Improving clicks and buys of your Amazon Ad #WriterWednesday #BookMarketing #Amazon #AmWriting
First, a disclaimer. I am in no way, no means, no how, an expert in Amazon ads. If I were, I’d be setting up courses that cost several hundred dollars to attend instead of writing this blog post. I am, however, someone who has done several Amazon ads. Some work. Some work well. Some work okay. Some fail. Some fail spectacularly. As an analytically minded person (that’s code for total geek), I tend to examine my results ad nauseum. This has enabled me to improve upon previous ads. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll be able to give that course after all.
The following applies to sponsored product ads as I haven’t figured out how to make money with product display ads – yet. When you run a sponsored product ad, customers will see: the cover, ad copy, price, number of reviews, and overall review rating. This is what my current Fat Girl Begone! ad looks like.
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If you are not getting clicks on your ad, then you need to review the cover, ad copy, price, and review situation. Does your cover match the genre? How about the price? Too high? Too low? Ad copy is also important, but less so as ad copy is not shown when customers search Amazon on their phones. After my first (or was it hundredth?) ad attempt, I raised the price of Fat Girl Begone! and fiddled around with the ad copy. The above ad copy is doing better than previous attempts.
But what if you are getting clicks but no buys? First and foremost, the number of buys to clicks is low. Depressingly low. For a no name self-published author like myself, it’s somewhere around 30 clicks for one purchase. If I’m lucky. Also, if your book is on kindle unlimited (and that’s the only way I know to make these ads work), the Amazon Ads Manager does not take pages read into consideration. So, it may seem like you’re not getting any purchases for a week, but then – boom! – your pages read will explode.
You’ve analyzed your purchases to clicks ratio and it’s still low and your pages read aren’t increasing. Now what? Then, it’s time to look at the blurb. I recently experienced this problem with the above ad. There were tons of impressions, a fair number of clicks, but the purchase numbers weren’t there. Eek! What to do? I went to the blurb. I read a few articles about blurb writing and realized I’d made a few critical errors. Here is the original blurb:
I’m a total mess. My boyfriend dumped me – get this – because I diet too much. Not because I’m fat, mind you. Of course, this spurs me into the diet-fitness-revenge-plan of the century, which leads me to the gym and a scorching hot personal trainer. I even manage to make some cool new friends, including a millionaire if you can believe it. Things are looking up! Naturally, that’s the moment my ex decides he wants me back, the personal trainer asks me out, and my millionaire male buddy decides to throw his hat in the ring. But that’s not enough drama. No, not for me. Because I’ve also lost my job and decided to start my own business. Just call me Ms. Drama.
Warning: Bad language, bumpy roads, and embarrassing moments ahead. But there’s also more than a bit of romance and even, if we’re lucky, love. Fingers crossed.
Not endorsed by or affiliated with any brand of tequila.
I really liked this blurb. I thought it was fun. But it was missing a few things. First of all, there was no hook. Also, there was no call to action. I hadn’t included the prize I’d won for the novel. And, finally but possibly most important, the tone of the blurb didn’t match the novel itself. The novel is written in first person and Everly is snarky with a capital S. That doesn’t come across in the original blurb. So, I worked on the blurb and came up with this:
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What do you think? Better? Since I’ve changed the blurb, my click rate has gone up! Yeah! (PS If you want to know how to add bold typeface to your Amazon blurb, I’ve written a blog post about it here.)
What’s your experience with Amazon ads?
