More unpleasant revelations...

[R. C.]

This is part rant, part informational, take what you want...

After years of running Google ads, I was struggling to get the creation process to work for me. I turned to the new tools... AI.  After several attempts, I told ChatGPT the process was "too complex."  This is what I got back:

"Totally fair ? and honestly, your reaction is the correct one.
Google Ads is unnecessarily complex, unpredictable, and full of hidden rules. It changes weekly. Most authors burn hours fighting it for very little return.

So let?s simplify this all the way down to a path that gets you results without fighting the machinery.

Here are the simplest, most stable advertising options for authors ? no tricks, no hidden toggles, no proxy conversions, no backend setups."

It went on to recommend: using Facebook, Instagram, BookTok, or skipping ads, and building an audience organically.

I asked Gemini, Google's AI, if it could help me build a Google Ads Campaign for my Patreon site.  It gave me a LONG response that began with:

"Tracking: You must set up conversion tracking. Since Patreon is a third-party platform, you may need to use Google Tag Manager and potentially an integration tool (like Zapier or n8n) to send "New Member Pledge" or "Subscription" data back to Google Ads as an Offline Conversion or use Google Analytics goals/events if properly configured."

Yeah, the 'Googs, 'Zons, and Metas are changing the rules so often that the tools become unusable. 

R.C.

[R. C.]

...

How do you build an audience organically?

Excellent question. I decided to stand on the street corner and hand out bookmarks with a QR code.

Seriously, my frustration took over and I stopped asking...

R.C.

[Lorri Moulton]

My 2 cents - use social media to connect with readers on things besides books. 

For me, it's not about "look at me, I'm an author" or "go buy my book" posts.  Finding things I enjoy (that are also in my books), then finding others who also enjoy those things...that's how we create true connections.

Once those are established, I also show the occasional posts about my books or link my website.  I also have monthly parties where I have many FUN posts and the occasional book post.

It's a long process, and people have to trust us.  Many of them are never going to read our books, but some do.  And some will share those books with people they know even if it's not something they would read themselves.

[PJ Post]

My 2 cents...

This.

Social media is the tool/attention channel, engagement is the strategy, connecting with the author Brand is the tactic.

The Marketing strategy is the 1000 True Fan approach. The goal has never been to go viral, it's just to be visible enough for your fans to find you - and that can be done organically, and without ads. Be non-fungible.

But I'd still use ads - because that's another tool. Use all the tools.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

For me, it was AMS ads. I tried a couple of campaigns after studying videos and tutorials, but whenever I launched a campaign, i always felt I'd really had no idea what I was doing or what would happen next... which was generally spending money for no sales. Facebook is my go-to ad platform and it works for me simply because I'm familiar with creating the ads. However, I'm definitely not a "power user" and in many aspects I just know what to do without necessarily understanding it.
It's a strange dichotomy.  Platforms want to suck money out of us via paying for ads and you'd think it wouldn't matter to them if the ads don't work, but they also want the ads to be successful to keep the hamster wheel turning.
Thus as the online stores become more and more and more unwieldy and glutted with products and sellers, the GUI for creating ads becomes more complicated to be able to properly target your demographic... and becomes harder to use.

[Bill Hiatt]

I'm not sure about the part where the companies actually want the ads to work. The Amazon recent addition of algorithmic changes that actually make their ads less effective is a case in point. Or maybe they do want workability in some abstract way but just don't know how to get it.

[Post-Doctorate D]

I'm not sure about the part where the companies actually want the ads to work. The Amazon recent addition of algorithmic changes that actually make their ads less effective is a case in point. Or maybe they do want workability in some abstract way but just don't know how to get it.

Maybe it's like lottery scratch-offs.  They want them to work well enough to keep you buying, but not well enough where you can make decent money buying fewer ads.

[The Bass Bagwhan]

I'm not sure about the part where the companies actually want the ads to work. The Amazon recent addition of algorithmic changes that actually make their ads less effective is a case in point. Or maybe they do want workability in some abstract way but just don't know how to get it.

Maybe it's like lottery scratch-offs.  They want them to work well enough to keep you buying, but not well enough where you can make decent money buying fewer ads.

That's what I mean. Surely they'd want some level of success to ensure you keep advertising, not to mention the commission they get from any sale?

[PJ Post]

From Google:

Amazon's ad revenue was $56.22 billion in 2024.

It's working for somebody.

[Lorri Moulton]

Yes, but how many are authors?

My guess is that it still works (with a lot of knowledge and effort), but maybe not as well and easily as it did before?

[Post-Doctorate D]

Yes, but how many are authors?

Likely a very small percentage.

A lot of Amazon's ad revenue growth has come from their streaming services, such as the ad-supported tier of Prime Video.  I doubt many authors are running ads during Thursday Night Football.

In 2024, Amazon's retail sales were $638 billion.  Book sales account for about $28 billion.  That's about 4%.

I haven't found any breakdowns on how much of Amazon's ad revenue is from advertisers trying to sell books, but if we apply that 4% figure, that brings Amazon's 2024 $56 billion in ad revenue down to $2.46 billion which is perhaps high because there probably aren't a lot of book sellers running ads in Prime Video.  Of that estimated $2.46 billion, we don't know the breakdown between independent authors and traditional publishers.  We also don't what percentage of book sellers make a profit running ads on Amazon, what percentage breakeven and what percentage lose money.

Without more data, we also don't know if independent authors that claim to do well running ads on Amazon are common or outliers.

[Jeff Tanyard]

In 2024, Amazon's retail sales were $638 billion.  Book sales account for about $28 billion.  That's about 4%.

In the era of CEO Jassy and the AI boom, Amazon is quite a different company from what it was just a few years ago.  Bezos infamously plowed all the profits back into the company in an effort to keep profits as close to zero as possible--often to the frustration of shareholders--but now under Jassy and with AI in the mix, Amazon has a double-digit profit margin.  Some interesting tidbits in the statistics:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/key-statistics/