AMAZON ADVERTISING - KDP
- Daniella DeChristopher
- Jul 29, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 28, 2024
I have been promoting my book with AMS ads for the past 7 years.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DECEMBER 20, 2024:
My book has sold approximately 5,600,000 KU pages and 23,000 books. The information below was created using 7 years of Amazon Advertising data.
My ads have worked, but they haven't been cheap. Often, I went way over budget, but I was determined to get my book in front of as many readers as possible. I learned a lot of things the hard way, and I made many costly errors.
After evaluating my 7 years of data, I finally found a list of keywords that were profitable, and was able to set up a profitable campaign. Below is my latest summary of HOW I CREATED PROFITABLE AMAZON ADS:
NUMBER OF KEYWORDS FOR A CAMPAIGN:
I no longer feel that the number of search words is nearly as important as their relevancy to your book.
FINDING PROFITABLE KEYWORDS:
I chose book titles that were shown on the same page as my book. For example: Silent Sisters is on my Product Page as "Frequently Brought Together". Below are examples of keywords related to Silent Sisters that I included in my ad:
BOOK TITLES:
Silent Sisters
Silent Sisters by Joanne Lee
Joanne Lee books
Silent Sisters book
Book Silent Sisters
Book by Joanne Lee
Silent Sisters a True Story
etc.
CATEGORIES:
Nonfiction
Non-fiction
True Story
True Stories
Autobiography
True Story about Child Abuse
True Story about Child Neglect
True Story of Survival
etc.
FIND OUT WHICH KEYWORDS HAVE GENERATED SALES FOR YOUR BOOK:
Old ad reports can be valuable. Don't discard them. The data you need is there. For my book, the following keywords were the ones that generated the most sales:
Real Life Stories Book
Paperback Best Sellers
Paperback Books Best Sellers
Behind Closed Door
etc.
PROFITABLE KEYWORDS:
When you find profictable keywords, expand them. For example: "True Story" generated sales. Expand the keyword by chosing variations.
Books based on True Stories
True Story Books
True Stories about: Child Neglect, Child Abuse, Family Relationships, Spousal Abuse, Alcoholism, etc.
True Story Books Based on Real Life
True Story Books Best Sellers,
etc.
ADD A KEYWORD TO THE DROPDOWN BOX IN BOOK OR KINDLE:
Keywords that people search for will appear. Use the ones that are related to your book. It's a god way to find new ones.
Go through the alphabet in the search bar and look for others that are related to your book.
AMAZON SUGGESTED KEYWORDS:
Go to: ADD KEYWORDS in your campaign:
Add all of them EXCEPT the ones that have an IS or IR of 0. That means Amazon is not showing your book for these keywords.
IR - 1 is optimal IS - 100 is optimal. These should be the ones Amazon is showing for your book. Some have an IS lower than 100, but I still include them.
Use the Amazon suggested bids.
KDP ROCKET:
Rocket provides suggested Keywords for your book. They have several methods in their program. Use all of the methods, except the ASIN. Those have not worked well for me and have proven to be very costly. I have tried them numerous times with no success.
KEYWORD MULTIPLIER TOOL:
The Keyword Multiplier Tool has been helpful in finding variations of Keywords that have been generating sales for me: https://cleverclicksdigital.com/au/keyword-multiplier-tool-for-seo-ppc/
CLICK ON THE SEARCH TERMS TAB IN YOUR CAMPAIGN:
Click the SEARCH TERMS. Then click on the ORDERS tab. You may need to click twice until you see a list of ORDERS. It will show a list of SEARCH TERMS for each one that has generated a sale.
Make sure the SEARCH TERM is profitable. Don't add it to your keywords if it isn't. Only add the profitable ones to your campaign. Profitable keywords are as follows:
The ACOS for each keyword is below your ACOS ideal number. For my book, it is anything below 65%.
The ACOS for each keyword is below your SPEND AMOUNT. For my book, it is anything below $8.40.
Add each keyword to your campaign using BROARD, PHRASE and EXACT and SUGGESTED BID.
NOTE: The bid amount will change throughout the term of each keyword. More info on this to follow.
Expand on PROFITABLE keywords:
For example: AUTOBIOGRAPHY is a profitable keyword. You can add:
autobiographies, best-selling autobiographies, top selling autobiographies, etc.
NEGATIVE KEYWORDS:
Read through all of the SEARCH TERMS that have been used for your ad. Any irrelevant terms should be added to your NEGATIVE KEYWORDS.
Examples of negative keywords for an autobiography or true story could be that someone searched for fiction. Add fiction to your list of negative keywords. Someone searched for alcoholism, murder, civil war, crime, hippies, etc. Add them to your NEGATIVE KEYWORDS.
You don't want to pay for a click for something that has nothing to do with your book.
LOOK FOR THE TOP 100 BOOK TITLES IN YOUR GENRE:
Add the top selling book titles included in your genre. Hold these and use them to add *five keywords to each of your ads each week. You should use five different ones in each of your two campaigns.
If you add too many keywords, it could deplete your daily budget; and you may not generate enough sales to recover the cost of the ad.
Once every two weeks check to see how your new keywords are doing. Don't forget it takes algorithms a while to acknowledge the new keywords. If any of them are generating sales, then add the keyword to your other campaign. This method gives you an addition of 10 keywords each week.
NUMBER OF SEARCH WORDS:
Once you have your keywords, you can set up your campaign. You may want to start with 20 and add an additional *five keywords to each campaign each week. I found that if I put in too many, the cost is too high and every day I end up spending my daily spend with not enough money to make up for CLICKS that didn't generate sales.
BROAD, PHRASE, & EXACT KEYWORDS:
I use the BROAD, PHRASE, & EXACT Match Type for ALL Keywords. I let the ad run for a month, because it takes a while for algorithms to kick in. Once a Keyword is generating sales in one category, I delete the one(s) that are not generating sales. Example: If BROAD is generating sales and PHRASE is not, I ARCHIVE PHRASE. I ARCHIVE instead of pause, because I don't want to take a chance of UNPAUSING one that I lost money on the first time around.
NOTE: An evaluation of my data showed that 30% of my sales came from Phrase and Exact and the remainder came from Broad. Broad only generated slightly more than the other two.
PHRASE & EXACT Keywords are often less expensive than the BROAD Match Type. However, if BROAD is the only one generating sales, you need to determine from the ACOS as to whether or not to allow it to remain active. If it is not PROFITABLE, PAUSE it. Don't ARCHIVE it. It made sales, but wasn't profitable. However, you made need to boost sales during a slow period and you can use these keywords to help do it. By PAUSING the keyword and not ARCHIVING it, the PAUSE is your indication that you could use it again, if necessary to bump up sales.
CREATE TWO AMS ADS:
Add a minimum of 20 key words for each one.
Create a budget for each ad.
Use Amazon's SUGGESTED BIDS. NOTE: More on this later. The bid amount will be adjusted
periodically as long as the keyword remains ACTIVE.
I only allowed KDP to adjust my bid downward. I spent too much money allowing them to go up
or down. Be careful if you try the up and down. I spent a ridiculous amount of money on ads with no return on my investment. Some day when you become more skilled, you can give it a try.
EVERY DAY - Check your ads and optimize them.
RUN BOTH ADS FOR 4 WEEKS
DETERMINE WHICH KEYWORDS GENERATED SALES AND ARCHIVE THE OTHERS AS FOLLOWS:
Keywords that are generating sales but aren't profitable,
Keyword that has more than 1,000 impressions and no clicks, ARCHIVE the Keyword.
If any Keyword has more than 5,000 impressions and no sales, ARCHIVE the Keyword.
ARCHIVE Keywords that have a CPC of more than $1.00.
ARCHIVE Keywords with an ACOS of higher than 65%. They are too expensive and will drive up your ACOS. The PROFITABLE percentage may vary based on the advertising costs of your book.
Once I spent $8.40 on a keyword and it hasn't generated a sale. I ARCHIVE the keyword.
Again, the amount may vary based on the advertising costs of your book.
If there is no SUGGESTED bid for a keyword, I use $.50 until it gets enough clicks that I can adjust it based on the actual CPC. I add $.10 to the actual number. So, if the actual CPC is $.30, I change my bid from $.50 to $.40.
ARCHIVE any keyword that has had 26 clicks or more and hasn't generated a sale.
TOP of SEARCH - is of no value to me. Most profitable sales were generated with less than 5%.
I only use CTR when I need to lower my ACOS. I look for keywords with the lowest CTR and PAUSE them to get my ACOS back down to 65%. The good thing about this method is that you are not ARCHIVING them, you are PAUSING them to help you achieve a profitable ACOS. You can add them back when your ACOS drops.
At the end of 3 weeks, ARCHIVE any keyword that haven't made a sale.
At the end of 3 weeks, ARCHIVE any keywords that have a CTR is less than 0.125.
ARCHIVE any keywords that have 1,000 impressions with a CTR of 0.10.
CHECK YOUR AD EACH A.M. & OPTIMIZE YOUR CAMPAIGN.
MAKE SURE TO CLICK ON YOUR KEYWORDS TAB: before you close your campaign.
ALPHABETIZE your keywords. While I don't have proof, someone suggested it to me and I believe I generally receive more impressions. It may be a result of similar keywords being grouped together so it helps with the algorithms.
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SUMMARY: KDP Ad Campaigns can cost a lot of money if you don't know what you are doing. They charge your credit card and keep it on file for all future ads. I think the costs have increased significantly over the past few years. While I can't guarantee that the above tips will work for you, I am seeing positive results. Good Luck!
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