Problem - it don't work

[Marti Talbott]

Email from Amazon.
***
Amazon Advertising
Reach new readers internationally
Now KDP authors can reach readers in the U.K. and Germany using Sponsored Products from Amazon Advertising. It's an exciting step in helping authors increase visibility on Amazon internationally.

Get more eyes on your books today. Select the title you wish to promote from your KDP Bookshelf. Then, select the marketplace you want to reach and sign in using your KDP account.

Start promoting your books across the pond and beyond. ***Beyond is Germany)

I tried it, got to "start an ad," and "oops" page not found.

[notthatamanda]

Just tried it for the UK and it didn't work there either.  But, it's coming.

[123mlh]

Yeah, it's been going in and out on me today on the advertising tab. Tried signing in to the UK and it told me I wasn't authorized. A week or so ago they showed me a notice about an ad type I don't have access to. So, we'll see...

[notthatamanda]

More types of ads too?

[LilyBLily]

I had no trouble unpausing my regular UK ad, but I didn't go through that email. I went through a different email Amazon UK sent after I'd paused the ad. It has been profitable, so I turned it on again. So, anyway, the site works, but the link we all got today apparently doesn't.

[Marti Talbott]

I had no trouble unpausing my regular UK ad, but I didn't go through that email. I went through a different email Amazon UK sent after I'd paused the ad. It has been profitable, so I turned it on again. So, anyway, the site works, but the link we all got today apparently doesn't.

So do I have to build a whole new ad? It seems it would be simpler if the UK was just added to my .com ad. Hey, what's another column on the dashboard? It only took me a month to figure out all those other columns. 

[123mlh]

Different keywords and bids work in different markets. (Although the bid thing will change now.) I've had Advantage in the UK for a while under a different email.

[Marti Talbott]

Different keywords and bids work in different markets. (Although the bid thing will change now.) I've had Advantage in the UK for a while under a different email.

Sorry, I don't know what Advantage is. In the US, it's an insurance company for old people. I was wondering about the difference in bids. Do you recommend lower or higher to compete? 

[LilyBLily]

Different keywords and bids work in different markets. (Although the bid thing will change now.) I've had Advantage in the UK for a while under a different email.

Sorry, I don't know what Advantage is. In the US, it's an insurance company for old people. I was wondering about the difference in bids. Do you recommend lower or higher to compete?

Advantage is the account type I've been using to do ads in the UK only. Once Amazon fixes the glitch in the current email link, you can just do the new ads that way.

Bids are going to depend on what your books have as competition on the UK or other sites. Pick a medium number to start, I assume, and adjust once you get some views and clicks.

It's interesting that suddenly Amazon wants us to buy ads all over the world. Most of my stories are very U.S.-focused and I've already tested some in the UK and got nothing. I'll stick to advertising my one nonfiction title.

[VanessaC]

Prompted by this thread, I've just set up my first UK campaign - going through the KDP dashboard. I was only allowed to do a sponsored product ad, and no ability to add text. (This might be standard for sponsored product ads - I don't do a huge amount of advertising.)

Will be interested to see how it goes.

I do sell some books and get KU reads in Germany, and if I don't need to put text into the add, I might give it a go, too.

 

[Simon Haynes]

Keeps telling me (on the DE site) that I can only save my campaign as a draft until I've updated my billing settings - which I've now done twice.

[Vinjii]

I've just set up my first two UK campaigns with a very low bid, let's see what happens. A bit reluctant with the German market since I don't know if they do read English books  I know the market is huge over there though, especially for fantasy.

[notthatamanda]

Keeps telling me (on the DE site) that I can only save my campaign as a draft until I've updated my billing settings - which I've now done twice.

I had that last week on the American site, I waited it out, it was fine in 24 hours.  A couple of other people reported it which may have helped get it fixed.

I'm excited if we can do this, but nothing's working for me yet.  ADS tab on KDP doesn't have a working link, going in through the book and choosing the marketplace doesn't work.  Must. Be. Patient. (Not good at patient.)

Kid wants the llama. 

[Simon Haynes]

I already had an account on AMS UK, which is why I'm messing with the DE site.  No rush, and I'm sure there'll be teething problems.

By the way, I only got to the site in the first place by clicking promote against one of my ebooks. But now I've bookmarked it.

[notthatamanda]

Oh the must be patient was for me, not you, sorry. 

But I want it NOW!

[Simon Haynes]

Oh the must be patient was for me, not you, sorry. 

Yep, got that. Was just saying I can afford to wait and see whether they fix it... which is why I immediately emailed KDP support ;-)

[Bill Hiatt]

I've just set up my first two UK campaigns with a very low bid, let's see what happens. A bit reluctant with the German market since I don't know if they do read English books  I know the market is huge over there though, especially for fantasy.

I've heard that there is a fairly large English-speaking community. A regular poster on the KDP forum who sold pretty well said that Germany was his third biggest market (after US and UK).

That said, all things being equal, you'd expect books in English to do better in markets in which the primary language was English. My third biggest (albeit prawny) market is Australia. In a typical month, I also have sales in Canada. Germany is much more intermittent. So it seems to me that AMS ads in Canada and Australia might have made more sense than in Germany.

[123mlh]

I just set up five ads in the German store. I'm waiting on them to fix a bad price match on my fantasy novel which actually has done well there each time it has a Bookbub so I can put up an ad on that one, too. I figure I'm using mostly English keywords so I'll pull mostly people looking for English-language books. I did have to change the site language over to English (top right corner dropdown) and did have to go in and add my address information on the payment page (under Billing and Payment on the left-hand side panel) before it would let me set up an ad, but after that it worked fine. I have yet to try the UK again. I went in through the Promote and Advertise option under a specific book this time for Germany. Will probably mess with the UK later today even though I do have the Advantage account already.

[Simon Haynes]

Germany has a specific set of categories for english-language titles, so that's a plus. It might pay to put an english blurb on the ad though, so you don't get clicks from german speakers who aren't looking for english novels.

[Simon Haynes]

I just set up five ads in the German store. I'm waiting on them to fix a bad price match on my fantasy novel which actually has done well there each time it has a Bookbub so I can put up an ad on that one, too. I figure I'm using mostly English keywords so I'll pull mostly people looking for English-language books. I did have to change the site language over to English (top right corner dropdown) and did have to go in and add my address information on the payment page (under Billing and Payment on the left-hand side panel) before it would let me set up an ad, but after that it worked fine. I have yet to try the UK again. I went in through the Promote and Advertise option under a specific book this time for Germany. Will probably mess with the UK later today even though I do have the Advantage account already.

I've set my address up three times now, but it's still complaining. (No errors when I saved the info, either.)

[Simon Haynes]

Not sure whether this is related, but every time I save my address details it changes the country from 'Australien' back to Deutschland.

I guess it's Deutschland uber alles.

What countries have the rest of you managed to set?

[notthatamanda]

Germany has a specific set of categories for english-language titles, so that's a plus. It might pay to put an english blurb on the ad though, so you don't get clicks from german speakers who aren't looking for english novels.

I was kind of worried they would change the ad copy to German, I didn't think about the burb.  Can you explain how to make sure the blurb is fixed in English?

Tried going into the UK from my bookshelf on a specific book: got this:
Your account registration is pending
Your Advertising account has been rejected. Please try registering again.

I got into Germany AMS to create an ad, but the whole things in German.  I could probably puzzle it out okay, but that might not be the smartest thing to do, just in case.  Where you pick the book you want for the ad, it shows mine as (English Version).

I guess I may have to email them to reset my account for the UK so I can just log in through the bookshelf.  I'm not terribly optimistic, I feel like I have bad AMS UK juju.

[Simon Haynes]

You can change the language to English on the DE ams site.  Top-right dropdown.

Re the content, it should accept whatever you enter for the blurb. Of course, the DE team might reject anything not in German.

Is this the time to mention my eldest went to university in Austria on an exchange type deal? ;-)  I can make out basic German myself, primary-school sort of level, but she's fluent.  But, as I said, I think it would be a mistake to have blurbs in German if the book is in English (unless that's the first thing in the blurb!)

[notthatamanda]

Definitely a mistake.  I don't want to pay for clicks for people who don't know the book is in English.

I went to the .de site and looked at one of my books.  Blurb in English, author bio in English, rest of the page in German. 

But here is another issue - Only the hardcover is showing up on the .de site.  I'll have to check my other books.

Thanks for the tip on changing the screen to English.

In the AMS Screen, where you pick the book, it is showing up as the kindle edition (or Ausgabe).

I'm getting the payment error too.

The only other language I'm fluent in is Seinfeld.  Helpful socially, sometimes, in business, not so much.

[Marti Talbott]

I still get the "We're sorry" message. I guess if they want my money they will have to fix it. I think I have a UK account, but not one on the Germany site. Is that my problem? I hope this doesn't mean I will have three AMS dashboards.

[123mlh]

The DE site doesn't use blurbs, just the cover so no worries about what language to put it in.

[notthatamanda]

Do you mean they don't use AMS ad copy?  Cause I definitely see my blurb when I go to amazon.de.  Unless it's because I'm in the US or something?

[Marti Talbott]

By the way, a lot of countries require English as a second language in schools.

[123mlh]

Do you mean they don't use AMS ad copy?  Cause I definitely see my blurb when I go to amazon.de.  Unless it's because I'm in the US or something?

Yeah, sorry for the confusion.

[Tonyonline]

Prompted by this thread, I've just set up my first UK campaign - going through the KDP dashboard. I was only allowed to do a sponsored product ad, and no ability to add text. (This might be standard for sponsored product ads - I don't do a huge amount of advertising.)

I've tried and stopped!
Thought I'd ask you, or anyone else who has set it up, how straight forward you found it.

I tried clicking the link on the KDP dashboard and on the next page I got the message - You will need permission to access this page (Yes, it was in red, very dramatic), and then something about contacting my administrator , I suppose that would be me
I tried clicking on the other link it gives on the KDP page and that took me to seller central...I had a look and clicked out of there, tried that before . So...
...anyhow...checked out the help page and...

I found that to set it up you go through the bookshelf and then click the market place to create your ad. (helpful that help page  )

So. Like you I could only do a sponsored ad, so I carried on and the first thing I saw was...You cannot launch a campaign due to your payment method...You can only set up a draft of your new campaign.
So I clicked the link to put this right and saw it already has my card details, but now it wants me to enter my home address and there was something about VAT...WHY? They have my address already, and as for vat, ummm!
I was hoping I could just click on the card and set it to use as payment but no...It want's me to enter the details it already has on .com.

I did save a draft campaign, but when I went back, to maybe have a second go at setting the ad up (I did however give up again, why I'm here) I couldn't find the draft campaign, no idea where that is!

So...That's as far as I've got 

Thanks for any help/advise.

[notthatamanda]

Everybody's saying they are getting that dang payment card thing.  You can try switching it back and forth between two cards but we'll probably have to wait for them to fix it on their end.  And somebody should probably tell them, nicely (Not it.)

[Simon Haynes]

Everybody's saying they are getting that dang payment card thing.  You can try switching it back and forth between two cards but we'll probably have to wait for them to fix it on their end.  And somebody should probably tell them, nicely (Not it.)

I tried switching the card and saving earlier, but no luck. Waiting to hear from them.

[Lu Kudzoza]

Keeps telling me (on the DE site) that I can only save my campaign as a draft until I've updated my billing settings - which I've now done twice.

You need to fill in your name and address then update the card. I think it needs to verify that the card is valid in the UK/DE. I also had to use Firefox as MS Edge wouldn't update the name and address. If it works you should get a message that the default card has been updated (at the top of the screen).

[Simon Haynes]

My card is already showing, and it's selected.  I've tried adding the address once more, but there's no option to update the existing card, just 'Set as current payment method'.

[Lu Kudzoza]

My card is already showing, and it's selected.  I've tried adding the address once more, but there's no option to update the existing card, just 'Set as current payment method'.

Yeah, I entered the info then pressed that button with the right card selected. In MS Edge nothing happened. In Firefox it gave a message something to the effect of "default card has been updated."  So, I'm guessing it was a browser issue. I have the same problem with downloading keywords from ads. It works in Firefox and Chrome, but not Edge.

The other option is that you have to wait a bit for the DE store to verify the card.

[notthatamanda]

This reminded me that way back when, in KDP, I used to have to go into Firefox to preview the book before I published it.  It would not work on Explorer.  So there is some historical precedent for browser issues I guess.  I'm just going to keep monitoring what people say and try it next week.

[Simon Haynes]

I only use Firefox, but I tried it in Chrome anyway.

The fact the country switches back to germany every time I apply the address tells me there's something odd on their end, though. Also, adding the address looks like something you'd do when you add a new card, not when you select an existing one. (And as the page is loading on Firefox there are temporarily multiple buttons - one for each existing card, later hidden, and the one at the bottom. Therefore, the programmer in me says that just clicking one of the existing cards should click that hidden apply button.)

[Tonyonline]

I only use Firefox, but I tried it in Chrome anyway.


Also, adding the address looks like something you'd do when you add a new card, not when you select an existing one.

I only use safari, I assume that works okay.
And yes. I would have thought selecting an existing card shouldn't need the extra info, especially the bit about VAT!

Oh well! We'll see what happens .

[Simon Haynes]

Don't tick the VAT thing unless you actually have a vat number. The UK one had the same setup.

[Tonyonline]

I thought sod it, let's try again, and...hooorahhhh ...everything went as smoothly as, something very smooth

Put in my details and didn't click the vat thing, card was good and as Lu Kudzoza said, it confirmed so at the top of the page.
Couldn't find the draft I created, so I created a new ad, which was as easy as setting it up on .com. Luckily I had my keywords downloaded so I wacked them in, set my bid, and as far as I can tell, all is good to go.
I also clicked the link to the co.uk site in KDP and no problem there either.

So...let's see how it goes.

[Simon Haynes]

I just got an email from support telling me to add my card, address etc. (Stock response, obviously)

I wrote back saying my card is already listed, and asked if I should add the same one again.

[Simon Haynes]

Hey, it worked this time!  Awesome.

[Tonyonline]

Hey, it worked this time!  Awesome.

Nice...I bet you did a little of this ...?

[Simon Haynes]

Yep, so happy I have another way to spend my royalties - now in Euros, and on a site where my books aren't even in the right language!

;-)

[LilyBLily]

I'm getting the same runaround on the DE site. Did you all just wait it out? I'm tired of reentering the information.

At least it allowed me to save the ad as a draft and I've entered my best keywords and a batch of negative ones. Must admit I love adding negative keywords.

[notthatamanda]

I got in on the DE site but, big but here, before I did an ad I went to look at my books on amazon.de.  Only the paper copies are listed. It's weird and I think that's a pretty big issue.  I haven't had a download in Germany since August, but that's not totally unusual, I don't sell a lot there.  So I have to straighten that out.

UK I'm still getting the "we rejected you for Amazon Advantage UK" so why are you trying this message.

[Simon Haynes]

UK is the same - because you're not in that market, you can't view the kindle versions.  Don't worry, they're still there though.

(If you have the ASIN, just use that)

[notthatamanda]

Oh wow, I think I figured it out.  Searching by the ASIN number brought one up.  Brilliant Simon, thanks. For some reason they are not linked to my author page for .de.

I guess I'll have to contact them about that, but at least now I know exactly how to explain it to them and tell them what needs to be done. 

BTW - I can see everything on my author page in .uk

[Simon Haynes]

You might be able to do what someone else suggested, and temporarily change the location on Amazon.DE to somewhere actually in Germany. Then it might show the kindle books.

My UK author page defaults to the paperbacks, which is how I know Amazon isn't updating the paperback covers no matter how many times I upload the cover file. (They're still showing the Createspace ones!)

[notthatamanda]

When I look at your Germany author page there is no box to click on for Kindle edition.  But on your UK author page it is there.

So that is exactly the same as mine.  Also when I search on your name in Germany, some of the titles, your name is not live, you can't click on it.

I get what you are saying, because Amazon might not want us to order a kindle book in another country's store, but I thought when that was the case they just didn't show you a price, and why not link them on the author page?  I don't know, I'm a little leery of this one.