this on Words To Captivate ~ by John Fioravanti and commented:
Thanks to Nicholas Rossis for this primer on using Amazon Marketing Services (AMS). A must read for Indie authors!
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Anecdotes said:
Good post. https://perspectiveofeyes.wordpress.com/
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks 🙂
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