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Ken wrote: "J, I agree--the new sponsored product option is the best of the three types that I've used. My keywords don't have a huge amount of impressions as yet, but I've started low and I'm keeping it there..."

That's really interesting. My keyword campaign has garnered 176,000 impressions and 81 clicks in 1 week.

My targeted products campaign has 1,000 impressions and 1 click in a week -- though that may be because I targeted all of the bestsellers under suspense/thriller, and they probably have pretty high bids on them.

My worry is that the keywords campaign is new enough, that big companies just haven't discovered them yet, and that's why I'm getting lots of impressions with low bids.

The total I've spent on the Amazon marketing this week has been $7.50

Stacie wrote: "To be honest I hadn't noticed it until a couple weeks ago. I'd been creating new ads using the "Copy" action....my ads were all by Product/Interest. For all I know it's not a "new" feature at all....."

When I started indie publishing back in 2011 there was a thing called "tags" that you could apply to your book. I went through a lot of effort tagging my books so they would show up when people searched for tags. Then, all of a sudden, the whole tag function just disappeared.

Maybe this keyword thing is the next-best version of that, or maybe it's something completely different. The problem is trying to guess what word association people will attach to your kind of book or genre. That is something that changes pretty fast on the web. I could think that my story would sell well with the keywords "paranormal" or "ghost" when more people are actually looking for keywords like "middle school" or "imagination".

Then again, who is to say somebody looking for the same keywords I'm using is going to think they mean the same thing I think they do? Like how the word Paranormal used to mean non-fiction stories about ghosts, but now it's synonymous with vampire, werewolf, and angel romance.

I was quicker than usual to try this out so I have quite a bit of experience with it. Initially, Amazon was recommending bids of around 5c, but in no time at all, this increased to 50c or thereabouts. After all, 5c is nothing for the big publishers to pay and they always outbid others, so we Indies have to stump up more money. Can't blame Amazon.

At one point I was calling it 'Amazon's charity contributions' because I was definitely paying more than I was getting back. That is still true.

Against my better judgment, I now have an ad running, with targeted products, i.e. book pages I have chosen myself. In the last four weeks or so, I have received only 2 clicks but it has cost only 48c. I am going to keep it running because I have no other ads running anywhere else. No sales yet.

In the past, I have had about 10 sales via Amazon Ads but I've had to pay a lot more.

This is just my experience and I am experimenting still. From posts above, it seems Amazon have changed things.

EDIT: I've just taken a look at the Amazon Ad campaign and it has certainly changed, so I am now trying another book with the 'sponsored' and 'keyword' style. I'll see which type is the most successful.

Anna wrote: "I was quicker than usual to try this out so I have quite a bit of experience with it. Initially, Amazon was recommending bids of around 5c, but in no time at all, this increased to 50c or thereabou..."

I've had a similar experience. Ads do not pay, but they lift your book(s) off the mat for the ten-count and give them a fighting chance. Of course, it costs money. Self-publishers must take on the roles of publishers which worm their way to a niche in the marketplace. If luck holds, our ventures will eventually spit out black ink.

JOQuantaman wrote: "Anna wrote: "I was quicker than usual to try this out so I have quite a bit of experience with it. Initially, Amazon was recommending bids of around 5c, but in no time at all, this increased to 50c..."

I have managed to stay in the black while running ads, though I run a narrow profit margin--but the goal is spreading brand awareness, like you alluded to.

I also threw some money at Pinterest advertising, but determined that is not worth it at all. The bidding is just too high on there to facilitate a $3 product. Maybe the Pinterest impressions are much more valuable than an Amazon ad, but I don't want to dive that deep into the red without being able to quantify the value.

Ironically, the day I really let the Pinterest ad run wild and free turned out to be the one day, in quite a while, that I had zero sales. I shut that ad down in a hurry.

I have an unwritten rule that I won't spend more on advertising than I earn. So far that has worked out - just, though Amazon Ads takes more money than I get back.

I feel comfortable like that. I joined Pinterest but haven't used it at all.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way to advertise books on Amazon that are not kindle books. I want to advertise my coloring books, but I can't release a kindle version (they banned me because I included a link to a picture download, but that's another issue). It seems like it should be doable, but I haven't been able to figure it out... I guess maybe I should start another thread? I wasn't sure, because the title of this thread seems to fit.

Amazon is a strange bird indeed. Just give it a try.

They removed some of my best reviews for no reason at all. They were authentic. When I appealed, they just dismissed it.

Not enough money involved to sue. I'm a paralegal and know these sad truths.

It's often not AMAZON that removes reviews; it's the reviewers themselves. Be careful when paying for reviews; some only post for two weeks and then remove them. There are tons of scams out there. Agents who charge authors for reviews have little or no control over the reviewers they canvass to do the blurbs.

Georgette wrote: "I have done same with AMAZON and others. I think it is as they state without delay. The best way to promote anything is to go out there and meet the public and promote your book."
You are so right. You've got to go out and see the people, see the people, see the people. It worked for me when I was a Realtor so I'm hoping it will work for me as an author.

I've had a sponsored Amazon ad running for my box set over the past six months and have a 50% ACos. I use similar authors as keywords. It helped that it's unlimited, since I get an average of 130,000 page reads a month plus the sales.

This is really great! Would you mind contacting me so we could chat about this? I've been playing with Amazon adds, but haven't quite figured out the formula. lol! My email is [email protected].
Thanks,
Lori

James ... I assume the sporsored ads you mean show up randomly at the bottom of a book's page according to the reader's interest. ??

Where do you find the info to advertise. I'm sure there are lots of people who could use the info besides me.

Lincoln wrote: "Basically you build an ad then pay per click. You set a lifetime budget (minimum of 100) but you only pay for what you get in clicks.

So for example let's say you run an ad on your book and you g..."

Thanks a lot, sir! This is so useful!