Think you have to spend a ton of money to advertise on Amazon? That’s just not true. Read on to discover the secrets to sticking to your budget.
You’ve probably heard that you have to “spend money to make money” and that if you ever hope to sell your books outside of your circle of friends, you need to advertise.
Amazon is one of the best platforms for doing that. Amazon ads are relatively cheap and easy to set up, and you’ll be advertising to one of the biggest book marketplaces in the world. But if you are on a shoestring budget, how can you advertise on Amazon without breaking the bank?
Here are three quick tips to help you advertise on Amazon, on a budget.
1. Keep Your Bids Low
The first way to save money on Amazon ads involves ignoring Amazon’s suggestions for how much to bid. Typically, Amazon will suggest anywhere between 75 cents and a couple of dollars for the keywords you want to use. But it’s not necessary to bid that much.
It’s true that higher bids mean more people will see your ads right away. But sales is a long game, so you don’t need to worry about that. At Best Page Forward, we suggest bids of no more than 30 cents for a standalone book and 35 cents for a book in a series. These low bids mean that you won’t ever spend more than those few cents on each click your ads get — and sometimes you might spend less!
So while you will have to be patient for your ads to turn on, you’ll also see far less of a dent to your pocketbook… while still getting clicks and sales. How cool is that?
2. Set a Low Daily Budget
Your daily budget is the maximum amount per day that Amazon will charge you. If you exceed that amount, your ads will turn off until the next day.
Some writers on a budget freak out about the idea of setting a daily budget of $5/day. They do the math in their heads and realized $5/day x 31 days in the month x multiple ads adds up to hundreds of dollars, which is more than they can afford.
But don’t panic. Amazon rarely, if ever, uses your entire budget for the day. So if you set a low daily budget, you will NOT be spending close to that amount per day and should be able to afford the monthly expenditure.
3. Use a Portfolio Cap
If you’re really worried about your Amazon ads breaking the bank, you can put your ads into a portfolio and set a cap. What this does is tell Amazon not to spend more than a certain amount on the ads in the portfolio.
When you hit that maximum amount, the ads stop… and don’t start again unless you increase the budget. You can create a start and end date for the budget, too, just like you do for ads, so that you have complete control over your spending.
This gives you peace of mind because you’ll know that you can never spend more than you can afford on your Amazon ads. And as you begin to profit from your ads, you can increase your budget to reflect your new financial circumstances.
You Can Successfully Advertise on Amazon on a Budget
Advertising on Amazon is a lot cheaper than you might think. You can customize your daily budget, bids, and total portfolio budget to make sure that you spend within your means while still getting your book in front of ideal readers. When set up correctly, you’ll be selling books without emptying your wallet on ads.
Want to learn how to make a living writing with better Amazon Ads? Click here to get our Top 10 Amazon Advertising tips!