Ad Performance Impacts Your Ad’s Chance of Being Shown with Amazon’s AMS

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Image from ShutterStock.

AMS ADVERTISING: CLICK HISTORY

It’s not just your cost-per-click (CPC) bid that matters.

It’s also your click history.

When you advertise with Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), click history in addition to your CPC bid determine the chances that your ad will be shown to customers.

Amazon’s bidding algorithm for advertising space via AMS takes into account the click-through rate (CTR) as well as the CPC bid.

That should make sense. You only pay for clicks; impressions are free. Also, ads with higher CTR’s and closing rates (sales per click) are more relevant to customers.

Amazon would prefer to show ads that are (A) more relevant for customers and (B) where customers are more likely to click on the ad (and then buy the product, and then be satisfied with their purchase).

A good CTR also helps you. For example, if you’re a self-published author advertising with AMS via KDP Select, a higher CTR and a higher closing rate mean that customers are interested in your book. Those are also the customers who are more likely to purchase and then enjoy your book.

Here are ways to improve the CTR of your ad, and hence improve the chances of your ad being shown to customers:

  • Choose your targeting well so that it’s a good match for your customers. If you target by product or keyword, use keywords that are a good fit for your specific target audience.
  • The ad thumbnail should clearly reveal the nature of the product. For a book, the tiny cover thumbnail that appears in the ad should make the expectations clear.
  • The title of the product and the tag line should both create interest and help to make the nature of the content clear.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

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Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

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8 comments on “Ad Performance Impacts Your Ad’s Chance of Being Shown with Amazon’s AMS

  1. Yes, that make sense. Amazon tries to optimize the performance of their ads, and seems they are pretty good at creating algorithms like this. Great advice, thanks for sharing here Chris.

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