Top Tips for Authors to Boost Book Sales with Amazon Ads
Tip One Set up for success
My first tip is to set up your book for success on Amazon before you start any ads – that means having a great cover. Your book cover is the first thing potential readers notice, it’s also the size of a postage stamp as they are scrolling through Amazon. Ensure your cover is eye-catching, and communicates the genre and tone of your book effectively.
You need a description that gives your ideal reader an idea what they’ll find inside your book (main character, the problem, what they are risking, and make sure the reader gets an idea of the genre from the description). In addition to that, you need ten ratings before you start ads. I know this because I’ve seen the data. Any less than ten and you get very few, if ever, clicks on your ad.
Use all the targeting options
Now, let’s move on to my second tip – leveraging Amazon’s targeting options. Amazon offers various targeting options, including product targeting, keyword targeting, and automatic targeting. Experiment with these options to find the best type of ad for your book. Each book is unique, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.
Create your ad copy
My third tip is all about compelling ad copy. Your cover will capture their eye, your ad copy will capture that click. You have 150 characters, so make it count. You can always experiment with ad copy – write a couple of options, make a few ads with the different ad copy and see what works. GracePoint publishing had one book that the ads were not working well for, I changed the ad copy and suddenly the ads are doing much better.
High Daily Budget and Low click bids!
My fourth tip: High daily budget and low click bids. It might sound counterintuitive, but here’s the important step – put your ads under a portfolio and edit your portfolio to only spend so much a month. For example, all of my ads for Toy of the Gods (and I have about fifteen) are under a portfolio to only spend $40 a month. Then each ad inside that portfolio – ensure that your bid per click is .30¢ or less (never go with Amazon’s suggested bid), and then make the daily budget for each ad something like $50.
What happens is you won’t be spending $50 a day (you’ve created that cap using your portfolio), but Amazon sees that number and starts sharing your ad to more people – that’s your impressions. If you’re ad is being seen by more people the more likely you’ll get clicks. We want clicks so we can see what ads are working and make those ads even better.
For example, I have ads running right now that are set to a daily budget of $250. Those ads, at most spend about $5 a day, and if all the sudden the ad started spending a lot, I have that monthly budget cap to keep it from running crazy.
Keep an eye on your ads
My final tip is to regularly review your Amazon Ads performance metrics, such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and sales. Use this data to refine your keyword selection, tweak your ad copy, and adjust your budget and bids accordingly.
Remember, success with Amazon Ads takes time and patience. Experiment, analyze, and refine your approach as you go. If you found these tips helpful, be sure to subscribe to the five minute author for more valuable insights into the world of book marketing, writing, and self-publishing.
Show Notes:
~Link to my upcoming classes
Classes include the Self-Publishing Class, The Amazon Ads Class, and Marketing Your Book Class