AMS with a lack of reviews

[Elven Steele]

Hi everyone. Hoping for some advice as I am still fairly new to all this publishing malarky.

I've just released my second novel, and although I am getting purchases and reads on KU, I realise that I'm probably quite lucky to have anyone picking up my book at all (because there was no promotion besides my own twitter account, it's the first work I've ever made available to the public, no mailing list, etc). So with all this in mind, I'm thinking that I'd better start promoting, before my ranking slips too far.

I have been looking at AMS (because a lot of promo sites need reviews, something I'm a bit starved for... I only have 2 reviews as I write this, a fantastic 5 star review on the UK site from someone who loved the humour in my book, and an average, 3 star rating on the US site from someone who didn't get the humour at all. And sod's law, it is the US review that also appears on the amazon sites worldwide, not the UK review...  but I digress)

My KDP dashboard says I can only run ads in the US (I'm based in the UK). And I see that the US ad would consist of my book cover, a few words description, and my review rating (based on that one 3 star reviewer, NOT my 5 star UK review).

So the big question is, does anyone think I should go ahead? Is having extra visibility (that highlights my average review and ignores my really good review) better than waiting for another review to hopefully trickle in via the US site? Or is there a better strategy for a new author who is still in the 'one review makes a huge difference' stages?

[TimothyEllis]

I do an AMS for a new release as soon as I get the url. It takes a day or so for it to be approved, so it rarely kicks in before day 3.

I dont think reviews matter for new releases. People know it takes a while to get a decent set of them.

And when I look at the ad sliders on my performing books, most of those books dont have a particularly good star rating. 3.x is very common for ad books.

You want an AMS ad to kick in as fast as possible, and when it does, the chances are you will pick up more 5 stars. (or not).

[Elven Steele]

I do an AMS for a new release as soon as I get the url. It takes a day or so for it to be approved, so it rarely kicks in before day 3.

I dont think reviews matter for new releases. People know it takes a while to get a decent set of them.

And when I look at the ad sliders on my performing books, most of those books dont have a particularly good star rating. 3.x is very common for ad books.

You want an AMS ad to kick in as fast as possible, and when it does, the chances are you will pick up more 5 stars. (or not).

Hi Timothy,  thanks for the advice (and thanks again for fixing my sig)

[LilyBLily]

You can apply to do AMS ads in the UK. It's a separate account from a U.S. AMS account. I didn't have to create a new password for it so clearly it runs under my regular Amazon account. Here's a link that should get you started (choose "formerly AMS" once you sign in):

https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/

Don't worry about the number of stars. Just write a really good teaser line for the U.S. ad. As I recall, the UK doesn't even want us to write ad copy. And start with a small budget, a few pounds a day. Both the U.S. and the UK dashboards now offer multiple choices for keywords, so study them carefully and test.

[Elven Steele]

You can apply to do AMS ads in the UK. It's a separate account from a U.S. AMS account. I didn't have to create a new password for it so clearly it runs under my regular Amazon account. Here's a link that should get you started (choose "formerly AMS" once you sign in):

https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/

Don't worry about the number of stars. Just write a really good teaser line for the U.S. ad. As I recall, the UK doesn't even want us to write ad copy. And start with a small budget, a few pounds a day. Both the U.S. and the UK dashboards now offer multiple choices for keywords, so study them carefully and test.

That is good to know, thank-you. (Although I'm not sure how strict Amazon are at keeping to that small budget.. I made a decimal point error on one of my keywords and bid £51, and someone clicked that ad.  My small daily budget should have prevented me going over $5 per day, but it didn't (And to rub salt in the wound, no sale)

[LilyBLily]

You can apply to do AMS ads in the UK. It's a separate account from a U.S. AMS account. I didn't have to create a new password for it so clearly it runs under my regular Amazon account. Here's a link that should get you started (choose "formerly AMS" once you sign in):

https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/

Don't worry about the number of stars. Just write a really good teaser line for the U.S. ad. As I recall, the UK doesn't even want us to write ad copy. And start with a small budget, a few pounds a day. Both the U.S. and the UK dashboards now offer multiple choices for keywords, so study them carefully and test.

That is good to know, thank-you. (Although I'm not sure how strict Amazon are at keeping to that small budget.. I made a decimal point error on one of my keywords and bid £51, and someone clicked that ad.  My small daily budget should have prevented me going over $5 per day, but it didn't (And to rub salt in the wound, no sale)

Were you actually charged £51? I always thought the click cost was just a penny over your highest contender. 

[NathanBurrows]

As previously said, you can run AMS UK ads - you need to sign up for an Advantage account, but don’t add any financial information to it as you don’t need it. The UK dashboard is way better than the US one as well, and they seem to trial new stuff on the UK platform before rolling it out to the US one (phrase and exact keywords are an example). As a UK author, I’d be lost without them - I’m getting about 400-500% ROI on my UK ads, but struggle to break even with the US platform. My books are definitely British though, so this doesn’t surprise me.

[Elven Steele]

Were you actually charged £51? I always thought the click cost was just a penny over your highest contender.

Thankfully no, I was charged $5.77, so I guess someone else set their limit at $5.76. But it still seems off, given that my daily budget cap was supposed to be $5. 

[Elven Steele]

As previously said, you can run AMS UK ads - you need to sign up for an Advantage account, but don’t add any financial information to it as you don’t need it. The UK dashboard is way better than the US one as well, and they seem to trial new stuff on the UK platform before rolling it out to the US one (phrase and exact keywords are an example). As a UK author, I’d be lost without them - I’m getting about 400-500% ROI on my UK ads, but struggle to break even with the US platform. My books are definitely British though, so this doesn’t surprise me.

I'm looking forward to trying out the UK version, although it seems to be taking them ages to approve my advertising account (especially considering that I'm already doing the same thing in the US, but live in the UK. I picked 'Advertising console (formerly Amazon Marketing Services)' from the 3 signup options, do you happen to know if that's the right one?

[Elven Steele]

The three options were -

Seller Central
Advertising console (formerly Amazon Marketing Services)
Amazon DSP console (formerly Amazon Advertising Platform)


The word 'Advantage' doesn't seem to pop up

[Abderian]

The three options were -

Seller Central
Advertising console (formerly Amazon Marketing Services)
Amazon DSP console (formerly Amazon Advertising Platform)


The word 'Advantage' doesn't seem to pop up

You want the middle one, Advertising console.

[Elven Steele]

Phew, that's a relief, thanks. That's the one I picked. It's taking them days to process my application, so I was worried I picked the wrong one

[NathanBurrows]

You could drop them a line? I don’t remember it taking too long to process my application.

[Elven Steele]

You could drop them a line? I don’t remember it taking too long to process my application.

Hi everyone. I took this advice and got in touch with amazon, and they sent me an email saying I had to go to a different link altogether to become an advantage vendor.

So I started setting it up, a bit confused because it isn't treating me like an ebook seller (eg, wants to know what address my customers should send returns to) but continued as if setting up a company, and now it is asking for my VAT number. And now as a newbie to all this, I'm lost.

I read on the HMRC site that - 'You must register for VAT with HM Revenue and Customs ( HMRC ) if your business' VAT taxable turnover is more than £85,000.' (I wish.) But even though it does not seem to apply to me, the amazon advantage site wont let me add my payment details without this? Does anyone know if I've taken a wrong turn somewhere?

[LSMay]

I was (silently) following this thread and I tried to register through the AMS one, only to get an email a couple of days later

Our records indicate that you have not yet provided your Amazon vendor code as part of the registration process, and we will be closing your claim.

To be eligible for AMS you must be an approved Amazon vendor.
If you are currently an approved Amazon vendor in Vendor Central we ask that you please reply to this e-mail with your Amazon vendor code.
If you are a Vendor Express vendor, please register with AMS through the “Marketing” tab in Vendor Express.
Please reply to this message if you have any further questions.

I went back to the website a couple of days after I got the email to try and find whatever vendor express is, and there's a message after I sign in:

Confirming existing registration

You have 1 registration that is pending processing. We will notify you when this registration has been reviewed so you can start using Amazon Marketing Services.

I didn't find anything that called itself Vendor Express. So yeah, I'm fairly confused over the whole thing too.

[ImaWriter]

You need to have an Advantage account.

Go to Amazon Advantage UK, and sign up. You do not need to fill in your banking info, as you aren't selling anything. Fill out everything else.

Then go to Amazon Advertising, and sign in. You will be asked a question, answer AMS and move ahead. You are now at your advertising dashboard.

There is no registration process as far as I remember. When I did this it was pretty much fill in the forms, and you're done as soon as you hit submit. I didn't need to wait for anything to be approved.

Hope this helps!

[LSMay]

Hm. Amazon advantage gave me this warning:

- It looks like the email and password combination you used is meant for a different Amazon site. You can use a different email and password combination for this site to proceed.

I was hoping I could keep things straightforward and use the same login :(

[Elven Steele]

I finally got in to the advertising page by choosing - Amazon DSP console (formerly Amazon Advertising Platform)


It accepted my usual email and password okay, then let me create an ad, so it all seemed very promising. then came the dreaded warning message - You cannot launch a campaign due to an issue with your payment method.


My payment method is the exact same one I use everywhere else on Amazon (including the US advertising site), but the site just keeps telling me there is a problem without telling me what that problem is. And the help button just loads a blank window. Time to take a break, methinks

Another hour of time I could have been writing gone.    It really feels like Amazon make this as complicated as possible.