What is an Amazon ad, and how is it different from Facebook?
Jim: In this episode, we’re going to talk about everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about Amazon Book Ads.
To help us with that is our special guest, Brian Berni. Brian is a former Vatican Secret Archives employee. He is now a bestselling author under multiple pen names, blogs for writers and self-publishers at AuthorsTech, and is the co-founder of BookAds, an agency that helps authors advertise their books through Amazon Advertising and BookBub Ads.
What is an Amazon ad and what are the different kinds?
Brian: The general idea is similar to Facebook Ads, in that you have the ability to advertise your product on one of the largest websites on earth.
However, there is a significant technical difference. On Facebook, people are usually watching cat videos or looking at pictures of their friends, and if we advertise a book to them, we are interrupting them. They might not be in the mood for reading.
On Amazon, people are already primed to buy. They’re in purchasing mode, looking for a new book. If we present them with the right ad at the right time, that is invaluable, and that’s really what differentiates the two platforms.
Thomas: It’s like the difference between a TV commercial that interrupts the show you want to watch and an advertisement in the store telling you why a certain brand is better than the others. If I’m already in the store buying toilet paper, it’s a lot easier for them to convince me to buy their brand than it is for a TV commercial to do that.
In that way, Amazon Ads are a much more cost-effective form of advertising. So why are Amazon Ads getting so much more popular?
Why are Amazon Ads growing so fast?
Brian: Amazon has been rolling out updates recently, and a lot of people were saying AMS is dead, don’t focus on it anymore.
By rolling out these updates, Amazon has shown that they really believe in this platform. They’re giving authors more and more tools to check ad performance and make their campaigns better. Indie authors love these ads mostly because of what I just described about the difference from Facebook, but also because they allow us to have prime real estate on book pages and in search results on Amazon.
Thomas: If somebody searches for a romance book, your title could appear at the top if you buy an ad. Some people say Amazon Ads don’t work anymore, or “They didn’t work for me, therefore they don’t work for anyone,” which is a classic mistake.
There’s a Yogi Berra quote that says, “No one goes to that restaurant anymore, it’s too crowded.” That applies here. Amazon Ads are getting more expensive because they’re getting more popular, and there’s more competition than there used to be.
How do you set up your first Amazon ad?
Brian: The first step is to go to advertising.amazon.com. That’s one of the recent updates. The platform used to be called AMS, Amazon Marketing Services, but Amazon has rebranded it to Amazon Advertising. You log in and create an account. If you’re published through KDP, you can log in through your KDP.
The first and most important choice you’ll make is which type of ad you want. Do you want a Sponsored Product Ads or Product Display Ads.
Sponsored Product Ads place your ad in specific places, such as search results, book pages, and under the also-bought carousel. Amazon is also experimenting with placing these ads in new positions. These are commonly referred to as keyword ads.
Product Display Ads are generally a bit more difficult to master, but in my opinion they’re the most powerful type Amazon offers. These ads appear directly under the buy button on a competitor’s book page, and also on the Kindle lock screen. If you can get your book in full view in front of a reader who already enjoys one of your competitors, that is absolutely invaluable.
Thomas: Especially for fiction. If your ad is on somebody’s Kindle and with just a couple of taps, they’ve purchased your book and are reading it. That’s magic from a marketing perspective.
What are the best practices for creating Amazon ads?
Always Be Experimenting
Brian: Always have an experimenting mindset. Don’t give up after three or four ads, or even 20. Keep trying different things, change one element at a time, and see what moves the needle.
Don’t Limit Keywords
My number one specific tip for Sponsored Product Ads is don’t limit yourself to a few keywords. A mistake I see a lot of authors make is selecting 20, 30, or even 100 keywords, thinking there aren’t any more that fit their book. Amazon gives you the ability to use up to 1,000 keywords, so use them. Even if something seems only loosely related to your book, throw it in. You can always tweak later and check how each keyword performs.
Use Auto Targeting
Use Auto Targeting. It has been around for a while, but it has improved significantly with the recent updates. A lot of people say auto targeting doesn’t work, but try it, keep your investment small, and see whether it works for you.
Thomas: The mindset you’re describing is that of a scientist running experiments. No one knows in advance what’s going to work, and some books will perform better than others depending on how strong the cover and the Amazon page are.
Good advertising starts with a good product, and by that I don’t mean well written. People don’t buy based on whether a book is well written. They buy based on whether it’s well presented and looks like the kind of book they want, one that delivers on the promise the ad is making. If you’re making a promise with the ad, your book page needs to fulfill it.
The other thing I want to underscore is that experimenting with lots of keywords is how you discover which ones actually work. If a keyword is spending money without producing sales, you pause it. You may be surprised by phrases that perform well when you didn’t expect them to, which is exactly why you want to try as many as possible.
Brian: Whatever you do, never base your judgment on the Amazon Advertising dashboard. That is the most unreliable piece of software I have encountered. Always base your sales and page-read decisions on your KDP dashboard.
What kind of return can authors realistically expect?
Jim: What are realistic expectations for how well an ad will work? How much should authors budget, and what kind of return can they expect?
Brian: There’s no single right answer, but we see a lot of trends through the agency. There’s a difference between fiction and nonfiction. Nonfiction tends to perform better on Amazon Ads. A new book also tends to perform better. If someone has never tried Amazon Ads before, the Amazon algorithm tends to favor those new advertisers.
In terms of budget, start small. Run a few campaigns at $2 or $3 per day. Unlike Facebook, Amazon is slow to spend your money. If you run 10 campaigns at $5 each, you’d expect to spend around $50 a day, but that is rarely the case. I’ve almost never seen a campaign max out its budget. So start small, but run as many ads as you can within that budget.
If your fundamentals are in place, meaning a good cover, a good blurb, and solid reviews, you can expect healthy returns. I’ve seen books hit 400 to 500% return on investment within the first few weeks, when the algorithm kicks in and gives new advertisers the most visibility.
What tools help with keyword research and campaign setup?
Thomas: What tools do you recommend for keyword research and putting together a campaign?
Brian: My first step is manual. I look at the book page, the also-boughts, and the reviews for keyword ideas. Amazon has also rolled out a feature that shows the keywords mentioned most frequently in reviews, which is another useful source.
The real game changer has been KDP Rocket by Dave Chesson. About five or six months ago it rolled out a feature that finds thousands of Amazon keywords with a single click. I really recommend it.
Beyond that, think outside the box. Don’t limit yourself to obvious terms like “thriller” or “conspiracy thriller.” You have thousands of keyword slots across multiple campaigns, so try to exploit them as creatively and fully as possible. My top recommendation is KDP Rocket.
What are the biggest mistakes authors make with Amazon ads?
Brian: The first mistake is not having your fundamentals in place. Each Amazon ad is built on three elements: your cover, your review count (I generally recommend at least 10), and a short 150-character ad copy you write yourself. If those aren’t solid, you are trying to advertise a book that can’t be marketed effectively. I see this constantly at the agency.
The second mistake is not using all the ad types available to you, including not only Sponsored Products versus Product Display, but also automatic targeting, suggested keyword targeting, negative keywords, broad match, and exact match. Experiment with all of them and then judge what’s working.
The third mistake is treating Amazon Ads as set and forget. That is completely wrong. I’m not saying you should be refreshing your stats all day, but you should check in three or four times a week at minimum, just to evaluate what you’ve done and decide what to do next.
Thomas: Adding negative keywords is a big deal. If you don’t know what a negative keyword is, it tells Amazon not to show your ad when a search includes a certain word.
If your book is erotica and you’re advertising on romance, you might add “Christian” as a negative keyword, since someone searching for Christian romance is unlikely to want erotica. If your book is paid, “free” is a classic negative keyword. Someone searching for free historical fiction isn’t your customer, and you don’t want to pay to reach them.
The whole idea is that you want to advertise to the people most likely to buy. Negative keywords help you get the best return on your spending and keep your ads relevant for the people who actually see them.
Is the Amazon Ads platform still worth jumping into?
Brian: Amazon is genuinely investing in this platform. The fact that they keep rolling out new features proves wrong everyone saying Amazon Ads are dead. We also have to remember that Amazon Advertising for authors is quite new compared to how long it has existed for other vendors, people selling t-shirts or baseball caps. Amazon has a wealth of experience advertising for those sellers, and that knowledge will keep transferring to indie authors. Now is absolutely the time to jump on the Amazon Ads bandwagon.
There are negative changes too. The platform is getting more competitive and clicks are getting more expensive. But within the indie author community, I’d estimate fewer than 10% of authors are using Amazon Ads, so there is a lot of room at the top. And customers are also starting to trust the ads more. Where they used to ignore anything with the word “Sponsored” under it, they now trust that Amazon is matching them with something relevant to their interests. People are clicking more. It’s an evolving platform with a lot of potential.
Thomas: It’s worth noting that Amazon Ads, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads are all auctions. The more people advertising, the more expensive each individual click becomes. So when someone tells you Amazon Ads are dead, ask them whether they’ve stopped advertising on Amazon themselves. There’s a conflict of interest in that advice.
It’s also important to say that advertising can’t fix bad product-market fit. If people visit your book page and aren’t convinced to buy, bringing more traffic to that page won’t produce more sales. But if your book is a strong fit for the market and the problem is simply that people don’t know it exists, advertising can be incredibly lucrative.
That said, it can be humbling. You may think your book has great product-market fit because your friends loved it, then advertise to strangers who click and don’t buy. Treat it as a journey. Just because ads aren’t working for this book doesn’t mean they won’t work for the next one.
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