Amazon Ads offers self-published authors a user-friendly and effective platform for marketing their books. It’s been two weeks since you launched your campaign, and you’re not seeing results – what gives? Don’t become despondent if you’re not seeing your conversion rate go through the roof; assess what coupler doing wrong.
There could be many reasons why you’re not experiencing the success you expected from your campaign. As published authors enter the space with large marketing budgets, many newbie self-publishers on the site like to blame this shift in the market for their poor performance.
While it might play a role in diminished sales through your ad campaign, it’s not likely the sole reason behind the results. Don’t give up with your campaign; make a plan to redirect your efforts and reassess your strategy. If you get the campaign right, it offers you a great return on investment.
Step back and analyze what you’re doing right and what’s going wrong with your Amazon Ads for your book.
Mistake #1 – Failing to Research Your Campaign
When starting on Amazon Ads as a newbie, it’s common to assume the ad manager does everything for you. Newcomers fail to put in the time to research the best keywords for their campaign and the correct method of structuring their ads campaign to achieve optimal results for their marketing budget.
Creating an ad and leaving it to run is the wrong approach to your strategy. While it takes time to see results from your campaign, you’ll get better traction with your plan by doing the research before you structure it.
Before you dive into creating your first campaign, watch YouTube videos on effective campaign structuring and read articles showing you how to build one that receives the desired results. It might take more work on the front end, but you’ll see better results in the long run.
Mistake #2 – Using the Wrong Keywords
Choosing the right keywords for your bids is essential to experiencing success with your Amazon ads campaign. You’ll need to select a few keywords and see which brings you the best results. Using too few keywords means you get fewer impressions, lowering your visibility on the site.
Using the wrong keywords also produces adverse results, limiting your ad exposure on the site while weakening your conversion rate. Spend time assessing the best keywords to use in your strategy and monitor their performance in your Ads Manager.
Mistake #3 – Not Monitoring Your Campaign
One of the best parts of using the Amazon Ads campaign strategy is it requires less management than Google or Facebook Ads. However, that doesn’t mean you can create the campaign and never monitor its performance.
You’ll need to assess your campaign results in increments of 30 to 60 days to analyze which ads are your top performers and which to cut away. Your bid price for your ad might be too low, and the Amazon algorithm doesn’t feel it’s worth promoting your ad.
Mistake #4 – Choosing to Follow the Selected Bid
Check your bid price to see if it matches your competitors. We recommend using the automatic bids feature in the campaign manager. Review your bid rice and adjust it, then leave it to run for two weeks to see if it makes a difference.
If your bid price is in line with the competition, another factor could be holding it up. For instance, if your competitor is bidding $0.15 per click, and you’re bidding $0.20, it might be that the Amazon algorithm identifies your ad as less relevant to the prospective reader browsing the site.
Amazon doesn’t want to promote ads it feels the users aren’t interested in seeing, as they may decide to leave the site and find what they’re looking for elsewhere. Are your keywords relevant, and do you have enough of them in your ad? Determine the relevancy of your ad and adjust as necessary.
Mistake #5 – Using Average Cost of Sale as Your Primary Metric
In theory, the average cost of sale (ACoS) is a metric showing you what you spend to sell a book, displayed as a percentage. Any figure over 100% is of no value to your campaign because you’re spending more to sell a book than you receive from a sale.
Any ACoS percentage under 100% means you’re making a profit. While it makes sense in theory, its application is not practical. The ACoS is misleading and not a good metric to rely on for your campaign success; we recommend leaving it alone.
Mistake #6 – A Weak Thumbnail and Description
If you designed your book cover yourself, that might cause the problem. Amazon sells to its users based on thumbnail images. If your DIY thumbnail doesn’t compress well, the user can’t assess the cover properly, reducing their interest in buying your book.
The cover art and its presentation are key to selling your work. Think of it like this; would you buy a product online with no pictures in the description? Research shows that product listings have much weaker sales volumes than those that do. Assess your thumbnail and ensure it’s high-quality and presented in high definition that’s easy for the prospective reader to view.
The book description might also contribute to low sales. Add more information under the Editorial Reviews section and include more details using Amazon’s A+ Content function. By boosting the description with more keywords, you make it more effective in search results.
Mistake #7 – Not Having the Patience to See Results
Many self-publishers assume that their Amazon Ads campaign should start producing results immediately, but that’s not the case. It takes time for the algorithm to build momentum and start promoting your book. We recommend giving it at least two to four weeks to see the results from your ads.
After a month of running your campaign, look at the best-performing ads, keep them, and stop promoting the others. Focus your marketing budget on promoting the best-performing ad, and you’ll notice a change in your conversion rate.
Stay patient and persist with your campaign strategy. If you’re not seeing results after four to six weeks, reassess your camping and look at what you need to do