Intro to Amazon Ads for Authors: From 0 to Profitable in 12 Weeks

In my experience, all success stories begin with some version of the words "Let's try something."

As an author, I ran my first Amazon Ads campaign in 2018. I haven't run them for my own books in quite some time (I've been busy helping other authors write and publish their books!). 

However, I've continued to read up on best practices and study different approaches when it comes to Amazon Ads. After another client recently asked me to help her with hers, I recognized how much I know about running a successful ads campaign (while also remembering how incredibly overwhelming the process was when I ran my first one!). 

So let's run a 12-week ad experiment for my latest book, Write the Damn Book Already, so you can see that this process doesn't have to be complicated to be successful. 

WEEK 1 OVERVIEW

I'll cover the importance of transparency in advertising, showing you exactly how my ads have performed historically and what my budget has been. Also important to clarify is the difference between actual profits and gross sales, since Amazon's campaign report is a bit misleading when it comes to these numbers.

We're going to run a low-budget sponsored product campaign ($3/day) and scale up based on performance. We'll start with just one ad and manually select our target keywords using Publisher Rocket.

Campaign details:

Target keywords: 21

Default bid: $0.41

Products: 2 (eBook and paperback versions of Write the Damn Book Already)

STEPS & STATS

DAY 1

1. Setup one Amazon sponsored product ad campaign that advertises the eBook and paperback versions of my book. Manually select 20-35 keywords (I use Publisher Rocket to identify the best keywords for my books) and ensure no bid is more than $0.75. 

DAY 2

1. Ad is approved and begins running. Vow not to change anything about the ad or the keywords until ithe overall campaign reaches 10,000 impressions and a keyword (one or more than one) has at least 10 clicks. 

2. Break that vow and switch the Top of Search Bid Adjustment from 10% to 50% (I only had 236 impressions when I did this, so we can almost look at it like I had it set up this way from the start. Right?)

DAYS 3 - 7

1. Watch and wait. 

2. Save Instagram memes and quotes about patience and persistence. 

3. Consider whether I'll wonder what I was thinking in 4 days.

Day 3 Stats:

Total impressions: 757 (457 for eBook; 300 for paperback)

Total clicks: 2 (both on paperback)

CPC: $0.54 (total spent so far: $1.08)

Total orders: 0

Internal monologue: This isn't working. I've budgeted $3/day and only spent $1.08 over THREE days. I should add keywords or blow the whole thing up. 

Logic and reason: Do nothing; just keep watching

Coping mechanism: Large cup of Starbucks cold brew with at least an inch of sweet cream oat milk. 

🎥 BONUS VIDEO: How to look at stats on the simplest possible level! 

Day 6 Stats

Total impressions: 2946 (1733 for eBook; 1212 for paperback)

Total clicks: 17 (5 on eBook, 12 on paperback)

Total orders: 1 (paperback) ($5.03 profit)

Avg CPC: $0.75

Total spent: $12.80

ROI = ($7.77)

CURRENT THOUGHTS:

1. Why am I like this (impatient AF)? 

2. Only one sale so far, but if there's one, there can be 1,000. 

3. Watch the data and keep tweaking (slowly).

DAY 6 UPDATES 

Day 7

1. My budget is running out quickly because super broad keywords and 75% bid adjustment are allowing a higher CPC (and on searches that I know won't generate a sale, like "how to write dialogue" or "how to write fantasy".

2. Raised budget to $10/day temporarily since broader keywords are taking up budget with one click

3. Looked at Targeting to see what searches are generating clicks/purchases and identify which should NOT garner a click (for me, exact search terms that got a purchase were “inspiration for writing a book”  and "book writing" so I added those as exact and phrase keywords

4. Searches that are unrelated and I don't want to pay for were added in as negative exact keywords ("book writing accessories” “books on writing dialogue” “books on writing fantasy” “creative writing book” “the mechanics of writing a book” “how to write a book outline” “writing thesaurus books” 

5. I created a second ad set within same campaign. This one advertises the paperback version only because my eBook is at $3.99 so profit margin is much smaller and most people purchase the paperback copy of this book. Copied keywords over from first ad set, but made them EXACT and PHRASE (no broad). Also copied over negative keywords from first ad set. Added in two EXACT keywords based on the searches that created the first 2 sales. 

WEEK 2

Day 1

1. I turned off all broad keywords in ad set 1 that are related but felt too far outside the "bullseye" such as "book writing starter kit" and "authorship books" 

2. Only have 1 impression on second ad set so far, so going to keep my eye on that. If impressions don't increase by Day 2 or Day 3, I'll pause the first ad set for a moment to dedicate all dollars to the second ad set and see if it performs better with exact/phrase keywords.

Day 2

• Turned off (paused) first ad set. LESSON: Broad isn’t working well for this macro topic. I need my keywords to start with phrase/exact keywords
• Ads show 2 sales directly related to ads, but 2 more books have sold in last 2 days (while none have sold for 2 weeks. This can’t be coincidence!)

Days 3-5: Let it be

Day 6

• 3 sales (+2 not associated with ads)
• Avg CPC $0.73
• $14.53 spent, 22.93 in sales (

My keywords associate with purchases:

• how to write a book (phrase)
• write the book (exact)
• writing a memoir (phrase)

Customer exact search terms for purchases:

•  books on writing memoirs (added as exact) - Added as EXACT keyword
•  how to write a book in 30 days  - Added as EXACT keyword
•  write a book (exact) - Added as EXACT keyword

Keywords with high clicks (11) but no purchases:

•  writing a book (phrase): total spent $8.90 - TURNED OFF THIS KEYWORD

Added negative keywords based on searches that were generating clicks but are irrelevant:

• playwrite, playwriting, planner, kit, play (negative phrase)
• audible books (negative exact)

WEEK 3

KEY UPDATES

• Added to negative keywords
• Added a few new exact/phrase keywords based on users' Amazon searches

Screenshots of progress:

Week 3, Day 3

Week 3, Day 4

Week 3, Day 5

Week 3, Day 6 

WEEK 4

Key Updates:

• Paused "writing a book" (exact) keyword. It's generating lots of clicks, but no purchases. It's too broad, and I'm discovering the exact keywords that are more likely to trigger a purchase (that feature words like (memoir" or "nonfiction")
• Paused "book writing" (exact) keyword for same reason

Key Notes:

• Still not coming close to using full $10/day budget! 

Week 4, Day 1

Week 4, Day 2

Week 4, Day 3

Week 4, Day 5

Week 4, Day 6

WEEK 5

Key Updates:

• Added "free" (phrase) and "free book" (exact) to negative keywords
• Added a few more exact negative keywords based on searches that were generating clicks but were unrelated to my book content (example: "book writing journal" "how to write essays"

Important Notes: 

• Remember to calculate your net profit to determine how well your ads are truly doing. Your total sales number does NOT reflect your profit; it reflects the total amount of money Amazon has collected. To calculate profit, determine how much you earn for paperback, hardback, and eBook sales. Go into your reports and determine how many paperbacks, hardbacks, and eBooks you've sold during the time you've been running your ad. Multiply your net profit by the number of books sold (if you've sold 5 eBooks and your net profit is $6.96/book, your total net profit is 5 x $6.96 = $34.80.
• Determine your ROI by using this calculation: (Profit - cost)/cost x 100
• If you aren't happy with your overall net profit, you can try increasing your book's price by a bit! 
• Also, if you determine that you're okay losing a bit of money to sell a book because it's a lead-generator for you, that's ok! 

Week 5, Day 2

Week 5, Day 3

WEEK 6