Bid + is gone and now it's better (IMHO)

[notthatamanda]

I guess everybody's hiding today to avoid Endgame spoilers.   

AMS Change - Now you can choose, up to 900% for first page placement, or sponsored product placement!
Also I am very excited about the portfolios to sort campaigns.  My life is lame, I didn't even know what Endgame was.  My kid said two of her friends who have tickets this weekend saw spoilers and cried.  I promise to keep the cone of silence with what little I know. 

[Post-Crisis D]

I guess everybody's hiding today to avoid Endgame spoilers.

The novelization for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was released about a month before the movie.  I guess they weren't worried about spoilers.    Anyway, I read the book before I saw the movie.  The "big reveal" wasn't ruined by reading before seeing.  I did, though, know a bit I didn't want to see and looked away when I knew it was coming but looked back too soon and saw it anyway.

Heck, George Lucas basically spilled the entire plot of Star Wars in an interview published a month or two before the movie's release.

On the one hand, I understand keeping secrets and keep plenty of my own for my stuff.  But, on the other hand, if knowing how something ends ruins the book or movie, then maybe it wasn't a good story to begin with.  I mean, I know how the original Star Wars movies end yet I'll watch them again anyway.  There are stories I know the ending of and all the twists and I'll re-read them anyway.  If knowing the "spoilers" ruins things, reruns probably wouldn't be a thing.

And, on that note, I read the entire summary of Avengers: Endgame as soon as I found it online.  I'll still see the movie eventually.

And now I've entirely derailed your thread.  Sorry. 

[notthatamanda]

Threads are like a long summer, they end eventually.

Did I get that right?

[123mlh]

I've been waiting for them to give that placement bidding option to KDP accounts since Advantage have had it for a while and I think it can make a difference if you use it well. Of course, with changes to dynamic bidding it's also an easy way to lose your shirt. You take a $1 bid that you've entered, dynamic bidding doubles that, and then you change the placement setting and suddenly you could be bidding $18 for a click. Most won't mess up that bad, but it can get high fast if you start playing around with those settings.

[dgcasey]

I've been waiting for them to give that placement bidding option to KDP accounts since Advantage have had it for a while and I think it can make a difference if you use it well. Of course, with changes to dynamic bidding it's also an easy way to lose your shirt. You take a $1 bid that you've entered, dynamic bidding doubles that, and then you change the placement setting and suddenly you could be bidding $18 for a click. Most won't mess up that bad, but it can get high fast if you start playing around with those settings.

I have to get it figured out because I saw one bid yesterday go from .50 cents normal bid to $2.44 for one click. That doesn't work for me. I'm going to have to take a course or something on these new bids. Right now, I'm set to 0% on those.

[Maggie Ann]

I've been waiting for them to give that placement bidding option to KDP accounts since Advantage have had it for a while and I think it can make a difference if you use it well. Of course, with changes to dynamic bidding it's also an easy way to lose your shirt. You take a $1 bid that you've entered, dynamic bidding doubles that, and then you change the placement setting and suddenly you could be bidding $18 for a click. Most won't mess up that bad, but it can get high fast if you start playing around with those settings.

I have to get it figured out because I saw one bid yesterday go from .50 cents normal bid to $2.44 for one click. That doesn't work for me. I'm going to have to take a course or something on these new bids. Right now, I'm set to 0% on those.

I was thinking of dipping my toes in the AMS water again but now I don't think so. It's seems like it's more of a cannonball than a dip.

[notthatamanda]

I've been waiting for them to give that placement bidding option to KDP accounts since Advantage have had it for a while and I think it can make a difference if you use it well. Of course, with changes to dynamic bidding it's also an easy way to lose your shirt. You take a $1 bid that you've entered, dynamic bidding doubles that, and then you change the placement setting and suddenly you could be bidding $18 for a click. Most won't mess up that bad, but it can get high fast if you start playing around with those settings.

I have to get it figured out because I saw one bid yesterday go from .50 cents normal bid to $2.44 for one click. That doesn't work for me. I'm going to have to take a course or something on these new bids. Right now, I'm set to 0% on those.

Wow I didn't realize that could happen.  I put 100% in for "top of search, first page".  Left the product pages at zero.   I figured I'm willing to bid X per click, for the first page I would pay a max of 2X.  Didn't want to get too crazy with it because maybe I missed something.  If someone could explain how that works in more detail I would appreciate it, cause the AMS definition spelled out the max I would pay and it said 2X.

[123mlh]

I've been waiting for them to give that placement bidding option to KDP accounts since Advantage have had it for a while and I think it can make a difference if you use it well. Of course, with changes to dynamic bidding it's also an easy way to lose your shirt. You take a $1 bid that you've entered, dynamic bidding doubles that, and then you change the placement setting and suddenly you could be bidding $18 for a click. Most won't mess up that bad, but it can get high fast if you start playing around with those settings.

I have to get it figured out because I saw one bid yesterday go from .50 cents normal bid to $2.44 for one click. That doesn't work for me. I'm going to have to take a course or something on these new bids. Right now, I'm set to 0% on those.

Wow I didn't realize that could happen.  I put 100% in for "top of search, first page".  Left the product pages at zero.   I figured I'm willing to bid X per click, for the first page I would pay a max of 2X.  Didn't want to get too crazy with it because maybe I missed something.  If someone could explain how that works in more detail I would appreciate it, cause the AMS definition spelled out the max I would pay and it said 2X.

For what you did, that sounds right.

If you go to the Campaign Settings tab you'll see that there are now three options for campaign bidding strategy. The middle one, Dynamic bids - up and down, will potentially double your bid. If you then were to combine that with a 900% on the adjust bids by placement setting that would be how you get from a $1 bid to an $18 bid. The placement increases your bid by up to 9x and then that dymanic adjustment doubles it.

The thing I needed to be very careful about is that I had some higher bids on individual keywords. So, say that you're bidding $3 on a keyword and you put in 100% for the placement adjustment. That takes you to $6 for a bid. But if you also clicked that dynamic bids - up and down option, now you're at $12 for that bid. So those who use those settings and have high bids on individual keywords can see some almost exponential increases in bid cost.

[idontknowyet]

Is one click on any book ever worth $12????????????? 

[notthatamanda]

DG I just started a new campaign.  I used the "Adjust bids by placement" choice.  Instead of the old bid plus where it would go up 50% you can adjust up to 900%.   I only got two clicks yesterday but they were both in the range I expected them to be.  No surprises.  (Conahura, knock wood)

Edit - I just looked at one campaign that existed before the change and it seems that it defaulted to Dynamic Bids down only.  Well at least they didn't make it up, but I have to adjust every campaign now.

[notthatamanda]

I still don't understand how DG bid $0.50 and it went to $2.44.  Something isn't right there.  According to how it's supposed to work, his maximum bid should have been $1 if Dynamic up and down was on, or am I missing something?

From the AMS page:

Dynamic bids - down only
When you choose the "dynamic bids - down only" strategy, Amazon will reduce your bids in real time for clicks that may be less likely to convert to a sale. Any campaigns created before April 2019 used this strategy.

Suppose you're advertising a book, and you bid $1.00 for the keyword "thriller." If Amazon sees an opportunity where we predict your ad may be less likely to convert to a sale (e.g., a less relevant search query, on a placement that does not perform well, etc.), we might lower your bid to $0.20 for that auction.

Dynamic bids - up and down
When you choose the "dynamic bids - up and down" strategy, Amazon will increase your bids in real time for clicks that may be more likely to convert to a sale, and reduce them for clicks that may be less likely to convert to a sale. We won't increase your bids by more than 100% for placements at the top of the first page of search results, or by more than 50% for all other placements. Because this strategy adjusts your bid up and down in proportion to likelihood of a conversion, it may deliver more conversions for your ad spend compared to the other two strategies.

Suppose you're advertising a book, and you bid $1.00 for the keyword "thriller." If Amazon finds an opportunity where your ad may be more likely to convert to a sale (e.g. your ad appearing for a highly relevant search query, on a placement that performs well, etc.), it might set your bid to $1.40 for that auction. If Amazon finds another opportunity that looks less likely to convert to a sale, we might lower your bid to $0.20 for that auction.

Amazon can currently adjust your bid of $1.00 up to a maximum of $2.00 for opportunities on top of the first page of search results, and up to $1.50 for opportunities on all other placements.

Fixed bids
When you choose the "fixed bids" strategy, Amazon will use your exact bid for all opportunities and will not adjust your bids based on likelihood of a conversion. Compared to dynamic bidding strategies, you're likely to get more impressions, but fewer conversions for your ad spend with this strategy.

Edit: a little formatting to make it easier to read I hope