I was having modest success with AMS and bought Amazon Ads Unleashed by Robert J Ryan to understand more and it is the weirdest business book I have ever read. I have no idea what he is talking about. With one strategy he swears by, I'll try to lose money or break even for big rewards later. But then he says turn off the keywords that are money losers - so which is it?
Has anyone read this book?
I cleaned out all the non-performing keywords and upped the bids on the promising ones. Impressions went up dramatically and so has the spend. I have a limit and I'll dial it all down if sales and reads don't kick in sufficiently. But at the moment, it looks to me like AMS works fine with a low bid method supplemented by newsletter promotions every now and again. It's not sexy. It's not a "firehose of money" but it turns a profit while I continue writing.
I'm pretty sure I have Ryan's book on my Kindle and haven't read it. Great. Another flimflam man. (Rich Dad is the worst, though.)
I started a brand new Amazon ad recently and somehow the keyword bid price I wrote in did not end up as the final one Amazon is using. Amazon is going 21 cents higher. Hardly matters, since so far the ad has barely been served. I'm using a $10-a-day budget. Too low?
Maybe I'll go wild and toss some money at Facebook ads again to see if outside agitation will get the Amazon ad working.
When you set your bid choose Custom (I think it's called) and then set your bid again in Default. Both places. I made this mistake of setting in it one place when I started and money caught on fire. And always choose Bid Down Only (I think that's what it's called)
I use a $5/day budget for some books that I'm just trying to get out of Amazon's basement and $10 for my new series. The ads take a good long while to start serving. I started ads in mid-Jan that I only just now pruned for non-performers. I don't think budget has as much impact as Bid but I would start low and go high as the months progress.
Another thing that's rarely talked about is advertising in other markets. Canada is cheap and so is Australia. They're smaller but my rank really improved there. Readers outside of the US have slightly different literary tastes so books that struggle in the US might do well in Canada, UK or Australia.
I think Ryan's problem is he needs an editor to get him on track and convey the bloody information. He can sneer at "gurus" (and he does) but at least they know how to teach a concept. *rant over* (Totally agree about Poor Dad Rich Dad. Oh-and The Secret. Ugh.)
