Amazon Ads Not Profitable? Why Authors Should Still Run Amazon Ads

Amazon ads aren't always profitable, but I'm going to argue that most authors should be running Amazon ads no matter what. So if you're wondering why, well, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book Broad. I'm founder of a full service self publishing company called Book Launchers. At Book Launchers, we have courses to help you write and promote a nonfiction book. We have a marketing mastermind group, and the foundation of what we do is a full service assisted self publishing. In other words, we do a lot of things that support authors to write, publish and promote their books, including Amazon ads. And sometimes when we're running Amazon ads, the ads aren't profitable, but we'll recommend an author continue them. And here's why. Number one, ads are an investment in your author business. I'm not saying throw money into ads recklessly and losses be darned. No, I want you to be profitable. But that isn't always going to happen at the outset. Sometimes ads are an investment in education or even in brand protection, but more on that in a moment. What I am saying is that money spent on ads isn't wasted, it's invested. So long as you look at the learning and use it. One of the ways to make this a real investment is to gain information from the journey that you can use to profit in other ways. This starts by discovering if your metadata is on point. If you aren't getting any clicks on your ads and you're confident in the targeting of those ads, it's time to look at the COVID You might love that cover, but it's probably hurting you. And the data tells you that it could also be your title. But a cover change is easier to test than a title change, so you would start there. Now, if you're getting clicks but no sales, and again, you feel confident in that targeting, it's time to look at the first line of your book description, the number and overall valuation of your reviews, and scrutinize what you see on that first click from the eye of your ideal reader. Don't find five things and change them all at once. Tweak one thing at a time and let it ride for a week or two. And then tweak. Another thing. Speaking of making changes, you shouldn't be spending more than a couple of hours managing your ads each week. If you are, you're probably messing with too many things. All right, Number two, ads help you become one with the Amazon algorithm. Not running ads means you're not taking advantage of this powerful creation, the algorithm Amazon ads has campaigns for automatic targeting and category targeting. These are designed to work with the algorithm. Reader and buyer behavior is constantly on the move and there are new books coming out all the time that are going to impact the performance of your book. The algorithms are always recalibrating based on that. So creating ad campaigns like these that can drive sales as well as help you discover new keywords that you can then use to set up for other targeted ad campaigns is really smart. The good thing about these is that you don't really have to mess with them all the time. Like the other campaigns. The category targeting allows you to get exposure for your book constantly and only pay when someone clicks on it. And you can be gaining exposure in your category and then if it's working, you can add spend. These ads are also simple to set up and it gives you important exposure so your book is seen. So if you haven't started running Amazon ads to date because you think running ads is complicated or that you're going to spend too much money, we'll start with these campaigns. Because running these kinds of campaigns will help you gain insights into Amazon's algorithm. So you can learn more about the people who are buying your book and get Amazon's algorithm to work for you. And you can set your spend as low as $5 per day. And Amazon doesn't spend it automatically like Facebook does. They're only spending it when somebody clicks on your ads. So it can be a very, very affordable way to get started and get some information. Number three, you need to be seen to build and protect your brand. Did you watch my video on the five Reasons My Second Book Didn't Sell? I'll link to it at the end so you can check it out. But one of the issues is that when you searched for my book title and it was the wrong title that most people thought it was, and even when it was my title, Dori Clark's book on branding usually showed up at the top on Amazon. What I should have done was start running a whole lot of ads to target her book and the keywords in my title so that my book was the one that was being seen. I didn't though. I was moving on to building book launchers and I was getting a visa to move from Canada to the U.S. while also being pregnant and managing the licensees of my courses from my previous business. So no regrets and no excuses, but I'm now sharing my lessons with you and protecting your brand or building it with these ads is a high value activity. Let me put it to you in another way, if a reader comes to Amazon to search for your book, if you're not running ads to protect your visibility, books by other authors will appear above your organic listing on the search result pages. And then what happens? The reader might get distracted and you may have lost a sale. Ads appear above organic listings on the Amazon search results. So if you don't run ads, you can lose sales to the authors that do. Your author name, book title, and even your ASIN are worth running ads on. So you're protecting your book. And the good news is those are usually pretty low cost for you to run because of high relevancy. Number four it's never one thing that produces results. This is as delightful as it is discouraging at times, but it is not just about running ads. Your ads will perform better when everything in your marketing plan is on point and firing. Your ads will perform more poorly if you're relying solely on ads to drive your book. In other words, ads aren't just about ads and turning ads off because they aren't profitable and your book seems to be selling without them. Well, that can be a big mistake. I was talking to a major podcaster the other day and he said that he writes down every book recommendation and once three people recommend it, he buys it and reads it. Now he is way more organized about it than I can guarantee most people are. But what I took away from that is just reinforcement that it's not one exposure or one recommendation that sells your book most of the time. Let me try to play this out for you. It might be that someone heard you on a podcast, then saw your ad, and then saw your social media post, and then went to Amazon and bought your book. They didn't buy it from your ad, but your ad contributed to the exposure and was part of the reason it sold. Conversely, while your ads might not be profitable on their own, every sale is putting you higher and higher on the ranking and will impact your book being shown in Amazon's list to ideal readers. That creates bigger picture visibility for your book that isn't directly attributable to the ads, but is impacted by the ads. Get it? So when you look at your Amazon ad campaign, look at all your Amazon results together. In other words, consider total sales and total royalties, not just the ones that are attributed to an ad. Plus, my gosh, the numbers in the ad reports never line up with the sales reports, which can be kind of frustrating. So you got to look at the big picture. Now. If your book is not selling at all and ads are losing money. It's time to go back to the basics and look at the positioning of your book. Who is your ideal reader? Why do they need this book now? Not just why do they need the book, but why do they need it right now? And does that come across in an obvious way with your book and your book description? Then what else are you doing to sell your book? And if you need a lot more help with this, well, you can start with a free copy of Self Promote and Succeed with which you can download@selfpromoteandsucceed.com audio. That's the free audiobook version. Or if you want us to get in and assess your book, you can connect with us about our book marketing mastermind or our full service marketing support. Head to booklaunchers.com and visit the service page or schedule a call@booklaunchers.com Bookacall the missing piece is always action. Hope does not work. You can't hope your book will sell or that your brand is going to grow or your business is going to expand and you have to be on the move and doing things. Everything that doesn't work is just a lesson to learn from. And if you're able to look at it that way, you will find Amazon ads are a valuable part of your author marketing plan. So reach out if you need support and then head to this video on the five reasons why my second book didn't sell or this one that the YouTube algorithm says you should watch. When you get there, please say hi. I always respond to comments. Go ahead and test me.