Last week, we talked about how Amazon ads work for authors at a hypothetical level. This week. we’re going to talk about how they worked for me when I ran them.
My ad campaign was put together by a publicity agency with stock set of keywords for my type of novel, plus some that I suggested.
Here are the overall numbers and top performing keywords from Campaign #1:
Ad copy: Sometimes you have to go through Hell to claim your Heaven.
| 7,477 | 15 | $0.35 | $5.22 | $2.99 | 174.58% | |||
| Impressions | Clicks | ACPC | Spend | Total Sales | ACoS | |||
| Keywords | Match | CPC Bid | Impressions | Clicks | ACPC* | Spend | Sales | Acos** |
| books | Broad | $0.50 | 1,120 | 3 | $0.36 | $1.07 | $2.99 | 35.79% |
| win win | Broad | $0.50 | 441 | 1 | $0.08 | $0.08 | $0.00 | – |
| devil | Broad | $0.50 | 395 | 1 | $0.27 | $0.27 | $0.00 | – |
| bible | Broad | $0.50 | 292 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| demon | Broad | $0.50 | 231 | 3 | $0.29 | $0.87 | $0.00 | – |
| enemies to lovers | Broad | $0.50 | 218 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| shiloh walker | Broad | $0.50 | 217 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| widow | Broad | $0.50 | 180 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| pc cast | Broad | $0.50 | 145 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| christina dodd | Broad | $0.50 | 132 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| bitten | Broad | $0.50 | 131 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| fate | Broad | $0.50 | 124 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| touched | Broad | $0.50 | 121 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| dante | Broad | $0.50 | 118 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| halfway to the grave | Broad | $0.50 | 102 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| always | Broad | $0.50 | 99 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| the darkest night | Broad | $0.50 | 99 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| jd robb | Broad | $0.50 | 91 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| cheyenne mccray | Broad | $0.50 | 89 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| rise of the fallen | Broad | $0.50 | 88 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| erin mccarthy | Broad | $0.50 | 80 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| it lucas | Broad | $0.50 | 77 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| scars | Broad | $0.50 | 71 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| soulmates | Broad | $0.50 | 69 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| shiver | Broad | $0.50 | 63 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| *Average Cost Per Click | ||||||||
| **Average Cost of Sales | ||||||||
And here are the results from Campaign #2:
Ad copy: Sparks fly upward when fallen angel Belial comes to Earth on a mission to corrupt God’s favorite in this Golden Heart® winner.
| 20,960 | 17 | $0.37 | $6.30 | $0.00 | $.0.00 | |||
| Impressions | Clicks | ACPC | Spend | Total Sales | ACoS | |||
| Keywords | Match | CPC Bid | Impressions | Clicks | ACPC* | Spend | Sales | Acos** |
| books | Broad | $0.50 | 3,510 | 4 | $0.33 | $1.30 | $0.00 | – |
| win win | Broad | $0.50 | 1,212 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| devil | Broad | $0.50 | 1,013 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| demon | Broad | $0.50 | 769 | 5 | $0.45 | $2.27 | $0.00 | – |
| shiloh walker | Broad | $0.50 | 741 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| touched | Broad | $0.50 | 457 | 1 | $0.37 | $0.37 | $0.00 | – |
| bitten | Broad | $0.50 | 424 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| christina dodd | Broad | $0.50 | 412 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| always | Broad | $0.50 | 398 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| pc cast | Broad | $0.50 | 385 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| fate | Broad | $0.50 | 366 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| widow | Broad | $0.50 | 362 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| soulmates | Broad | $0.50 | 353 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| enemies to lovers | Broad | $0.50 | 323 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| molly harper | Broad | $0.50 | 285 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| halfway to the grave | Broad | $0.50 | 266 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| redemption | Broad | $0.50 | 239 | 1 | $0.37 | $0.37 | $0.00 | – |
| shiver | Broad | $0.50 | 232 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| marked | Broad | $0.50 | 223 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| donya lynne | Broad | $0.50 | 223 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| cheyenne mccray | Broad | $0.50 | 222 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| erin mccarthy | Broad | $0.50 | 217 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| rise of the fallen | Broad | $0.50 | 216 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| tina folsom | Broad | $0.50 | 207 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| the darkest night | Broad | $0.50 | 202 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
Before we talk about results, let’s take a moment to review what we learned last week:
- Impressions (i.e. position in search results) is determined by:
- Keywords and match type (exact, phrase or broad)
- Bid per click.
First takeaway–despite getting 27,000 impressions across both campaigns, I only sold one book. On the plus side, I only spent $11.52, so not a huge investment for an opportunity to start figuring things out.
Second takeaway is that Campaign #2 did much better than #1 in terms of impressions (like, three times better), but they used the same keywords, matching and bid per click. Both ads ran at the same time, so that’s not a factor.
The only difference I can identify between Campaign #1 and Campaign #2 is the ad copy. The copy for campaign #2 contains the word “winner,” which is a broad match for my keyword “win-win.” That accounts for 1212 extra impressions, but it doesn’t explain the full delta.
For example, Campaign #1 got 1120 impressions for the keyword “books,” while Campaign #2 got 3510–three times as many.
Third takeaway is that, while Campaign #2 did better in terms of impressions, Campaign #1 did better in terms of clicks per impression by 40:1.
If I’m constructing an ad campaign aimed at brand awareness, which has value for a total newbie like myself, but no immediate payoff, the second campaign was better.
If, on the other hand, I’m shooting for impressions that drive clicks, the first worked better.
My fourth and final takeaway from this initial foray into Amazon ads is that before I try this again, I need to glean a much better understanding of how Amazon ads work.
Some of the other Eight Ladies have indicated they’d rather stick a fork in their eye than spend hours analyzing data. I, on the other hand, have a data analysis background and I’m totally geeking out over this.
You’ll be hearing more on this topic.
Eight Ladies Writing 
I’m not very good at analysis myself, but I love seeing it done! Looking forward to more!
What strikes me is that the campaign with the fewest impressions and clicks is the one that actually sold a book. I know, a sample of one could be a pure fluke, but it would be interesting if the trend extrapolates out.
Campaign #1 leaves more to the imagination, while Campaign #2 has at least two strong hooks, and tells more about the storyline.
Not a bad lesson for less than $12, though.
I agree. It was worthwhile–maybe not in terms of sales, but certainly in terms of learning. Since I started this analysis, I’ve gone in and changed one of my categories (you set up two in Amazon as part of your metadata for the book) and revamped all my keywords to improve discoverability. Now I’m working in untangling the riddle of Facebook ads.
It would be nice to know what counts as an impression–how much useful exposure you’re getting for free. Interesting that one campaign garnered so many more impressions than the other, but both got more or less the same number of clicks. Would be interesting to know where you garnered the other clicks–the ones in the table don’t add up to the ones in the headline. Also, it seems odd that ‘books’ would gain you clicks when it’s such a wide term. I wonder how the analysis would work if someone searched ‘demon books.’ So much food for thought for $11!
Most of all, thank you for sharing and helping the rest of us to learn from your experience 🙂
I didn’t include the complete table, as it was very long. If you sum the entire table, the clicks do add up.The whole thing is a mystery!
The best keywords I’ve found are the names of other authors with whom I share a fan base. I would expect you to see good results, especially if you are on Kindle Unlimited (page reads). Your copy is good. Your bid is good. I don’t find the cover (I can’t find your last name. I’m not sure what the point of a blog is if someone reading the blog has a difficult time finding your books? Maybe I’m not tech savvy enough) Essentially that is what you need for your Amazon ads to be effective: a keyword match, good ad copy, alluring cover, competitive bid, and, when the reader gets to your page, good copy and good reviews. Bingo. You also need to be a little patient to see results.
Oh, jeez. I’ve been blogging so long it never even occurred to me that I don’t have my last name associated with my gravatar. Will fix pronto–thanks!
I write as Jeanne Oates Estridge. You can view the book cover here if you’re interested: https://smile.amazon.com/Demon-Always-Wins-Touched-Book-ebook/dp/B07G2RLLZP/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8.
I’m planning to rework my keyword list before I run another Amazon ad, so I’ll keep your suggestions in mind.
Thanks for your input!