Amazon Ads for Authors: Unlock Your Full Advertising Potential

by Ricardo Fayet

Have you been struggling to sell your books on Amazon?

In theory, Amazon ads should be the most effective way to boost sales — a well-targeted ad can reach potential readers at the precise moment they’re looking for their next book. But in practice, authors often struggle to run profitable campaigns.

After helping hundreds of authors run their Amazon Ads and managing over a million dollars in advertising spend in the process, Reedsy’s Co-founder Ricardo Fayet is sharing his best-kept secrets in this Amazon Ads book.

In this second book of the popular Reedsy Marketing Guides series, you will fundamental guiding principles of advertising books on Amazon,How to build a comprehensive list of product and keyword targets,What type of ad campaign will best suit your book,How to optimize your click-through-rate to boost delivery,How to optimize your campaigns for profit, andHow to scale and progressively grow your spend while keeping your profit levels.
Each step is illustrated with examples and screenshots so that you can immediately apply the advice to your own campaigns.

Whether you’re just starting with Amazon Advertising or have been running ads for years, this is the book to take your advertising game to the next level.

Get your copy now and benefit from all the experience of a seasoned advertising professional.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

353 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 9, 2023

About the author

Ricardo Fayet is one of the four founders of Reedsy, a marketplace connecting authors to the world’s top publishing talent—from editors to cover designers, book marketers, or literary translators. He’s the author of several Reedsy Learning courses on marketing and a regular presenter at several prestigious writers’ conferences: NINC, RWA Australia, and The Self Publishing Show Live, among others.

He oversees the marketing for all Reedsy products—Marketplace, Book Editor, Learning, Discovery—and is a big SEO and Facebook advertising enthusiast.

In his spare time, he enjoys watching football (or “soccer” as y’all call it over there), and carrying tactical analyses to explain why his favorite team won, as well as referee mistake analyses when his team loses.

You can sign up to his weekly book marketing newsletter here: http://rdsy.me/newsletter

Reviews

[Benjamin Kuttner · Rating 5 out of 5]

informative and meticulous

Bit of a slog through the first half, but well worth it from the half way mark. About to try and initiate this book’s recommendations on Amazon ads.

[Anna Bushi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book introduces authors to Amazon ads and provides step-by-step instructions to get started. For more advanced ad users, it provides data-driven optimization steps to fine-tune your targets so you can be profitable.

The author answered my questions via email about the additional resources, which was a tremendous help to me.

Definitely recommend it for readers who are not intimidated by the math and data-driven approach.

[Mimi Costalunga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molto dettagliato soprattutto nella parte dedicata all'analisi dei risultati delle inserzioni. Da leggere per capirci di più, anche se si basa sul mercato americano e, per gli autori italiani, vanno fatte le debite differenze.

[Jean Dunstan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent information

This book goes into detail about the process of advertising on Amazon. I will be referring to it often as I try to learn this process.

[Michelle Romano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is THE book to get if you are wanting to know more information about Amazon Ads. It's overloaded with lots of information! As a newer author, I was blown away with the sheer volume of information. including google charts the readers can use for their campaign ads. I wonder if this author has a book with steps to take for beginners about what to do and not as much information about figuring out the math in the ad campaign. For seasoned authors, a must read!

[Jean Oram]

I was given a copy at a conference and thought it couldn’t possibly be helpful as I’d read several other books on AMS ads and was still a bit confused even though I run those ads. BUT this book has been immensely helpful and I’m so glad it was given to me. It has been filling in the holes in my knowledge and comprehension of what to do and when with my ads. I’m going to give it a second read to fully digest all the new things I’ve learned and been applying as well as to fine tune and finesse my application of his tips.

[Vannetta Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be super helpful and very enlightening. I've dabbled in Amazon ads before (without good results), and now I'm anxious to jump in again. First, I need to go back and review my notes! Yes, I took notes!

Highly recommend for anyone trying to sell anything on Amazon.

[Creston Mapes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic deep-dive into Amazon advertising for books. Excellent.

[Maria Iliffe-Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a helpful book. You need to have played a bit with Amazon Ads for it to make sense, which I had, and still there’s a lot to learn. It’s one of those books that you have to read slowly, try out what it’s telling you and come back to it.
I had been trying to navigate Amazon Ads for a few months, before reading this book, and found it to be the least straightforward of anything i’ve ever done. I think it took great courage to try to explain it to a newbie, but the author has done a pretty good job of it. It’s a book I’ll be returning to as I move through the mire that is Amazon Ads.

[Bill Belew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author keeps his promise

The author promised to answer firsthand all email inquiries. I have asked him pointed questions in two separate emails and he has responded promptly with thoughtful and insightful replies.

I was earning at 92% of spend before reading this book. After cleaning out non-performing campaigns I have ads that earn at 154% of spend!!

Will this be the norm going forward? Time will tell. I am optimistic.

I have been a huge Reedsy fan. Now I am a BIG Ricardo fan, too.

[Peter West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some great insights

I bought this book having already read several other AMS books, hoping that this would be the one that provides the missing pieces, to give me that first profitable Amazon ad.
I'm still working on it, but I definitely feel more like I have a plan now. Previously I was flicking switches, turning dials, wondering what the hell was happening. Now I see a path to possible enlightenment.
It's in my hands to apply this newfound knowledge and turn my ads campaigns around.
It's a great book.
Five stars.

[Angela Boord · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most useful book on Amazon ads that I have found to get started. I'm still at the beginning of my journey, but this is the only book that has really explained things in a simple enough way that I'm able to implement the information without feeling like I have a lot of unanswered questions. I still have unanswered questions, but at least I've now learned how to get impressions--which is better than I was doing!

I do wish there was a little more information about when to turn ads off and for those of us who are coming from a position where we're trying to use ads just to be discovered, but overall I've found the book really useful.

[Joseph Clampitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before buying this book, I watched several videos and online courses on Amazon Ads. None of them came close to the detail in this book. And yet it’s easy to read: It feels like the author is sitting across from you, just walking you through how to set up your campaigns. He’s clearly pretty experienced and has a well-defined method for managing Amazon Ad campaigns. He also does a good job explaining the logic behind his process.

[Richard DeGrandpre · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book won’t keep you from wasting your money on ads

What these books don’t tell you is that you cannot get Amazon to show your ads unless you’re already selling a successful book or you have several books in a series, so you can bid with the franchises. Even at $2.50 a bit you’ll get no traction.

[Brad Towers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, lots of detail

Awesome book, going into lots of detail, with plenty of practical examples. Ricardo Fayet takes a complex topic and makes it manageable. I am much more confident that I will succeed with Amzaon ads after reading this book.

[Miriam Verbeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I not only learnt heaps from this book, but I also enjoyed reading it. Ricardo's writing style is easy and his logic is easy to follow. Thanks for sharing your expertise and insights!

[Colin Devonshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whatever you need to know - it is all in here!

[Brian Penn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great information.

Complete and thorough information on Amazon ads as well as optimizing. Best book I have read so far on Amazon book ads.

[Jonathan Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is helping me with my self-publishing journey and is a great help in an overwhelming publishing world. Having it on my desk has been money well spent.

[Bill Hines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive

Very well written and comprehensive. My highlights are extensive, a key metric in the usefulness of any book I've read!

[Garrett Glaser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough and intelligtent.