Author Topic: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...  (Read 2589 times)

Indiecognito

AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« on: July 22, 2020, 07:37:56 AM »
I was fiddling with the KENP metric tab, as those numbers have always been a mystery to me in past. Great that AMS added the metric, but it's also not great for them.

I've always allowed myself a pretty garbage ACOS, because my page reads are substantial and it's seemed worth it based on the traffic the ads *seem* to drive to the books.

But seeing those numbers...makes me think the ads are having far less impact than I'd previously thought. It would seem that the bulk of my page reads are organic at this point, coming from other places (also boughts, word of mouth etc). So I've literally halved my ad spend. It'll be really interesting to see if it impacts the bottom line at all, because if it doesn't, then big :cheers

Full disclosure: I spend a few thousand a month on ads, and it's always been worth it based on sales alone, but my ACOS is worsening lately and the ad-based page reads aren't making up for it.

Anyone else having similar experiences?
 

LilyBLily

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2020, 09:17:19 AM »
I just got the email from KDP now. I agree it's a game changer.

I've not had a new release in months and I've been too busy to tinker with my AMS ads, so I have just let them ride...or maybe the correct word is sag. Now I have the time--and the tools--to examine exactly what my ads are giving me. And what they are not.
 
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cuberoute

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2020, 03:15:15 PM »
I was fiddling with the KENP metric tab, as those numbers have always been a mystery to me in past. Great that AMS added the metric, but it's also not great for them.

I've always allowed myself a pretty garbage ACOS, because my page reads are substantial and it's seemed worth it based on the traffic the ads *seem* to drive to the books.

But seeing those numbers...makes me think the ads are having far less impact than I'd previously thought. It would seem that the bulk of my page reads are organic at this point, coming from other places (also boughts, word of mouth etc). So I've literally halved my ad spend. It'll be really interesting to see if it impacts the bottom line at all, because if it doesn't, then big :cheers

Full disclosure: I spend a few thousand a month on ads, and it's always been worth it based on sales alone, but my ACOS is worsening lately and the ad-based page reads aren't making up for it.

Anyone else having similar experiences?

Holy hell, this is a massive change. Turns out my KU reads are overwhelmingly organic.

It would appear the only effect ads are having is pushing sales, which increases rank to get the books into top 100 of categories, and then organic sales/reads are happening.

My attributed KENP read is seriously 804 pages. On books that have made tens of thousands in royalties. So $3.69 in KU page reads.

I'm happy Amazon added this metric but wow does it blow apart the assumptions I've been using (and assumptions a lot of people in Mark Dawson's ad courses are using).

I have a boxset that is making about $100-120 a day, and has been running about $10 of AMS per day. Zero attributed page reads. No one clicked and then borrowed? Seriously? Not a single person?
 

Simon Haynes

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2020, 03:32:34 PM »
I have my dashboard set to show the past 7 days, but the KENP figs are the same for 'year to date' and 'this month'. I'll wait a week to see whether there's any movement - and before I decide to mess with my ads.

Also, does anyone else have a UK account from way back before it was widely available? I do, and mine doesn't have the new KENP metric. I've emailed support about it. The other countries all work fine.


 

cuberoute

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2020, 03:46:07 PM »
I feel like the metric of borrows would be very useful (maybe even more useful).

Like run a campaign and see it generates 300 borrows, even if the actual KU pages aren't high, is a good indicator. Plenty of people borrow and then read much later.
 

TimothyEllis

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Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2020, 05:05:15 PM »
I had a look at my only ad.

The column has been added to the top 2 levels of the ad, but not to the books themselves.

And the columns have a nice little dash in them.

Which suggests to me the KENP figure is going to be just as accurate as the sales figure is.

In other words, totally useless.

I'd not had an ad going before I started this one, and after I did, KU reads definitely improved. Now it might be the case this isn't happening any more, and I do really need to do a new ad sometime soon, but I think it's a matter of Amazon hasn't got the usual clue.

For people spending big money, and getting big results, the new page figure is probably going to be lost in what they normally do anyway.

For people like me doing almost a token ad to keep the Zon happy, all we're going to see is null figures.

So those doing well out of ads will be convinced to keep going, and those doing badly from ads will be convinced to give up. Amazon are not going to notice the ones who give up.
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notthatamanda

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2020, 11:00:50 PM »
Speculation - does this indicate that Amazon is steering ads towards people who aren't in KU, maybe leaving the KU readers for the low bidders?  I wonder if anyone who is in KU can report what they see for ads.

Tim - so do you really think having the one ad makes a difference?

I'm not in KU or doing any AMS right now, just for transparency.
 

TimothyEllis

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Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2020, 11:05:28 PM »
Tim - so do you really think having the one ad makes a difference?

Right now, I don't know.

It was an experiment in low bidding, and it when it began, it did boost my daily average.

But since then my releases have been doing better, and so it may not be doing anything at all. But for 25 bucks a month, I can't really complain, and Amazon can't get narked I'm not using AMS.
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LilyBLily

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2020, 11:43:17 PM »
It occurred to me that Book Report has been showing page reads already, but of course those are not tied to specific ads.
 

DmGuay

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2020, 12:45:01 AM »
It's important to remember that the KENP measure in AMS only started tracking page reads attributed to your ad as of July 15, 2020. No page reads before that date will show up on your dashboard.

And, I suspect the data will also take time to populate, as does all of the other data. So like anything with AMS, it's prudent to wait and see and gather more data before making ad changes.
 
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Simon Haynes

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2020, 12:58:01 AM »
Re the lack of KENP on my UK dashboard - I was using an Amazon Advantage UK account, which was once the only way to get ads onto amazon.co.uk.  This account doesn't support KENP, but when I clicked the promote button next to one of my books on the KDP bookshelf, then selected the UK marketplace, I was able to set up a new AA account in the UK and this one DOES have KENP.

It means setting up my ads again, but it was time for a cleanup anyway.
 

Indiecognito

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2020, 01:05:17 AM »
It's important to remember that the KENP measure in AMS only started tracking page reads attributed to your ad as of July 15, 2020. No page reads before that date will show up on your dashboard.

And, I suspect the data will also take time to populate, as does all of the other data. So like anything with AMS, it's prudent to wait and see and gather more data before making ad changes.

Yep. But even if this is the case, I’ll be tweaking my spend. It’s clear based on initial numbers that I can afford to slightly lower my per-ad daily budget without massively impacting final numbers.
 

DmGuay

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #12 on: July 23, 2020, 01:18:37 AM »
Absolutely. I will definitely--and we all should be--monitoring this page reads data.

Just for those who want to jump in right this second and make changes, I'd suggest waiting. Plus, it didn't seem like some of the above posters realized the data didn't go all the way back to when the ad was created.
 
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Indiecognito

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2020, 01:56:10 AM »
Agreed! It took me a bit of digging to realize my KENP are all from the last 7 days, in fact. :)

It's actually super-useful data, but data that I'll have to extrapolate from as the bulk of my reads (via AMS) are for the first in a long series, so I have to take into account subsequent reads on further books etc. But I'm actually pretty excited about having these numbers, as it makes it MUCH easier to decide how to advertise. Hopefully they'll end up being accurate-ish...   :banana:
 

DmGuay

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #14 on: July 23, 2020, 02:10:32 AM »
Honestly, it's just great that Amazon made the effort to show us this data, instead of leaving us scrambling around in the dark.
Maybe this is the start of making the AMS data more useful for authors. Fingers crossed?
 
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Indiecognito

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #15 on: July 23, 2020, 02:17:18 AM »
Honestly, it's just great that Amazon made the effort to show us this data, instead of leaving us scrambling around in the dark.
Maybe this is the start of making the AMS data more useful for authors. Fingers crossed?

Totally.

It's always felt a bit like guesswork. I'd love to be able to feel like I'm pinpointing where my spend goes and really taking advantage of the numbers. This does help a lot.
 

Anarchist

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #16 on: July 23, 2020, 02:36:12 AM »
For people spending big money, and getting big results, the new page figure is probably going to be lost in what they normally do anyway.

I ignore KENP because it doesn't generate much revenue for me. I rarely break 10K pages a day.

When I saw the alert on my AMS dash, I hit "Dismiss." lol
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Hopscotch

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #17 on: July 23, 2020, 04:45:45 AM »
Comparing the limited data offered so far in the new KENP tracker with my own miserable AMS track record suggests AMS does almost nothing for reads and little more for sales, at least in the categories in which I write.  But when I have in frustration shut down AMS for 3-4wks at a time, both my reads and sales almost flatline.  Go figure.  Time to go back to animal sacrifice under a blue moon?
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Indiecognito

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #18 on: July 23, 2020, 09:15:05 AM »
Comparing the limited data offered so far in the new KENP tracker with my own miserable AMS track record suggests AMS does almost nothing for reads and little more for sales, at least in the categories in which I write.  But when I have in frustration shut down AMS for 3-4wks at a time, both my reads and sales almost flatline.  Go figure.  Time to go back to animal sacrifice under a blue moon?

Right? This has always freaked me out and made me paranoid to stop advertising, much as I'd love to (the most I ever made was in the days when I didn't need to advertise, and that was a sweet algorithmic ride). I do notice sales drooping when I let up on the ads, so I feed them.

What I love about the KENP data is being able to see specifically what keywords are yielding what are most likely complete read-throughs. That helps for sure.
 

notthatamanda

Re: AMS ads, KENP metric and what it means for the company...
« Reply #19 on: July 23, 2020, 10:12:29 AM »
I get sales without AMS (conahura, knock wood) no idea why, but I could never really get AMS going after the big change in April/May 2019. Thinking of doing Tim's idea of one ad, buck a day. But that's mostly because I have a strand of compulsive gambler DNA.