AMS Ads Lessons Learned Response
Fellow author and friend Scott Rhine and I have been discussing Amazon Marketing (AMS) ads of late. Just this week, he posted about his experiences the first week using Amazon’s cost-per-click advertising system, commonly shortened to AMS CPC ads or some variation. I thought I’d continue the conversation, this time with our friends. I’ve been using AMS ads for a few years now and am currently taking Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ads course, which I highly recommend. All of these experiences have been extremely helpful and I’ve learned a lot, so just to forwarn you, this response post may get a bit technical.
If seeing behind the author’s veil and analyzing data, ROI, percentages and net profits are your cup of tea, read on! (Just beware the acronyms.)
If not, I certainly understand. It isn’t for everyone. Thank you for stopping by though. I appreciate it.
Continuing on… If you haven’t read Scott’s analysis of AMS yet, here is a link to the post again. If you want to chime in or ask a question, feel free below. We welcome the discussion.
Scott,
Much of what you mentioned in your post is accurate from my experience, but sometimes there are other factors to consider. I’ve responded to each of your points in corresponding fashion below.
1. Don’t try this with 99 cent books, unless…
I pretty much agree with everything you said: loss of money advertising a .99 cent book, recommended bid range is too high for a positive return on investment (ROI), and there is logic to valuing your project. There are other things to consider though:
a. Is the book in Kindle Unlimited?
If so, then authors make a small percentage based on pages read. This should be considered when deciding on an ad’s success and ROI.
b. Recommended bid ranges are just that, recommendations. Explore your potential readers by adjusting the bid. Be careful though. The more you raise your cost-per-click (CPC) maximum, the more AMS will spend advertising your product. This can add up… Trust me, been there, done that. Warning: Just raising the CPC likely will not make enough in sales to cover the advertising cost. I have spent far too much money learning this myself.
But who knows? I have had sales at a CPC of .02 cents. That one click wound up selling a $4.99 e-book copy of A Life of Death. Amazon took its normal 30% off the top, leaving $3.40. Subtracting the .02 cents for advertising cost, that one click earned me $3.38. You could too. The question is, is that click and sale repeatable? And that’s the hardest part. The point of Amazon’s keyword ads is to find the right keywords that target your book’s audience.
c. What’s your point of advertising?
A lot of publishers and authors spend a great deal of money advertising books leading up to their releases and beyond. If you aren’t in it for initial profit and are trying to build your readership for that book or series, then AMS ads are a great tool to use, as are Facebook and BookBub ads.
2. Kindle Select for the Win!
Yes, Kindle Select (also used interchangeably with Kindle Unlimited, KU, KDP, or more simply Prime) is great. Honestly, you can make money advertising your books if they aren’t in KU, but there is more potential to be made from each ad if you are advertising a book that is. While KU does limit you to only selling your digital books on Amazon, I have found the difference it made to be worthwhile. It provides a very small return based on how many pages of your books are read – like tenths of a cent per page, but it adds up. KU pages read won’t repay you in the lost retail sales from free KU purchases of the book, but it should be considered when deciding whether an ad is successful, especially if it’s the first book in a series.
3. Manual Targeting
Manual targeting is where you need to make a home if you are going to settle in and learn AMS ads. Books have such small profit margins that the name of the game is finding the right keywords to reach your target audience at the lowest CPC. It’s a numbers game with keywords. That means you need to find and test them.
Automated campaigns have their place. Like I mentioned before, if it is more about long-term gain and building your audience or if the book is in a series, then they serve that purpose well. However, sometimes you can luck upon one that makes more than it spends. I have only ever encountered one of those, and eventually it died – just stopped making sales. They are kind of a phenomenon, but they do occur. You can spend a lot of money trying to find one though. I wouldn’t advise it. I periodically make an automated ad just to see though.
4. Be Patient
I agree. However, it’s worse than 24 hours of reporting inconsistencies. The KDP dashboard is reliably unreliable for the most recent 48 hours, so don’t be disheartened initially. Everyone experienced with AMS ads has dealt with this to one extent or another. Clicks and sales often appear and disappear in that time. On rare occasions, changes can occur up to a week later. That’s the longest change I’ve seen at least. As a result, you can’t rely on any numbers the KDP dashboard gives you until 48 hours later, and even then only with about a 90-95% certainty for that initial week. There are programs that can help with monitoring, like Prestozon, but at a substantial cost and they don’t fully automate the process.
In a broader sense though, you are exactly right about the initial time spent using AMS ads being an investment in knowledge. You have to learn the process… and it is a process, a long one. However, it’s worth it. Unfortunately, it won’t likely be just one week. It will probably take months before your ads are making a profit, and that’s okay. Just be aware of it going in. I view it as gambling, simply because when I gamble I automatically assume any money spent is lost – the cost of knowledge and a chance to play the game. No hope for recovery. That prevents me from spending more than I can afford. Then if I make a profit, it’s a successful ad with an added bonus. That approach may not work for others though. But with the knowledge gained from ad testing, you can refine your ads, find more keywords, and improve your sales over time.
5. Preconceptions are the First Casualty
I wouldn’t worry about updating the 7 keywords allowed on your book’s KDP page just yet. You need a lot more data.
You are right. There are many preconceptions that will be lost. Then new ones will overwrite those as you refine your process. As you mentioned, there are oddball times when a click can occur or a regrettable purchase is made for whatever reason, be it related or unrelated to the product. You need consistency. Give it one to two months. Let the ads run. You want to know not just which keywords are getting clicks, but ultimately which clicks are getting sales and which of those are reliably getting additional sales. This means it will cost more, yes, but you have to have reliable data to build new ads on. You have to start with a solid, reliable foundation. Then pick from the best keywords, most appropriate for your target audience and use those to help target your advertising. It is like farming, as you pointed out. You need to harvest the best keywords, so wait till they are ripe.
I agree wholeheartedly about applying what you learn from the ad testing to your book’s sales page. This works great for trying different opening lines in your book’s copy/description. Test different ad copies (using an opening line or hook as your ad’s text) and see which works better. Then apply the more successful one in the book’s copy/description.
6. If Amazon Won’t Spend Your Money, Change Your Ad
While slow to start, AMS will most certainly spend your money and it can spend it quickly, but it takes a bit more effort on your part. I have spent over $500 on ads in a given month. There are many authors and publishers who spend tens of thousands on AMS advertising monthly. Simply put, the major component fueling that rocket is your CPC maximum. You don’t have to spend what Amazon tells you, for better or worse. Raise that CPC to $1+ and you’ll see a lot more clicks. Now, multiply that by 100+ ads, all with similar high CPCs and lots of keywords. Amazon will spend your money much more quickly, but starting out you will likely spend far more than you make in sales or royalties, so I wouldn’t advise it.
7. Not All Clicks are Good
What you call “false clicks” I attribute to not reaching my ideal reader or not having a convincing enough book copy or cover. They tell me there is room for improvement.
8. All Hat, Lost Cattle
That happens. There will be some great keywords and ads that get tons of clicks but don’t convert to sales, or at least not enough. As part of that improvement I mentioned, I recommend trying negative exact keywords to prune high cost keywords that aren’t quite achieving profitability but are getting a lot of clicks. See if that’s enough of a snip to make the keyword profitable. Sometimes it is, but not often. As I mentioned before, this type of ad is also an indication that your book’s sales page could be improved.
9. The Long View
I agree all around. It is a marathon, not a sprint. The only problem I have is that targeted writing you mentioned when determining which book to start next. You’re right, but I can only write the stories that grip me and many times they won’t budge without a fight. If it’s a short story, that’s one thing. However, writing a book takes months if not years. That’s a lot of time spent working on an idea so it has to be something I’m passionate about. But if the best blend of both worlds comes my way, I’ll know because I’ve done the testing.
