Publishing Help

AMS Ads

I've been dreading this post because I don't know a lot about Amazon ads. But, because I do know a little bit, my post is better than ignoring the subject altogether. Plus, if anyone reading this has any bits of wisdom to share on the topic, they can feel free to post them in the comments.

Okay, so the first time I set up an AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) ad, I had no luck at all. Very few impressions and no clicks. I didn't understand what I had done wrong, so I tried it again and I noticed something important. When setting up an ad, it might be tempting to click on the automatic targeting button, but DON'T. That option allows Amazon to come up with search terms for you based on your book's title, subtitle, and description. If you look at their recommended search terms, they are laughable.

Like, really, REALLY laughable. For instance, for my book, "Hooked on You: Crochet Summer Camp #2", they might recommend search terms like this:

Camp #2
Crochet Summer
You:
Hooked on

Okay, so those probably aren't the exact terms they would come up with, but the result is the same. No one would ever search for them. That's why it's very important to click on "manual targeting" and type in your own terms. How do you know which search terms to use??

If you own KDP Rocket software, it will help you a lot with coming up with search terms that people are actually typing into the search bar. If you don't own the software, your best bet is to pay attention to the popular tropes that your book utilizes. Use those as search terms. For instance, if I used tropes to come up with search terms for the same book, "Hooked On You," it might look something like this:

Clean Romance
Fake marriage romance
Fake relationship romance
Crochet romance


I only use one popular trope with this book, so I came up short with ideas. However, if you use several tropes, you could easily come up with more search terms.

Now, pay attention to the cost per click for each search terms. This means, that a person typed in a search term, and your book came up and they clicked on your book. You get to tell Amazon how much money to charge you for that click. Do NOT let Amazon fill in this amount for you or you'll be paying much more than you are expecting. I recently sold 9 copies of my book through AMS ads. The books were 99 cents each due to them being 10k words each...And Amazon charged me 80 bucks. It was all my fault because I didn't pay attention to the cost per click.

If the search term is one I think will be very popular, I will put a higher monetary amount on it. But, I usually don't put higher than 25 cents per click on it. Some only get 15 cents. Amazon recommends that you pay over a dollar for some terms, which isn't worth it if your book is only a dollar.

Amazon automatically takes the advertising money out of my bank account once a month so I don't have to worry about dealing with that. It is a good idea to keep close tabs on your ads and see how they are performing. I also highly recommend purchasing KDP Rocket software. It has helped me come up with search terms that people are actually looking for.

I know there's a lot more info out there about AMS Ads, about how their algorithms work and all that...but I honestly know nothing about all that. So, this is my limited knowledge on the subject. PLEASE fill free to ad any knowledge you have on the subject in the comments!


Order my new book on Kindle!

ASIN: B084TLWDW8	Product Type:
	Amazon's Price: Price N/A Not currently available.

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