What does targeting specific products in AMS/AA get ya?

[notthatamanda]

I was wondering what the difference was between using a keyword and targeting a specific ebook.  Sometimes I'll search, on Amazon, for a book and the search brings up one or two sponsored books in the list before the book I wanted.  (Side note - personally I find that annoying)  Are those targeted product ads?

What's the point of using a specific product instead of just a keyword?  I think a keyword exact search would do the same thing for the most part, with the occasional exception, eg, once I saw a phrase that was a title that was also printed on a t-shirt, so if you searched on "catchy phrase" you might get the t-shirt instead of the book.  An author with the last name of "Walker" gets me a row of mobility assistant devices at the top of the page, but still the books.

Anyone use them?  Or know exactly how they work differently?  Thanks, Amanda

[Bill Hiatt]

I was wondering what the difference was between using a keyword and targeting a specific ebook.  Sometimes I'll search, on Amazon, for a book and the search brings up one or two sponsored books in the list before the book I wanted.  (Side note - personally I find that annoying)  Are those targeted product ads?

What's the point of using a specific product instead of just a keyword?  I think a keyword exact search would do the same thing for the most part, with the occasional exception, eg, once I saw a phrase that was a title that was also printed on a t-shirt, so if you searched on "catchy phrase" you might get the t-shirt instead of the book.  An author with the last name of "Walker" gets me a row of mobility assistant devices at the top of the page, but still the books.

Anyone use them?  Or know exactly how they work differently?  Thanks, Amanda

I'm no expert, but I think the idea of targeting specific products is to get your book shown to people who might be looking for something similar. In order for it to work at maximum effectiveness, you need to find writers who are similar enough to you that someone who enjoys those writers is likely to enjoy your books as well.

If you can't already think of writers like that, an interesting starting point is to check your author page for other authors that your purchasers are also buying. When I was looking for some new reading, I tried that, and I liked every one of the authors I found that way. Not only that, but I could tell what features of their writing were similar to mine.

If you decide to do that, you may wish to discount any big names you see. Chances are they're selling well enough in the genre that they appear in a lot of people's lists without necessarily having that much in common. (For me, Michael Anderle started popping up some time ago.)

[notthatamanda]

Thanks Bill.
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I'm no expert, but I think the idea of targeting specific products is to get your book shown to people who might be looking for something similar. In order for it to work at maximum effectiveness, you need to find writers who are similar enough to you that someone who enjoys those writers is likely to enjoy your books as well.
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I don't get how this is different from just using keywords.  I guess I didn't explain it very well.  I already target specific authors and their books with keywords.  But when you set up an ad you can choose keywords, or categories and products.  Then when you choose categories/products you can target specific categories, eg, Science Fiction/Space Opera or specific products, eg the actual book you want to target.

One thing I think the product targeting might be useful for is targeting paperback/hardcover customers, because when you pick a specific product you can separate out the ebook, or the hardcover, or the paperback, or even audible.  But that's just a guess.   I don't know how AMS/AA treats those ads differently from keyword based ads, or what the advantage might be over using them.

Edit - oh and I messed up the quotes again.  Sorry.

[JRTomlin]

I get much better results from targetting a specific product than keywords and I've given it a little thought as to why.

Now I am sure different genres vary but for example, if I target 'historical mysteries' my ads might show anywhere from a cozy mystery set in New York in the 1940s to a mystery set in ancient Rome. Well, for sure the reader of that 20th-century mystery has a low possibility of liking medieval mysteries especially fairly dark ones like mine. So instead I specifically target medieval mysteries like those of Jason Vail. I also target his name specifically and certain other authors who write medieval mysteries other than cozies.

The same is true of my biographical novels. If I use say medieval historical fiction as a keyword a large part of what I will hit is probably historical romance which is just a No as a match. And even if I use romance as a negative keyword I'll still end up appearing on novels like The Summer Queen, which is a good novel, mind you, but most of its readers don't read what is basically military fiction and like mine. So instead I target novels by Griff Hosker and even Bernard Cornwell (although many of his readers balk at indy authors).

I know what novelists write fiction that is similar to mine and I am much better picking those out than Amazon is with general keywords. Now other genres might be less segmented than mine (which we've discussed before 😜) but that is why I do it that way.

ETA: Periodically I spend quite some time going through and picking out good matches. I know some people say that you should throw as wide a net as possible, but after several years using AMS ads, I have to say that I have found that to be a waste of money. The people that 'wide net' catches may look out of curiosity but they are 'looky-loos' who only look and very rarely buy.

[notthatamanda]

Thanks JR.

I'm confused in a different way now.   When you say you target specific products and get better results you mean you are using the actual product targeting?  Because you put in Griff Hosker and Bernard Cornwell books as products, in the product targeting?  And you found that was better than just putting in Griff Hosker and Bernard Cornwell, and various titles of their books in keyword targeting?

I'm referring to the choice one makes here, before you pick what you are going to target, you pick how:

Keyword targeting

Choose keywords to help your products appear in shopper searches. Learn more
Use this strategy when you know the search terms that customers use to search products similar to yours.

Product targeting
Choose specific products, categories, brands, or other product features to target your ads. Learn more
Use this strategy to help shoppers find your product when browsing detail pages and categories or searching products on Amazon.

I'm happy with the placement I get using specific authors and titles in keyword targeting.  I guess it might be time to run some experiments.

[JRTomlin]

Okay, I'm confused. I am not sure where you see 'product targeting'. I don't see any choice of that type, so I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to.

The first choice you have when you start a campaign is between Sponsored Product campaigns and Lockscreen campaigns. (I wouldn't touch a Lockscreen Campaign with a bargepole but that' just me) And then you have a choice between automatic targeting and manual targeting. (I wouldn't even consider automatic targeting)

I have a feeling we're talking completely at cross purposes here. 

Apparently, I totally misunderstood what you were asking. I thought you were asking why people use specific keywords rather than general keywords. I use very specific keywords. That doesn't have anything to do with the type of campaign so just ignore my reply.

[notthatamanda]

It's in manual targeting.  I'm on AMS/AA US.  Are you in the US or just in the UK?

You pick automatic or manual targeting, then scroll down and the keyword or product targeting pops up, just above where you enter keywords.

Thought I was taking crazy pills for a minute there.   

Ditto on Lockscreen ads.

I'm started a couple of product ads today.  One for an author I didn't have much success with, and one for one of my books that the ad was rejected because the title was misspelled.   (Side rant - you dumb bot, I've got other ads with that title and they went through just fine.  Bots should be smarter than that.  You're a bot.  Go back to bot school or something - End rant)

[JRTomlin]

Ah, now I see what you are talking about. Has that always been there? Because honest to god, I never noticed it. Sorry for being so dense.

I don't even know how that would work, so I am totally no help. Sorry.

[notthatamanda]

I think it showed up when the dynamic bidding did, but I can't be sure.

I think it would be good for specifically targeting audible, or paper copies, the customers who want those, neither of which I have to offer.  The suggested bids seem about the same.  If you have a weird title you want to target, that could be mistaken for some other kind of product, maybe it would help with that, but honestly I think the algos take care of 99% + of that.  They don't want to waste sponsored products spaces on something totally wrong, although they do mess it up occasionally.

Thanks for trying to help.  If you want any info on results of my experiment, just let me know.

Kids want the earless llama 

[JRTomlin]

You've obviously had much better luck with the algorithms on sponsored products than I have. I have had my ads end up in places that are worse than a waste which is why I use keywords that cannot possibly be mistaken not only for another kind of product but for a different novel or book. I don't trust the algos at all. Good luck with your experiment.

[notthatamanda]

Just for clarification, I don't use general keywords like "Historical Mystery" because, like you said it, would cast too wide a net.
My keywords are all strictly author names and titles of books, I'm always looking for new ones.

Edited to ad - Also TIL that putting a book title into the product search bar gives you a real good idea what the algos think are a good product match.  One title I put it had so many matches I couldn't find the one I was looking for.  I had to go back and find it via the ASIN number.  The other title by that author came up no problem.  If nothing else the product option will be a good way for me to screen keywords from now on.