January 2020 Amazon Ad Profit Challenge Day #2
A Few Clicks Away
I started with the harder of the three ad types. Sponsored Product Auto Targeted ads are the simplest. With just a few clicks, you can have a new campaign humming along. Every profitable book in your backlist should have an Auto Ad running.
Now, this is an ever-evolving platform. There’ve been a ton of Amazon Ad changes in the last year. This includes international ads in the UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy. There’s better tracking of Auto & Category Ads with the Search Term feature. And you can even add multiple books to the same ad. But we don’t need to do everything at once
Let’s start sample. We first need to make sure our books are profitable in the U.S. Next, we can play around with things like multi-book ads. But beyond Category, Keyword, Auto, and Multi ads in the U.S, I’d recommend you keep with what works until you’re making $500 profit a month.
Here’s what you’ll learn during Day #2:
1. How Amazon chooses the targets for your Sponsored Product Auto Targeted Ad
2. How to set up the easiest type of ad with just a few clicks
3. How to add multiple books to the same campaign with “ad groups”
Here are the tools you’ll need to complete the lesson:
1. An Internet browser on a laptop or desktop
2. A paperback edition of your ebook published through KDP Print (to run paperback ads)
3. Approximately 30 minutes to watch the video and 15-45 minutes to do the homework
Note: I’ll be explaining everything in text form below, but if you’d like to watch a screenshare to get the visuals, please check out the video above this post.
Let Amazon Choose?
With Keyword Ads, we pick the exact search terms Amazon should use for targeting. With Category Ads, we pick a subgenere as a whole and target only books within that category. But with Auto Targeted Ads, we don’t have to select anything. Amazon just does the targeting for us based on our book’s information.
Sponsored Product Auto Targeted Ads (SPAs) use your 2+ Categories and your 7 Keywords to select your targeting. If your book is in the wrong categories or has keywords that aren’t relevant to your book, then these ads won’t be shown to the right readers. Because this targeting can be limited, these ads are the least likely to serve at lower bids.
Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?
But theoretically, you can expand the targeting for your Ad by asking KDP Support for more categories. Each edition of your book (ebook, paperback, etc.) can be in as many as 10 categories. You can use BkLnk.com to see which categories you’re in, and then you can send additional categories you’d like to be added to in an email to KDP Support (note: you must use the whole category string). This may allow your Auto ads to be served to more readers.
Here’s How to Create an Auto Ad
1. Pick a Name that includes an acronym for your book that you can easily search
2. Pick a Budget, Duration, and Bid ($5 a day, 25/30 cent bid, January 31st for the end date)
3. Choose Automatic, choose Standard, and Pick Your Book
4. 2x Check Your Bid
5. Click Create Campaign and you’re all set!
The Latest Wrinkle
If you choose a Standard Ad (with no copy), then you can add more than one book to a single ad. These different books live in Ad Groups, which are now where you can see all Targeting stats. You can add multiple titles to all three types of Sponsored Product ads (SPK, SPC, and SPA), but it makes sense to only do this with related books in the same genre.
Pros & Cons
Pro: It takes even less time to create multiple ads at once
Con: It’s still a bit too early to know if these convert as well as single book ads
Pro: You can look at all of your targeting for multiple books on one page
Con: You’ll have to keep track of your single book ads and multi book ads
My Assessment: It’s worth experimenting on but don’t put all your eggs in one ad basket
Let’s imagine the possibilities. You could put ebooks and paperbacks for the same book into the same ad. You could put all of your Series Starter ebooks into a single ad. You could put every single one of your books into an SPA ad. We’ll do the first one as Extra Credit today, but feel free to experiment on your own.
Category, Keyword, and Auto
Now you know how to set up the three main profitable types of ads. By utilizing a mix of all three, you can get the data necessary to see if your book can be profitable. This strategy isn’t necessarily going to bring in the Big Bucks, but once you learn if a book is Profitable or not, you can devote more resources to it. Which could lead to thousands in additional royalties you never would’ve seen otherwise.
There’s Something Happening Here
You may already be seeing some impressions and clicks on your ads. If so, this is a great sign, and if not, it’s still early yet. In the next video, we’ll learn more about how to evaluate these stats. As a constant reminder, all accurate sales-related statistics can be found on the KDP Beta Dashboard.
Let’s get into today’s homework:
Video #2 Homework
1. Create one Sponsored Product Auto Targeted Ad with a 25-30 cent bid, a $5 budget, Standard (no copy) and at least two books
2. This can be an ebook and paperback of the same book (if you’re published through KDP Print)
3. Take a screenshot of your campaign creation and post it in the FB Group with the title “Video #2 Homework”
4. Comment on another author’s post to give them some much-deserved love
Video #2 Extra Credit 1
1. Create 3 Sponsored Product Auto Targeted Ads with a 25-30 cent bid, a $5 budget, Standard (no copy) and at least two books in each (this can be for 3 different titles)
2. Create at least 1 Category & 1 Keyword Ad with multiple books (25-30 cent bid, $5 budget, Standard (no copy) and at least two books)
3. Snap a screenshot of your new ads and post them in the FB Group with the title “Video #2 EC 1”
4.Please give another author in the group a comment on one of their posts
Video #2 Extra Credit 2
1. Create 5+ Sponsored Product Auto Targeted Ads with a 25-30 cent bid, a $5 budget, Standard (no copy) and at least two books in each (this can be for 5 different titles)
2. Create at least 3 Category & 3 Keyword Ads with multiple books (25-30 cent bid, $5 budget, Standard (no copy) and at least two books)
3. You are so impressive, so take a picture of your work and post it in the FB Group with the title “Video #2 EC 2”
4. Excited about another author’s efforts? Go give them a virtual high five with a comment on their post
Click here to join the Group and post your homework!
Now What?
The ads are set up and you can create as many as you want. “The waiting is the hardest part.” Next comes the Math Fun where we figure out what our results mean (and don’t fret if you have no results yet, because that’s perfectly normal). You can ask me any questions you want today at 3pm Eastern during the daily Q&A session. I look forward to chatting with you in the next video!
Have a wonderful day :).
Sincerely,
Bryan
PS: Your special Challenge Offer for Amazon Ad School expires on Monday, January 27th. Click here and select Add on the next page to get lifetime access to the Challenge and a whole lot more.