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ADVERTISE ON AMAZON
There is a new opportunity available to advertise your book on Amazon.
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A2DJUTY13KIH2C
How would you like to advertise your book directly on Amazon.com?
That would be cool, huh?
What if you could do this on a modest budget?
Even better!
Well, now you can:
- minimum campaign budget is $100
- minimum bid is 2 cents
- pay per click
But there’s a catch:
It’s only open to KDP Select authors.
I think it’s a nice benefit for enrolling in KDP Select, on top of current benefits like Kindle Unlimited.
So if you bid 2 cents, a campaign budget of $100 can net you 5000 clicks.
Higher bids are more likely to result in advertisements being shown and result in clicks. But then you get fewer clicks for your money, also.
I like that the charge is per click. You’re not charged when people see your ad, but don’t click on it.
This helps with branding. However many clicks you get, even more people who didn’t click on your ad saw it, which helps you brand your image.
Another nice feature:
targeting
Amazon will let you target your advertisement to a specific genre, for example. This helps your ad reach a specific target audience.
Compared to advertising on Goodreads, Twitter, or Facebook, advertising on Amazon doesn’t drive traffic to leave one site and visit another. These customers are already on Amazon. That’s cool!
BOOK ADVERTISING
Advertising expenses often don’t produce immediate results for book sales. Unlike paper towels, there are millions of other books to choose from.
Some of the most effective book marketing you can do is free. If you make the most of your free marketing potential, advertising will supplement this.
The more books you have out, the more potential paid advertising has. Then someone who clicks on your ad might buy several of your books instead of just one.
But with a minimum bid of 2 cents and campaign budget of $100, advertising on Amazon isn’t too expensive of a risk. Nobody wants to throw $100 away though. (If you do, feel free to borrow my trash can.)
It’s even more important to have a compelling cover that conveys your genre clearly. This will help you get clicks with your ad.
And it’s even more important to have a great blurb and Look Inside. This will help you close the deal once you get the traffic.
And it’s even more important to have a great book, as good as you can make it. This will give you your best chances when it comes to reviews and recommendations.
Another thing that might be worth doing is waiting until you have several reviews before you advertise. You’d hate for one of your first reviews to be a real stinker shortly after paying for an advertisement.
Last tip: Consider putting your book on sale with a Countdown Deal. Then you have something more compelling than just a link to your book.
HOW TO DO IT
The book you wish to advertise must be enrolled in KDP Select.
Visit your KDP Bookshelf.
Click the Promote and Advertise link under the KDP Select column.
Click the Create an Ad Campaign button.
This will take you to Amazon Marketing Services, but it will say Return to Kindle Direct Publishing at the top of the page.
Select one of your books.
Target your ad by product or by interest.
- By interest lets you choose one broad category. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to let you select a subcategory.
- By product lets you target similar books or products on Amazon. Note that if your book already appears on the first page of the Customers Also Bought list, people viewing those books are already seeing your book. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include those books, especially if they’re highly relevant; the additional ad might make the difference. It’s just something to consider.
You can select multiple interests or products (but not both interests and products). I would select several similar products, but I would only select one interest.
The remaining steps should be straightforward.
If you try it, good luck. 🙂
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2015
Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers
- Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
- Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
- 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
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Comments
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chrismcmullen 
The information was interesting to read, but I have to tell you, the garbage can intrigued me…can I put one beside yours? Grin
Sure. 🙂
Why thank you!
Reblogged this on Legends of Windemere and commented:
This is very interesting.
It sure has me curious. For better or for worse, I want to test it out. 🙂
Same here. So one basically puts a base amount of money in and states how much of it gets used per click? I’m still unclear on how it works.
Sounds kind of like Goodreads and Twitter advertising. They use bidding, too. I guess trying it out will remove some of the mystery. 🙂
Yeah. I do wonder about the bidding/only if a person clicks system. I guess I wonder what happens if a bunch of friends of the author who already have the book click on the ad if it comes through email.
Guess you have to warn (beg) friends not to click on your ad. Think maybe the ad will appear on Amazon, not email; but maybe..
Good point. I couldn’t figure out where the ad will appear. I’ll probably try it at the minimum when it goes live.
It’s targeted, so it will probably appear when customers are shopping for similar books, or maybe on the pages of customers who have bought similar books in the past. 🙂
Good to know – too bad I’m not ready to launch: those who use this first may find it works best. I’m thinking it will look as if Amazon is recommending, not selling.
Too many ads, though, and the result will feel very different from the usual also-boughts.
Another one we’ll have to wait and watch.
Fiction may have different results from how-to books.
Thanks for the link.
Those are all good points. Thank you. 🙂 Since it’s bidding, Amazon can choose to limit the ads shown. It will be interesting to see it in action. It will be somewhat different once customers get used to it.
Thanks for the tip, Chris! I tried it out, and it took me to the Amazon Marketing Services (https://ams.amazon.com/) where I’m asked to register for the service. There are only two ways of doing so: you either have a Vendor Code, or request one as a brand rep. I tried the latter, and was informed that within 8 days they’ll get back to me. So, I’ll keep you posted 🙂
Sounds like it’s progressing. When it first appeared at KDP, there wasn’t an option to do anything. I’ll have to check it out again now. Thanks for the update. 🙂
When I tried this, it allowed me to set up an ad from my KDP account. Vendor codes and brand reps are for traditional publishers, I believe. I was able to place an ad and run it from within the KDP framework (it did take me to an AMS page, but still said KDP at the top).
Visit your KDP Bookshelf. Click the Promote and Advertise link under the KDP Select column. Then click the Create an Ad Campaign button. Select a book and complete the details.
That is so weird, I just tried it again, and this time it worked just like you say. I think they’re setting it up as we speak! 🙂
We got to see it unfold. 🙂
I’m a little confused by the $100 figure. If you run a campaign and you don’t get enough clicks during the period of the campaign, does it still cost $100 or do you just pay for the ‘clicked clicks’ and get a refund? Not sure if I’ve explained that well – I’m very new to this kind of thing.
Goodreads has a similar bidding structure. Goodreads doesn’t have a $100 minimum, but if your clicks don’t add up to the campaign budget that you set, you can request a refund. Hopefully, Amazon will work similarly, and will clarify this point. Good question. 🙂
Sounds like a great idea! But you know whats going to happen… people are going to be so bombarded with author ads, they’re going to pay no attention to them and totally ignore them!
Having said that, I may give it a go, but not until my third book is published!
The ad process involves a bid, which may keep the advertising limited. That’s a possible long-term side effect, though. Amazon has plenty of data on ads, as traditional publishers have done this for years, so I’m going to put my confidence with them. 🙂
Reblogged this on The Linden Chronicles: The Wolf's Moon by Patrick Jones and commented:
Excellent post from Chris McMullen about the opportunity to advertise on Amazon through KDP Amazon Marketing Services
Thank you for the kind words and the reblog. 🙂
You’re welcome! I am going to try it out! Thanks so much for the information!!
OK…I tried it! Started with 100 limit and 0.03 per click. We shall see! Thanks so much for the heads up!!
Good luck. 🙂 You should get page view stats as a sweet bonus.
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog….. An Author Promotions Enterprise! and commented:
AUTHORS – READ ALL ABOUT IT… 😀
Thank you. 🙂 (I like the headline.)
Part of my misspent youth selling newspapers Chris 😀 😀 D
Thanks, Chris. My third book is about to come out and I think I will try this and see if it helps. Making a game plan….
I hope it works well for you. Good luck. 🙂
Reblogged this on Phoenix Rainez and commented:
This sounds GREAT
Thank you. 🙂
Thanks for this post. Its worth a try. Your other posts look like useful reading too and will be going thru all of them as time allows. Thanks again for this insight into Amazon
If you try it, I hope it works well for you. Good luck. 🙂
Saw this last night. Still kind of wondering about it. Might have to look into it once the funds open up.
Looks like we get page view data with the ad reporting. For me, that was a sweet bonus. 🙂
I only have one book. Should I wait until I have more? Is it $100 a month or a year or for how long?
Going to check this out. Sharing with friends on Twitter!
Tough call. It may work best in the early days, yet with more books you may have better chances. One bonus appears to be page views, data we don’t normally get from Amazon. You get to set a time period (though it could get spent well before your end date).
Hmm. So torn.
It partly depends on your goals. In case you don’t recover your investment ($100 is still a big risk), might it help with branding? Would some tracking data (page views) help you in other ways? Will the book sell some on its own? (Advertising isn’t the cure for a book that doesn’t sell.) Will you promote the book in other ways? Do you expect some early reviews? These are things that I’d consider. Plus the worst case of very little to show for $100 spent.
Yeah, I’ve already spent more than I wanted. But for my reputation it was worth it. I’ll wait a bit and see how it does first, maybe.
Aah. If only it weren’t Select exclusive. I hope it doesn’t get to the point where we have no choice but to join. It will be interesting to see how this works out for people who are in!
The approval email mentioned page views, which would be a sweet bonus. I’m going to see how this goes.
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Thanks Chris, I’m giving it a try. Will let you know how it works.
J C Martin
James Conroyd Martin
I hope it works well for you. Good luck. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your advices.
There`s another service for ebook promotion.
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