Amazon Ads: Taking the Leap

By Melissa Maygrove

Have you ever put off doing something because of fear then, when you finally got the nerve to give it a try, you wished you’d done it sooner?

That was me and Amazon ads. I thought it would be complicated—and paying per-click without guaranteed sales was downright terrifying—so I put it off. Talk about regret... I wasted a lot of years not making nearly the money I could have.

Let me pause to give some caveats.

1. I’ve been running Amazon ads for a few years, but I am by no means an expert. The purpose of this article is to encourage you to try it and offer some basic instructions for setting one up.

2. Ads don’t work the same for everyone. There are a lot of variables. But they are worth trying, and they’re surprisingly $afe, so long as you set reasonable bids, daily limits, and keep an eye on your ad dashboard.

3. I’m located in the United States, so I’m writing from that perspective.

Some things to consider before setting up Amazon ads:

• Does your book have a professional cover and an enticing blurb? You’ll pay for ad clicks whether the customer buys the book or not, so you want the elements of the retail page to shine and entice them to buy.

• How long ago was your book published and how many reviews does it have? If it’s a new release, Amazon won’t have much to go on if you choose to auto-target. It’s probably best to run one or more manual-target ads first, so Amazon can gather data.

• Is the book first in a series? If so, you’ll get more bang for your advertising buck in the way of read-through if each book’s back matter links to the next book.

Things I wish I’d figured out sooner:

• For ads run in the US (.com), you can add a short bit of custom text to entice the customer to click on the ad. Below are two of mine.

• I wish I’d run ads in other English-speaking countries sooner (UK, Canada, Australia). I recently began getting organic sales in Germany. Since Germans are voracious readers, and many speak English, I decided to run an ad there. (At the time of the writing of this article, it’s too soon to know if it will be profitable.)

• I wish I’d run ads for the paperback version of my books. Just because I buy mostly e-books doesn’t mean everyone shops that way. I heard a best-selling author say he always attaches both the e-book and paperback versions of his books to his ads. I tried that, and my paperback sales began to increase.

How to set up ads:

There are many ad gurus out there to choose from. I found this video by the Kindlepreneur guy that gives good, step-by-step instructions for setting up ads. If you’re uber-visual, like me, you’ll love it.



Final thoughts:

It takes time for Amazon to gather data on a new ad and for that ad to start showing impressions. Don’t give up too soon. I let mine run for a month or so before deciding if it’s going to be a profitable ad.

You don’t have to set your bids high or at the amount Amazon suggests. Start low. You can go back and increase them later.

If you forget to add the paperback version of the book, you can edit the ad to include it without starting a new ad. (This was one of the reasons I put it off; I thought I’d have to create all new ads. LOL)

If Amazon has an event with greatly increased site traffic (e.g. Cyber Monday), or if you run a sale on a book attached to an ad, it can affect the number of clicks and thus your cost. Keep a closer eye on your dashboard during these times.

Most of all, don’t be afraid to try Amazon ads. You set the daily limit on ad spending (which Amazon almost never reaches), and you can adjust that limit anytime you wish. You can also turn an ad off immediately with the flip of a cyber switch.

You are in control.

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Native Texan Melissa Maygrove is a mother, nurse, freelance editor, and romance author. When she's not busy caring for her tiny NICU patients, she's hunched over her laptop, complicating the lives of her imaginary friends and playing matchmaker. Melissa loves books with unpretentious characters and unforgettable romance, and she strives to create those same kinds of stories for her readers.

You can find Melissa here: website and blog.