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.
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More great information here. Targeting and copy for the ad seem to do a lot. I agree with you about price – the higher the better return on the ad. Are you using AMS exclusively?
Almost. I also run some Facebook ads every now and then (mostly during weekends).
I’m the same but I’m looking closely at the AMS now.
Hey, a marketing campaign that actually worked! Congrats!!! So it looks like I’ll need to publish a couple more books before I can replicate your success and bundle them, lol.
Lol – I really need to write up that AMS post. Hint: their metrics suck. Trust them and you’ll go bust in no time!
I’m so behind on posts. Better late than never, right? Congrats on your success, Nicholas!
Thank you so much, Sue! I recently got a new PC, and am swamped myself trying just to get things back to normal. So, I know what you mean 🙂
Tha amount of work is mind boggling.
It’s like Gonzo (of Muppet show) says: if at first you don’t succeed, fail, fail again! 😀
Congrats Nick! You have hit upon the secret formula for your success! Thanks for sharing, always learning from you!
Lol – I have to replicate the results before I go as far as to say I’ve hit on a formula, but thanks 🙂
Well I hope it is, you deserve your success. ?
*blush*
Hi, Nicholas. Love your report on the Amazon ad. I’m using them, too. The product ads are working for me in a small way. Writing a headline stumps me. What did yours say? I go back and look at what I composed for ads that got the most impressions. But those did not get the most sales. Those interest ads ending up on Kindles generated few click throughs. When my product ads land sideways on certain bestselling author book pages I get a sale or two.
So glad to hear it, Jackie – thank you!
My headline was a quote by a reviewer: “Game of Thrones meets Dune.” I specifically targeted Martin and Herbert fans, so that seemed like a great fit 🙂
Thanks Nicholas. I too am about to jump into the advertising pool, and really appreciate your insight.
So glad to hear it! Thanks 🙂
Thanks for sharing and glad it worked for you this time. I’m still a bit hesitant, but I’ll stay up to date with your posts. 🙂
PS I finished your ‘Beats’ book, loved it. I wanted to write a review, but I don’t see it on Amazon. Perhaps you haven’t yet published it? 🙂
Thank you so much, Debbie! No, I’m afraid it still needs some work before I can publish it. I’ll be sure to let you know 🙂
No worries. Just give me a shout when you’re ready. I know how grueling the editing stages can be. 🙂
You’re a star 🙂
🙂 Aw thanks.
I still find this intimidating. I’m so glad you try all these things first and then share the results. You pave the way for the more reticent of us 🙂 Positive results too.
Yay! So glad you found it useful 🙂
Thanks for the tips and information, Nicholas. Very valuable, as always.
Best wishes, Pete.
So glad you enjoyed the post, Pete! Thank you 🙂
Yee Gads. A load of work! 🙂
Quite so! But at least I now feel I’m getting somewhere 🙂
Fabulous! 🙂
I’m looking at investing in some advertising soon (book three is coming out!), so this is really useful information. I love how generous you are with what you’ve learned – this indie publishing thing is a lot of hard work, isn’t it? 🙂
Oh, you bet. That’s why we should stick with each other 🙂
Definitely! 🙂
This is interesting. It looks as if the dynamic is broadly similar to Facebook ads: very accurate targeting – the more niche your target readers the better it seems – use high priced items. In the interest group section I also target readers of authors my books get compared to in reviews: Adams and Pratchett and British humour. So far I have only been using these to get mailing sign ups – I have a box set of the K’Barthan Series in production at the moment so Amazon ads might be worth a go when the time comes to give it a push!
Definitely agree with you about catchy headlines – my most successful ad so far is one aimed at Terry Pratchett readers with the headline ‘I am LITERALLY cutting my own throat here’ which advertises a free book. 😉
Cheers
MTM
I’m convinced that Amazon is stealing a page off FB’s book here 🙂
Great headline!