by Penny Sansevieri
Amazon ads are a very popular go-to for the majority of authors and we know it’s a big revenue driver for Amazon. But do Amazon ads make money for authors? In some cases, yes, but sadly the majority of authors aren’t using the platform in a way that benefits them.
And despite the popularity of Amazon ads, many authors find themselves struggling to see results.
One of the biggest problems with Amazon ads that authors fail to remember is that you can’t just run an ad and hope that someone will trust you enough to want to click it. And I’m not speaking of “trust” in the sense of phishing or that sort of thing – I mean trust in a sense that they know, intuitively, that your books bring value. This is particularly difficult if you’re a new author.
The other element that authors forget is the critical importance of their cover. The cover needs to stand out to fit in, and if you’ve been running ads without a lot of clicks, this is probably why.
1) Your Book Cover
So let’s just start with the obvious. Your cover has to entice, excite, and invite readers to want to know more. Your cover also needs to fit into the genre, while also standing out among the thousands of other books competing for the consumer’s time.
I find that lots of authors struggle with this and I get it, as an author I know that cover creation isn’t always easy. In fact sometimes it’s downright hard. The issue that a lot of authors face is they fall in love with a cover that may not exactly work for their reader.
There’s an analogy I love to use and it’s this: As a fisherman, the bait doesn’t have to taste good to you, just to the fish. In other words, when it comes to your cover, the only opinion that matters is that of your reader.
If you’re iffy on your cover, or you’ve had that “sinking feeling” that it might not be exactly right for your market, this is your sign to pause your ads and consider a redo.
2) Incorrect Keywords
The foundation of any successful Amazon ad campaign lies in selecting the right keywords. Too often, authors fall into the trap of using irrelevant or overly broad keywords that fail to target their ideal audience effectively.
Amazon’s algorithm heavily relies on keyword relevance, so choosing the wrong ones can severely impact your ad’s performance.
3) Low Bids
While it might be tempting to set low bids to save money, doing so can significantly hinder your ad’s visibility. Amazon suggests bid amounts based on competition and keyword relevance. Ignoring these suggestions and underbidding may result in your ads being overlooked in favor of higher bidding competitors.
Now I’m not suggesting that you blow your entire marketing budget on ads, not at all – but smart bid strategies are key and while it’s popular to think you can “outsmart” the Amazon system, it rarely works. Also, if budget is a concern (and when isn’t it) it might be a good idea to set a monthly budget cap.
4) Inadequate Daily Budget
Effective advertising requires sufficient investment, and Amazon ads are no exception. Yes, I’m a big fan of budget caps as I mentioned previously, but many authors underestimate the amount of budget needed to see meaningful results.
Setting too low a daily budget limits the reach of your ads and reduces their effectiveness in reaching potential readers.
5) Relying on Automatic Amazon Ads Only
Amazon’s Automatic Ads are easy, one and done and boom, your ad campaign is running. But auto ads have to be watched very carefully because they can spend and spend and spend, with very little return. This often tethers to whether the book is optimized correctly (see my point below). So while I love automatic ads – don’t rely on them exclusively.
6) Poor Book Optimization
Your book’s success on Amazon is not solely determined by your ad campaign. It’s also influenced by how well your book is optimized.
This includes everything from selecting the right categories and keywords to crafting compelling titles and descriptions. Failure to optimize your book properly can impact its visibility. That will ultimately undermine the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.
7) Misaligned Targeting
Targeting the wrong audience can be detrimental to your ad’s performance. Showing your book to readers who have little interest in your genre or topic will result in wasted impressions and minimal conversions.
It’s essential to refine your targeting parameters to ensure your ads reach the most relevant audience for maximum impact.
8) Ignoring the Value of Negative Keywords
The method I teach authors, when I’m taking them through their Amazon ads is to focus on narrowing the lane. You don’t want to show up for everything. You want your ad to only show up for the readers who will be interested in your book. This means paying attention to where you don’t want to be.
Negative keywords, and adding them consistently, can really help you narrow the lane and get in front of the exact right readers. By adding keywords and negative keywords each time you check on your ads, you’re really helping to teach Amazon where your book belongs.
The other reason why this is so important is because if Amazon shows your ad too many times without readers clicking and buying, your ads will cost you more and Amazon may stop presenting your ads altogether. Which can be disastrous for any ad campaign.
An example of negative keywords might be adding in the words “sweet romance” if you’ve written a sexy romance. Or even adding in the keywords: “free kindle book”. That way you make sure your book doesn’t show up with any of those recommendations – because someone looking for a free book likely isn’t going to buy one.
How to Navigate the World of Amazon Ads
Navigating the world of Amazon ads requires a strategic approach and attention to detail. By avoiding common pitfalls such as incorrect keywords, low bids, inadequate budgets, bad covers, poor book optimization, and misaligned targeting, you can enhance the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and improve your chances of success on the platform.
by Penny Sansevieri (@bookgal) June 23, 2024
What about you, scriveners? Have you ventured into the world of Amazon advertising? How well did it work for you? Did you get a good ROI? Have people told you your covers no longer work, or are wrong for your genre? How much do Amazon ads influence you as a reader?
About Penny Sansevieri
Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a bestselling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU. She was named one of the top influencers of 2019 by New York Metropolitan Magazine. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Amazon Optimization programs as well as Social Media/Internet book marketing campaigns.
AME has had dozens of books on top bestseller lists, including those of The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal.
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When I have had (admittedly fleeting) success with Amazon ads, I have used product targeting rather than keyword targeting. I know what other novelists my fans read, so I have targeted those for similar readers. Unfortunately, what works one month rarely seems to work for long. Amazon ads are frustrating, that’s for sure.
Definitely been giving some seriously thought about advertising through Amazon (took a baby step by getting A+ photos for my latest book), and I will definitely bookmark this post as it seems to offer some sage advice about Amazon marketing.
I’ve never run one but I can see how it would be easy to waste money on them if you’re doing just a couple things wrong.
Well but the thing is, it’s hard to get Amazon to spend your money – so there’s that. I mean, Amazon *will* spend your ad dollars, but it’s not easy, so if you keep an eye on your ads – you should be OK! But be cautious of automatic ads, but those can eat up your budget quickly. Though a good way to prevent that is to do a budget cap on your ads – good luck!
Can Penny clarify or go into more detail about the term “negative keywords?” I am a digital dolt, so I’m confused about what she is getting at, or how negative keywords work, or how they are supposed to work, or how they are supposed to make the Amazon ad not work. Thanks!
I have the same questions.
Sally hi – So negative keywords help you to *not* show up for books and phrases that won’t secure a sale. So for example, I used the term “free” in all of the keywords I run for my authors – because I don’t want a book showing up for freebie seekers. Similarly, you may not want your dark, thriller, mystery to show up under “cozy mystery” so you’d add that term to your negative keyword set. Make sense?
Oy. It’s a tangled web we weave. Thanks for another fine post.
So negative keywords….are things that do not apply to your book and you want Amazing NOT to use them? I confess, I am confused. Thanks
I tried using Amazon ads when I brought out the POD edition of my book “The Joy of Being Retired (365 Reasons Why Retirement Rocks – and Work Sucks). I ended up selling 690 copies using the ads which gave me a profit of $3.01 CAN a book. I sold another 1,180 copies of the POD edition organically and made a profit of $8.68 CAN per book. Then I also had a offset print edition that sold 1,047 copies. So to date I have sold 2,917 copies but only 690 copies using Amazon ads.
Having said that, my “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free” was self-published in 2004 and has now sold over 465,000 copies in all editions due to the over 75 unique marketing techniques I have come with. The book still sells over 10,000 copies a year. But time is running out to reach the declaration that I would sell over 500,000 copies of this book. (I just turned 75 years old.) I have been thinking of trying to use Amazon Ads but at the same time I am almost thinking it will be much more profitable to come up with some more unique marketing techniques that the vast majority of authors and so-called book marketing experts are not creative to come up with.
I am somewhat curious about a book called “101 Fun Things to Do in Retirement” that my “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free” outsold on Amazon for years. Now this book is outselling my book at a ratio of 3:1. I was wondering if this is due to the author using Amazon ads. Or is it due to the fact that this book now is in these odd categories and shows up high in the rankings.
My question: Is there some way to find out if certain books are doing well on Amazon because of Amazon ads?
There is not, unfortunately – that’s a very closely guarded Amazon secret.
I haven’t used Amazon ads in a while. This is helpful, Penny. Thank you!
Yes, that’s exactly right – see my comment above. These are keywords to help prevent Amazon from showing your book to readers who won’t buy it, or are looking for freebies.
Hey G.B. – sothe thing about Amazon ads that’s definitly worth mentioning is that Amazon really wants to compete with Google – so much so that Amazon is testing putting their ads in Google search. So it’s worth getting your feet wet with these now, because they’re only going to grow!
I just began an Amazon Sponsored Products ad campaign on both the U.S. and U.K. marketplaces, and it hasn’t helped much. But for any advertising to work, repetition is essential, so there’s no end date on mine. Amazon’s instructions are terribly complex, so I wonder if I understood everything correctly and made the right choices during setup. I wish I could afford to hire a pro like Penny to just do the marketing for me. Thanks for all this good advice.