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AMS Adverts, Kindlepreneur and KDPRocket - Got Questions? I do.
I've had KDP Rocket for about half a year. You're not alone, finding the right keywords is very tricky especially for poetry. I talked with Dave Chesson the guy who created it and he gave me a few tips:-You want a low number of competitors(20-100 is reasonable)
-You want a good # of Amazon searches but if Google searches aren't good then still go with Amazon's
-A good competitive score in anything under 70
-Don't use main keywords( horror, fantasy, romance, crime) as your bound to get big numbers which you don't want.
-Go to Amazon and under the search button type your keyword in and then type in each letter on your keyboard with the keyword still there and see what comes up, if there are reasonable keywords that fit you then use them
Thanks Justin,That's interesting advice.
I've been running AMS adverts for 1 month now.Results are,
Cost: $6.48
Impressions: 59,009
Clicks: 39
Avg cost per click: $0.17
Avg impressions for click: 1513
% of month being run: 75% (switched off for a week while other promotions were in play).
Books sold: 0
Not a good first month.
First impressions: I'm dying on the product page, and my click rate per impression is way too low, I.e. I need a huge number of page impressions showing my adverts to attract a click.
Clearly lots of work and learning in front of me.
What do you mean by 'page impression,' Graeme?
A page impression means that someone was presented with a page on which my ad was placed (along with others). So someone potentially saw it.
Ah, right. Thank you. Just an unfamiliar term. I see what you mean by page impressions vs click throughs.
It's a pretty simple chain of events.Get an advert presented to a customer, get clicked, present your book page, get a sale or not.
So, the CPC (conversions per click) = 0. OTOH, you didn't spend a lot.For impressions, it's a mismatch b/w the keywords and the ad. (I'm probably stating the obvious here.)
I assume that your cover and the hook is on the ad. Correct? So, maybe the low CPC means that the book blurb isn't converting them or there's a mismatch in expectations.
Hi Alex,Pretty much what I'm thinking.
I'm establishing a brand new set of keywords, and will also look at categories and the blurb and attempt to align them all.
This will take a while, even with KDP Rocket to assist with validating the key words.
I think I have a persistent issue around my category/genre and typical reader expectations for those types of books.
What I can do is the following.
[1] Revise my categories and 7 Amazon keywords.
[2] Revise my book blurb on the product page, ensuring alignment with the category and 7 main key word choices.
[3] Build a set of AMS keywords aligned with [1] and [2].
[4] Build new adverts aligned with the above.
So I'm starting from scratch working up sets of descriptive phrases, and I have,
List of Keywords for AMS
vampire thriller
vampire technothriller
vampire science fiction
vampire sci-fi
vampire sf
vampire SciFi
vampire conspiracy
thriller vampires
technothriller vampires
technothriller vampire
science fiction vampires
science fiction vampire
sf vampire
SciFi vampire
conspiracy vampires
science fiction vampire hunters
What I've discovered is that the order of the keywords doesn't (always?) make a difference and returns the same information in KDP Rocket.
I expect to extend this list enormously, and consider other categories, e.g.
spy vs spy
secret spies
spy tech
Then mix in 'vampires' into those descriptions.
etc.
I'm starting to think that aligning with the "Urban Fantasy," category might have been a big mistake as it seems to be saturated with paranormal romance.I wonder how many readers go "UF = PNR," what's this cover with a tower mean - where's the buff bodies???
I think I can find categories which will work with both my covers and the content.
Contemporary Fiction/Fantasy
Action Adventure/Thriller
etc.
One of the questions that has puzzled me about Graeme's list is that in multiple keywords, you are assuming the order of the keyword is important. I wonder how important it really is, because it would be simple for a computer to try both orders. Similarly, it would be simple for a computer to take science fiction, sci-fi, SF and one or two other variants and treat them as one in its internal processing. That would be helpful, but does anyone know whether Amazon is that helpful?
Keywords for AMS ads also allow author names, so if you have authors writing in the same vampire/action genre you can put those in. David Wellington (Laura Caxton series) might be a match.
Hi Ian,I don't know if order matters, I would like to find out.
Hi Neil,I'm creating a brand new AMS keywords list, and this is just my initial set.
I will run these through KDP rocket to check their value.
My current list in use is around 260 words both descriptive phrases and author and book names.
Hi Graeme,If you or anyone else finds out, please let us all know. Any clues as to how Amazon's algorithm works can be critical.
Hi Ian, I just ran "Vampire Thriller, and Thriller Vampire," in two separate Chrome Incognito browsers and got back identical lists from the kindle store - so it looks like order doesn't matter.Noting that Amazon offered "vampire thriller," as an option when I typed in "thriller vampire."
Hi Graeme, That at least makes things a little easier. Now back to thinking up some reasonable keywords to replace my choir where sales are poor.
Hi Ian, I'm just aiming to do 30 minutes a day on keyword research as I build a new list, at the same time I will refine my categories and blurbs and think up some good advert copy.
Oh , ad copy! Bryan Cohen--who runs his own blurb-writing business--has an excellent Alliance of Independent Authors tutorial/presentation on book descriptions/blurbs, which is really ad copy at its roots. He says to try to brainstorm 20-30 variations on your hook and then you can use them for ads.
His tutorial/presentation is very efficient and effective--no fluff or self-promotion.
Watch it, learn from it, practice, and sell more books--start right now.
http://selfpublishingadviceconference...
So my call to action worked, right? ^_-
Got my first sale on the 26th of April for ASA.The Advert as of today.
1871 impressions, 5 clicks, total cost $0.82, generating $2 in royalties.
By far my best performing advert.
From April 26th to 29th inclusive, I've sold 7 books on Amazon, some of which may be due to adverts. There is a 2 to 3 day lag between sales and the report for the adverts being updated to reflect the sales.
Sales for the period were, 2x ASA, 4x ATW and 1x TDD all at $2.99 producing approx $14USD in royalties which is more than the AMS Adverts have cost so far.
It remains to be seen if these sales are attributed to the adverts, and if the pace can be maintained.
The ratio of clicks to impressions from your last post sound like the targeting is improving. I'm not an expert at AMS, but my ads generally got 1 click per 400-ish impressions. Your AMS dashboard will tell you if your sales are from the ad click or not. They can't say how many KU pages come from it though. When I was running AMS ads, I had better results with KU pages read from it than sales.
Thanks Marie. A key point. I'm not in KU hence won't have the KU pages read option.
Approx 6 weeks in.Cost: $13.65
Impressions: 102728
Clicks: 82
Avg cost per click: $0.17 (Same)
Avg impressions for click: 1253 (was 1513, improved)
Books sold attributed to adverts: 4 (in last 12 days) (of 12 books sold in the last 12 days)
I've been busy with other things and these adverts have been working in the background.
Still with the original 260-270 keywords and not properly optimized at all.
Hi Marie, the adverts that have sold books mostly have efficient click per impression ratios.
Revised my 7 Amazon keyword phrases.superheroes
vampire thriller
supervillain novel
new adult vampire adventure
dark fantasy book series
action adventure thriller
contemporary fantasy fiction.
Selected categories
fiction - action & adventure
fiction - fantasy - dark fantasy
Based on analysis using KDPRocket software these are markedly better phrases for my books than my previous set.
The main feature I'm attempting to optimize with the key phrases is Amazon number of searches, $value associated to the search term and amount of competition.
I've just started two new adverts with 440+ AMS keyword phrases, both new adverts are for ASA.
In terms of categories assigned to my books by Amazon (based on my selected keywords and categories), I'm sitting in,
fantasy - new adult & college (need to sell about 500 books/day to hit #1, and about 110 to hit #20 (front page)) - this is the more available of the two (a little more niche).
fantasy - superhero (need to sell about 1100 books/day to hit #1, and about 120 books to hit #20 (front page)).
NOTE: I'm using everything I can to break away from "Urban Fantasy" & the association that has with Paranormal Romance.
New Blurb,[SUMMARY OF CONFLICT] Super heroes and vampires are fighting a secret war for control of the fabric of reality. Whoever acquires mastery of the reality shifting powers of the Metaframe will become the new gods of the universe.
[TAGLINE]"Imagine if you could change the rules of the game, what rules would you choose?"
[BLURB CONTENT]Witness to a brutal murder, eighteen year old Anton Slayne is inducted by the mysterious Mr Wu into the secret society of vampire hunters, the Order of Thoth. He soon discovers that vicious local gangsters, determined Boston Police Detectives, and relentless Shadowstone operatives pale into insignificance as he is drawn into the machinations of the enigmatic supervillain, vampire General Chloe Armitage.
Heir to a legacy of super powers, Anton joins a team of superheroes, but that is no guarantee of survival against the most powerful supervillains in the world, especially when they're equipped with the latest available technology and super weapons.
[2ND TAGLINE] "When mastery over your soul is at stake, survival is the least of your problems."
[SOCIAL VALIDATION]"Like Underworld on speed, it's got all the adrenaline and action-packing shots of entertainment you could want, wrapped up in a no-nonsense narrative." - Adam Smith, Cultured Vultures
[SUMMARY OF KEYWORDS] Be prepared to be blown away by a high-octane, dark fantasy, superhero action adventure thriller, that would be at home in a summer movie blockbuster.
[CALL TO ACTION] Join the heroes of the Metaframe War, buy A Subtle Agency now.
NOTE: I'm using everything I can to break away from "Urban Fantasy" & the association that has with Paranormal Romance. I think that's a great plan, Graeme.
Author Kari Holloway has provided a guide to getting a book added to extra Amazon categories to a maximum of 10, can be downloaded from this link and no need to sign up to her newsletter.https://www.kariholloway.com/browserc...
Thanks Neil. I'll look into that for sure.
I changed categories, book descriptions and none of it seems to matter.
Also keywords and it doesn't do anything
Currently running at 24 sales over the last 18 days. AMS adverts have been the only promotion activity.7 sales are currently attributed to the AMS adverts.
Hi Justin. Keywords and keyword phrases can vary alot for number of searches on Amazon.Most of my phrases have 1000s of searches per day.
I also aligned them to my AMS advert keywords, categories and used them in my blurb to increase search visibility.
Hi Justin, was that for horror poetry, cause I really no nothing about that market or genre.
I mean in general. I've already been told that poetry is hard to sell and finding keywords is difficult but I guess I'm using KDP Rocket wrong. I'll go back and go over it.
Hi Justin, Good luck with that, I'm no expert, but I was checking KDP results with Chrome Incognito and exploring what I was looking at for a good fit to my books.I suspect one of the biggest marketing mistakes I've made will turn out to be positioning my books in Urban Fantasy for the first two years.
Thanks Graeme. While I plan on looking into it I'm curious, did you do any outside research with the keywords you used before you looked them up on KDP Rocket? I'm just wondering because I feel if an author can get a bit more info before they plug in the words on Rocket then perhaps they have more a chance to work.
Hi Justin,I discovered my current set of 7 Amazon keywords via exploration on Amazon using Chrome Incognito and then checking their value in KDP Rocket. I kept all my results for each phrase I checked in an excel spreadsheet and picked the best 7 I could find by the time I was getting bored with the exercise.During that process I was also looking for new 'better,' categories, and I used the categories I was targeting to develop the AMS Keyword phrases for the adverts, and to factor into the 7 Amazon keywords.
So I would pick a category like dark fantasy, and test phrases around that. For example,
"dark fantasy series" competitors=25159 $=4603 Google=30 Amazon=1603 KDPscore=59
"dark fantasy book series" competitors=22947 $=4690 Google=30 Amazon=1642 KDPscore=59
I ended up selecting "dark fantasy book series" because of the higher $ and Amazon Searches values, compared to the similar "dark fantasy series."
I did quite a bit of comparison efforts - say a day.
I consider everything I've got right now a WIP, and subject to further revision.
Approx 8 weeks in (last reported 2 weeks ago)Cost: $18.46 (was $13.65)
Impressions: 124003 (was 102728)
Clicks: 108 (was 82)
Avg cost per click: $0.17 (Same)
Avg impressions for click: 1148 (was 1253) (was 1513, improved) - still trending good.
Books sold attributed to adverts: 7 (was 4). 3 new books in the last 2 weeks.
Total net cost after royalties $7.90.
Average cost to sell each book $1.13 (more efficient than any of my promos, but still a negative ROI).
Noting that the adverts were suspended for 3 to 4 days during the promotions in May 14th-16th.
Overall, improving. The next step will be claiming additional book categories, and defining AMS keyword phrases in the 700+ range.
Actually sub 1000 impressions per click in the last two weeks.
I picked out my keywords but I can't check to see if people are searching them after doing research on KDP Rocket. I add the keywords but it doesn't seem like they help me as I don't get any sales from it.If my keywords are supposed to help then should they be getting me sales? Am I missing something?
I suspect the AMS keywords and the Amazon (7 of) book Keywords will give you impressions. Because your AMS adverts will show up in impressions.The book cover & Advert content solicits the 'click,'
The product page, cover, blurb, reviews, etc close the sale.
(I think).
So perhaps I'm not choosing the right keywords?
Hi Justin, would you like to run it all past me here and we can look at it together.
With reference to https://kindlepreneur.com/ and https://kdprocket.com/ and Amazon AMS advertising.
I've recently, i.e. late March 2018, dipped my toe in the water with Amazon AMS advertising.
So far I have approx 45,000 impressions, 30 clicks and 0 sales.
Clearly something sucks (or possible blows...)
I've dug deep into my own pockets and forked out the $97 USD for the KDPRocket software and joined the 'free,' kindlepreneur course, which I'm about half way through.
It all seems quite reasonable, however I'm bogging down terrible in the ins and outs of establishing effective keyword lists, defining effective search terms, writing good advert copy, and updating my product description and targeting a handily 'niche,' category.
In general - I'm fracking lost.
Let's discuss our shared experiences and learn from each other.