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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk! In this episode, Becky and Christy talk about the importance of Amazon Ads during and after your book launch, how to effectively use Amazon Ads, and myths related to Amazon advertising.

Here are answers to frequently asked questions about Amazon Ads:

What are Amazon Ads? Amazon Ads are search-based ads. That means when people go to Amazon to search for an author, title of a book, subject, or category, ads are pinned to those search terms and show up around specific terms chosen by you. Amazon Ads help you reach a wider audience at the point of sale.

Why would I want to give Amazon more money? The #1 reason to use Amazon if you are trying to sell a book, is because it is the #1 place where people buy books. If you want to sell books, you go to the place where people are buying books and that’s Amazon.

Are Amazon Ads only appropriate during a book launch? No! Selling a book is a marathon, not a sprint. The same goes for Amazon Ads. Using Amazon Ads can be successful at any stage your book is in, from launch week to over 5 years old. 

How and why do Amazon Ads work? They work because you are getting your product in front of people who are at the point of sale. They are looking to buy something specifically and your product comes up. 

What keywords should I select in order to make my ads the most effective? There are two options: you can use an automatic ad which means Amazon uses their algorithm to decide how the ad will be shown, or you can do a manual ad which means you add your own keywords. We typically do a combination of both. 

Using Brad Chase’s new book, Strategy First, as an example to pick keywords: we would use his title, name, different iterations of the word strategy, and all of the things that really talk about the subject matter of his book. We would also look at book titles that are similar or in the same category as Brad’s, and we would include those book titles as well. You really want to think of all of the ways people might stumble upon your book. 

Do I have to pay for every keyword I use? Don’t worry! You only pay per click. If you have over 300 keywords, you only pay if someone clicks on a specific keyword. You get knowledge over time about which keywords work and which ones don’t and you can make changes. 

Amazon advertisements can sometimes promise things that seem way too good to be true. Here are two myths about Amazon Ads we often hear:

1. An Amazon Ad will turn my book into an NYT bestseller. Unfortunately, this is just not the reality of what an Amazon Ad can do. 
2. An Amazon Ad will make you a millionaire. Amazon Ads will not make you a millionaire. However, Amazon Ads will increase the sales of your book. On average it can increase your sales by 20% – 30%. Although it won’t make you a millionaire, it will put your book in front of more people. 

Today’s action steps:

1. Sign up for our free webinar about Amazon Ads. We save all of our webinars, so if you listened to this episode after the webinar, you can still watch the recording. This is an easy way to learn more about how to set up your own Amazon Ads in order to increase sales and visibility of your book. 
2. Reach out to your publisher about ads. If you are traditionally published, reach out to your publisher to see if they can help you set up ads. 
3. Experiment with ads. If you are self-published through KDP, login, and explore the system and experiment with ads. You can spend as low as $50-$100 or $300-$500 for ads. It all depends on your budget and how much you want to spend. 

Let us know below if you will take any of today’s action steps. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here. 

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Becky Robinson

I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.