Essential Factors to Achieve Success With Amazon Advertisements for Books

Essential Factors to Achieve Success With Amazon Advertisements for Books

Hopping on the Amazon Ads Bandwagon: A Guide

Sure, you're eyeing Amazon ads to flog your books. Well, let's dive in, mate! The Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) ads platform is now at your fingertips, whether you're enrolled in Kindle Select or not. But before you start splurging cash like a pro, here are ten crucial aspects to master:

1. Climbing the Learning Curve: Prepare to put in some graft to reap the rewards of your Amazon ads. Understanding how the AMS platform works, identifying the right keywords, setting the appropriate bids, and monitoring results demand both time and money. To get up to speed, check out this free 5-day course: [link]
2. Campaign Basics: Each ad (or campaign) only allows books you've published on your Amazon account. If you haven't signed up for an Amazon Advantage account, chances are, you're not eligible just yet. Amazon occasionally opens these accounts to published authors.
3. Budgeting: Start small, with a daily budget of $5 (often not even spent). Create a naming system (e.g., "Book 1 XX keyword list ZZ bid YY") for your campaigns. This helps you keep track of each campaign's attributes when you revisit its performance.
4. Caution: Affordability: Only spend what you can truly afford. It may take up to 90 days to collect payments from Amazon based on sales and borrows generated from your ads. And, it might take anywhere from a few days to a week to see sales generated for the previous period in your ads dashboard. So, be patient, this ain't a quick-fix system!
5. Know the Numbers: Awareness of your royalty rates (70% if you're an individual, or 35% for self-published authors) is essential. You'll also want to acquaint yourself with the current KENP rate (almost $0.0046 per KENP Page), which is the KDP Select per-page read royalty.
6. ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sales): To maintain profitability, your ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sales) must typically be below 70%. But, if you have several books in a series and they tend to sell due to readers liking the first one they purchased, an ACOS above 150% may be acceptable, as long as half your readers read the entire series. If you're in the KDP Select program, your Select Royalties will then serve as your profit on the ad spend.
7. CPC (Cost Per Click): Be mindful of your CPC (Cost Per Click), as a low CPC means it costs you $0.25 each time someone clicks your ad and gets redirected to the Amazon book page for your title. On average, about one in ten people who click an ad will actually go on to purchase your book. So, if you've got a 25c CPC, it'd cost you $2.50 to get each sale. If you've only got one book, don't bid too high!
8. Spic and Span Book Description: Ensure the description of your book on Amazon is top-notch. Invest time in this, as it's no use paying to get people to look at your products on Amazon if they aren't swayed by your book's Amazon description. Tips: Evaluate the layout and wording of the top books in your genre, and hire a professional service like BooksGoSocial for extra help.
9. Cover Appeal: Anything homemade or family-designed may not do the trick. Observe the book covers of top books in your genre and rate your own accordingly. If your cover doesn't measure up, consider hiring a cover designer (but not a graphic designer). You might be surprised at how budget-friendly this can be!
10. Get Those Reviews: Having at least three honest, non-one-line reader reviews on Amazon.com is vital before you start. Reach out to readers you trust, and try not to ask family, as their reviews might get removed by Amazon due to appearing biased. If you're struggling to get reviews, consider using BooksGoSocial's service to help out.

If you haven't quite nailed the above, it's best to give Amazon ads a wide berth.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. The Learning Curve: Expect a steep learning curve with Amazon ads.
2. Creating Campaigns: Each ad is called a campaign.
3. Start Small: Begin with a low budget.
4. Affordability: Keep your spending under control.
5. Understand Royalties: Familiarize yourself with royalties (or the KENP rate).
6. Target ACOS: Know the ideal ACOS for profitability.
7. Watch Your CPC: Stay aware of your CPC.
8. Optimize Book Description.
9. Stunning Covers: Invest in a professional cover designer.
10. Get Those Reviews.

Should you decide to let BooksGoSocial handle your Amazon ads, you can find our options here: [link]

Need help getting reader reviews? Click here for a 50% discount on NetGalley+ through BooksGoSocial.

Laurence O'Bryan* founded BooksGoSocial in 2013, boasting over twenty-five years of sales and technology marketing experience. He also established the Dublin Writers Festival.

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1. To be successful with Amazon ads, it's essential to understand how finance plays a role in your marketing strategy, as managing your budget wisely is crucial for lasting success.
2. In today's digital lifestyle, merging technology with marketing can significantly enhance your product's visibility and sales potential – and Amazon ads can help bridge the gap between the two.

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