Amazon

Managing Automatic Targeting Ads for Books on Amazon’s Sponsored Ads

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Now that you’ve completed Automatic Targeting for Books with Amazon Advertising’s Sponsored Ads and let the ad run for a while, it’s time to manage the ad. No, you can’t just set it and forget it. There are a number of things you’ll need to do on a regular basis to make sure the ad delivers results. 

NOTE: If you haven’t set up an ad on Amazon yet, click on the title above and set up the ad. Then come back here in 2 weeks to a month to start managing the ad.

1. Log in to Amazon Ads and find an Automatic Targeted ad that has been running for 2 weeks to a month. 

NOTE: To find a particular ad, scroll through the ads on the campaign list or go to the Portfolios and find it in the applicable portfolio. 

2. Click on the ad to open it. Notice the options in the menu on the left. Here’s what they do:

  • Placements are used to adjust bid strategies for ad placements up by a percentage to gain better ad placement. We will discuss placements in a future post.
  • Targeting is used to adjust bids.
  • Negative Targeting allows you to identify keywords that you don’t want your ad targeting, as well as products where you don’t want your ad placed.
  • Budget Rules adds bidding increases to your ad at special times. For example, adding a bid increase of 10% during Black Friday. We will cover these rules in a later blog post.
  • Search Terms are the terms that Amazon has decided to target. While you can’t change these, it is important to check them and add the ones you don’t want targeted to the Negative Targeting keywords.
  • Campaign Settings is where you can change your overall bidding strategy and other campaign specifics.
  • History provides a list of the changes you’ve made to the ad.

3. Before you start managing the ad, click on Ads in the menu on the left.

4. Go to the campaign details below the chart and change the columns to the ones listed below. To do this, click on Columns on the right side, then click on Customize Columns.

  • Impressions: The number of times ads were delivered to customers.
  • Clicks: How many times your ad was clicked. 
  • Spend: Total charges accrued for the clicks that occurred.
  • CPC: Cost Per Click or the average cost for the clicks.
  • Orders: Total orders that occurred from the clicks.
  • Sales: Value of the books sold from the orders.
  • ACOS: Like pay-per-click. This is the ad spend divided by tracked sales on the ad dashboard.

If you need more information about each column, hover over the i in the gray circle on the column header.

The 7 columns above contain the most useful information you need to know about ad performance. Ad performance tells you whether you should increase or decrease bids. In some cases, you may need to stop using certain ads because of what the performance shows.

Default Bid Adjustment

In this section you will adjust the default bid in the Campaign Settings based on the ad campaigns performance.

5. Go to the Date Range on the right side of the section and change it to “The Last 30 Days.”

6. Take a look at the overall performance of the ad in the columns. Make note of which scenario below applies.

  • If the performance has an ACOS greater than 50%, lower the default bid 1-5 cents below the CPC.
  • If the performance has an ACOS lower than 50%, raise the default bid 1-5 cents above the CPC.
  • If the performance has an ACOS that is blank, raise the default bid 1-5 cents above the CPC.

IMPORTANT: Suggested Bids are just that, suggested bids. As you adjust bids, keep them low and increase them slowly. If your bids are below the suggested bit it is okay.

7. Click on Campaign Settings in the menu on the left, then go to the Default Bid and change it per the scenario you chose in step 6.

Ad Group Level Adjustments

As was discussed in the post where you created the Automatic Targeted Ad, there are 4 options in the two Targeting Groups. Here you will adjust each slowly so you do not pay too much for clicks that are not converting to sales.

9. Click on Targeting to go to the Automatic Targeting Groups where you’ll adjust the bid for each of the options.

10. Look at how each of the group types is performing. If a type has an ACOS, adjust the bid as was done in the Default Bid Adjustment section. If there is no ACOS, adjust the bid per the group type discussed below.

The Close Match and Loose Match group type is based on keyword searches made by a customer and shows your ad in search results based on similarly assigned keywords.

Loose match: With this match type, customers enter search terms and Amazon delivers ads for books that are loosely related to what the customer expects. In this case, if your book is fantasy and the customer searches for “fantasy books with vampires and werewolves,” your book ad could deliver even if the monster type in your book isn’t the same. Since your book is likely to end up in front of customers that are not necessarily looking for books like yours, increase bids sparingly or not at all.

Close match: With this match type, customers enter search terms and Amazon delivers ads for books that are closely related to the customer’s expectations. For example, if your book is fantasy and the customer searches for “fantasy books,” Amazon could decide to deliver your ad. Since your book will end up in front of customers who are more likely to purchase your book, consider increasing the bid if you are receiving a high number of impressions, clicks, and sales.

The Complements and Substitutes group type shows your ad on book pages that are like your book. 

Complements: Your ad will deliver when a customer lands on a book page that complements your book. So here, if your book is about demons in an urban fantasy setting but not related to romance, your book could still end up on an urban fantasy romance book page. Since your book is likely to end up in front of customers that are not necessarily looking for books like yours, increase bids sparingly or not at all.

Substitutes: Your ad will deliver when a customer lands on a book page for a book similar to yours. If you write comedy, Amazon will deliver your book on other comedy books’ pages. Since your book will end up in front of customers who are more likely to purchase your book, consider increasing the bid if you are receiving a high number of impressions, clicks, and sales.

Search Terms and Negative Targeting

In this section, you won’t adjust bids, but you will make sure Amazon is properly targeting your ad. This is just as important, maybe more important than your bidding because you can quickly accrue clicks on irrelevant keywords or dissimilar products.

11. Click on Search Terms.

12. Page through the keywords listed. These are what Amazon has decided to target for ad placement. Write down any keywords that are not relevant to your book.

13. Click on Negative Targeting, then click on Add Negative Keywords.

14. Enter all the keywords you found that do not represent your book. 

15. Choose Negative Exact or Negative Phrase as needed, definitions for each below:

Phrase: Includes the exact phrase or group of keywords.

Exact: An exact match for either the keyword or group of keywords.

16. Click on Save to exempt the keywords.

17. Notice there is also an option for Negative Products. If there are books in which you don’t want your ad to display on, you will need to gather their ASINs and use that tab to enter them.

That's it. Complete these steps weekly or every couple weeks. These ads don’t have a high spend in most cases, especially if they are well maintained, so they don’t need as much care as category and keyword ads.

5 Reasons Author Central is an Essential Part of Your Author Presence in the Amazon Bookstore

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Do you want readers to buy your books? Of course you do. Then don’t just put your books in bookstores, put yourself out there too. Amazon’s Author Central brings both you and your books together in one place that you control. Besides introducing you to Amazon’s customer base, it encourages readers to buy more of your books, and here’s how.

1. Author Follows

Amazon is invested in understanding their customers’ preferences because it results in more sales, and every store wants to sell more products. The Author Follow button is one way Amazon can track what their reader base likes and is more likely to buy. Readers can follow authors from their Author Central page or any of their books’ product pages, but only if the author has an Author Central account. And once a reader follows an author, Amazon will show that author’s books to her in emails and on their website to promote more sales.

Identify the number of followers you have on your Author Central control panel. 

Similar to how you would encourage fans to follow your social media accounts and GoodReads author page, you should encourage readers to follow you on Author Central for the reasons previously mentioned. Put a link to the page on your website and include it on your promotional materials. Get your number of followers up, and you will sell more books.

2. Brand Awareness

Your Author Central page reflects your brand as an author. The profile you publish tells readers who you are and what you write. If you are producing a series, customers can easily find the next book or two they’d like to read in highlighted series sections. There are places to tell readers which of your books  they should read, along with recommendations for the books you enjoy. 

It’s important to note that the author name link on a book’s detail page or in search results directs to an author’s Author Central account. If you don’t set up an Author Central account, this link goes to a page that lists your books mixed with other authors’ books. This means you could lose a sale to another author whose book outshines yours, and I’m sure you don’t want that to happen.

Readers do want to know who you are, including your background, accomplishments, credentials, and that you are a real human. These days, not only do we compete with human authors, we compete against AI more and more. Readers are becoming even more invested in knowing the identity of an author. If they like you, they believe they will like your stories.

3. Google Search Results

Simply stated, Google indexes author page on Amazon. When someone googles your author name, you want all the top search results to be flooded with your website, social media links, and such. More so, direct links to buy your books are better at the top. Since you’ll sell more books on Amazon, it’s best that your Author Central account link be as close to the top as possible after a Google Search. Go google your author name now. Discover where it ranks. Any way that you can increase visibility of your books is a good thing!

4. Book Information Control

There are a number of book information updates you can apply to your books from Author Central: add editorial reviews, update your book descriptions, add author comments to a book page, and more. Editorial reviews are positive testimonials about your book that catch a reader's attention and tell them your book is worth reading. Actively updating your author comments tells both readers and Amazon you are invested in selling books. This option is especially helpful if you have a publisher and a lack of control of your books via KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).

5. Marketing Materials

Again, if you are traditionally published and do not have access to KDP, the marketing materials that Amazon provides in Author Central are extremely helpful to view your book rankings and manage your marketing needs. In the Sales Ranking report, you’ll find your rankings in the various Amazon marketplaces around the world. There is also a BookScan report available for free on Author Central, which expands a picture of your rankings across other bookstores. Author central also provides easier access to your review, so you can use them in your marketing materials on social media or print.

Finally, Amazon Advertising is accessible from Author Central. This is especially handy for traditionally published authors. If you haven’t already realized this, you won’t sell books unless you advertise on Amazon. Having control over your advertising is important because you also have control over advertising budgets. 

Part of being an author is getting your name and face and books out there for all to see. And your Amazon Author Central page is an invaluable tool every author needs to further your exposure. It’s easy to set up and maintain, so make an effort to visit your page and update it frequently.