Today’s guest blogger is Wendy Raebeck, a frequent commenter here who always adds to the conversation with insights and wit. When Wendy commented recently about how she’s mastering Amazon ads so she can sell more books, I asked her to write a guest post about what she’s doing. In addition to being the author of eight books, Wendy has written more than 100 newspaper articles as a freelance journalist. A former actress and yoga instructor, she says her most formative and spiritual experiences involved living without electricity and running water on Spanish and Greek islands. 

Mastering Amazon ads one tweak at a time: One author’s success story

By Wendy Raebeck

Creatively, I’m a bit rogue. (Mom’s reply to my childhood questions was always, “Use your imagination.”) I design my own covers, don’t “write for the market,” love paperbacks, rarely do giveaways or big discounts, am totally DIY except for the obligatory edits, and price my books higher than most indies.

On the other hand, I seem more determined to cover all the bases than most.

Including “Ta Ta for Now – the Movie,” which I’m about to release, I have eight books out, and am here to report that there really can be a point where the head-bashing begins paying off. If you hang in.

Oh, you’ll still have a line-up of challenges! But if you roll up your sleeves, Amazon ads might possibly lift your spirits.

Mastering Amazon ads requires knowing your readers

Familiarizing oneself with the Amazon ad algorithms is pure grit – feels financially dicey, too – but for the more motivated among us (ideally, with more than one book out), learning the ABCs can take you higher.

My present focus with mastering Amazon ads is on “targeting” and “relevance.” Though this terminology is Advertising 101, the practical application demands a mental shift. As Sandra recently pointed out, it feels counterintuitive not to target “everyone.” Indeed, I always found myself defaulting to, “But how can I be sure Andy, my mechanic, wouldn’t love this book? He’s into all kinds of things.”

Our intuition prompts us to cast a wide net, because you never know. But “relevance” and “targeting” mean fishing for likely readers, not possible (or unlikely) ones.

Sure, as in dating, we could probably get along with almost anybody if stranded on a remote island…but readers aren’t stranded. They have choices.

So Andy reads about cars and motorcycles, not the high jinks of wily women. And even if every two-legged on the planet might, theoretically, enjoy my book (if forced at gunpoint to read it on a long flight), trying to re-route other-genre readers in hopes they’ll switch over is…less than strategic.

As I wrote in “Surviving Self-Publishing or Why Ernest Hemingway Committed Suicide,” “If your email list is comprised of 4th-graders from the class you teach and cab-drivers from your summer trip to Egypt, you’re off point. Think quality over quantity.” “Targeting” also acknowledges that “our tribe” isn’t an already-existing group out there, but non-existent until we create it.

Target with trial and error

So how do we “target”? No simple answer, but mostly through trial and error. As we try out different keywords, categories, and titles of other books (similar to our own in some way) in our ads, we study where shoppers are biting and where they’re buying.

And we eventually hone in on which bait or hooks (targets) are enticing card-carrying buyers to place orders.

With my hippie book, for example, I started out with keywords like “hitchhiking,” “wild and crazy,” and “free spirit.” But I learned these aren’t terms readers search for on Amazon. I’m better off jumping on the coattails of someone typing in “John Lennon,” “60s culture,” or, believe it or not, Prince Harry’s memoir. My buyers read memoirs, they don’t hitchhike.

Get my drift? Mind games. (But…Dad’s reply to my childhood questions was always, “You can figure it out.”)

Amazon ads help sell more books

So…we all know (or are) agoraphobic authors unwilling or unready to hit the ads trenches. But, sadly, in today’s publishing landscape, it’s pay-to-play. Jury’s not only in, it left the courthouse a few years back.

However, those willing to accept this woeful reality, and who possess the gumption/time/energy, can conceivably experience improved sales through advertising. Not high numbers necessarily, and not right off the bat, but an uptick! Not to mention genuine free exposure from thousands of “impressions” flashing your ads across Amazon.

I’ve been doing Amazon ads two years now, summoned in by the endearing Bryan Cohen and his free course (that I’ve taken four times). I also follow Matthew Holmes, another stand-up ads guru proffering excellent tips in a weekly blog. Amazon ads, in my opinion, are impossible to master solo, and I highly recommend Bryan and Matthew (and others, too) as entry portals. (Bryan’s free course starts again April 19. I’ll be there.)

Once you’re a vassal in Jeff Bezos’ fiefdom – and have decoded your ads charts and created some campaigns – your biggest challenge will be juggling the dreaded “spend” vs. your bona fide sales.

Mastering Amazon ads means paying attention

Here, attentiveness and diligence are musts.

But this vigilance has kept me profitable from the start. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I’m by no means killin’ it, plus, I’m super careful, but my author aim has always been to just continue scaling profit while adding fun new books. I’ve met this goal since my first release in 2012 – assisted lately by the ads.

What sold me on mastering Amazon ads was when I let them lapse in September 2022 because I was too busy elsewhere. Guess what. My sales dropped off completely – not just Amazon e-book sales, but all my e-book and paperback sales from all venues! (The chart below reflects just e-book sales and just Amazon – but I sell more paperbacks than e-books, and my whole train stopped when I ceased my ads!)

After that, tracking and tweaking ad performance became a top priority, despite the tedium. Point is, if one can develop a patience variant heretofore unimagined, some know-how will follow, and things might percolate.

It’s a pay-to-play publishing world

I’m writing this because I believe authors (especially multi-title ones) must grasp the pay-to-play paradigm self-publishing has morphed into. Despite the overwhelm, old hat to you anyway, I don’t see any other avenues through today’s crowded marketplace. (Except Facebook – where your servitude is to Zuck instead.)

C’est la guerre. Our best approach, I think, is to make marketing fun. And, though the advance team has long advised precisely that, it still takes ages to embrace it – “Oh-h-h, like actually enjoy myself? Hmm.”

Yep, jump in the pool.

And jump into my tribe; check out the escapist literature at WendyRaebeck.com and sign onto my email list there (get two free stories). If you’re an appropriate reader, that is. Oh, okay, Andy, if you insist.

Do you have questions for Wendy about her experiences with Amazon ads? Please ask them in a comment. 

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission (at no extra charge to you). 

When you’re shopping online at a retail site that lets users review products, do you check those reviews before making a purchase decision?

If you’re like most, you do.

According to the Spiegel Research Center, nearly 95 percent of online shoppers read user reviews before making a purchase.

After making a purchasing mistake that would have been prevented if I had paid attention to the user comments, I’m now doing this religiously.

If only I had read the reviews . . . .

When I couldn’t find the type of coat I wanted at local stores last winter, I had to shop online. The site with the super-warm coat I was looking for offered user reviews, but I ignored them. After all, I knew what I wanted. Reviews wouldn’t influence that.

Bad move.

Had I read the user reviews, I would have discovered that the garment runs small. Customers recommended buying a larger size.

Because I didn’t see that feedback (because I didn’t look for it), I bought my usual size…it was too small…and I had to return and exchange it. I could have been facing the bitter wind and snow in a perfect-fitting coat much sooner if only I had read the reviews.

via GIPHY

Lesson learned – for clothing. I was already checking reader reviews for books before buying.

I scan for phrases that tell me the book has attributes that I won’t like, but I’m also looking for information that reassures me that it’s my kind of read.

When advertising on Amazon doesn’t make sense

What does this mean for you?

People rely on reviews when making online purchasing decisions, so don’t run Amazon ads until you have several good reviews.

When readers who discover your book through an ad click through and see that there are no reader reviews, they hit the “back” arrow.

Nobody – nobody – wants to be the first to buy your book.

People need that “social proof” that the book has been reader-tested. And maybe it has been. But, if there’s no proof of that on your sales page when your ad runs, the proof doesn’t exist as far as your reader is concerned.

In addition, early reviews might offer reader feedback to improve your book’s description. Anything you can do to fine-tune and “optimize” your sales page will help you get the most from your advertising budget.

Start with at least 10 reviews

There’s no magic number of reviews you must have before advertising. There are no extra, secret Amazon perks linked to a specific number of reviews on an advertised product.

Some authors recommend a minimum of three reviews. I agree with that as a minimum, but as a reader who looks at reviews, I’d encourage you to get more than that before advertising on Amazon. Derek Doepker, creator of my favorite Amazon ads training program, recommends having at least 10.

2 must-dos for reader reviews

How do you get those valuable reader reviews?

You do two things:

1. Give books to people in your target audience and ask them to write honest reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else. (Download your free copy of “9 places to look for
   readers who write reviews” here.)
2. Make it easy for readers to write those reviews.

You can find your target readers in your email list or your blog’s followers, in Facebook groups dedicated to your genre, and on the social networks you use regularly.

You can also pay services that match advance review copies with readers who know they are expected to review the book they receive at no charge.

Help your readers write those honest reviews quickly and easily with the Build Book Buzz Reader Book Review Form. It’s the only tool that makes it easy for readers to write honest reviews in just minutes.

Readers answer a series of questions about the book in a fill-in-the-blanks form, then combine their answers into a review that they copy and paste into the Amazon review template. Get the details and hear from readers who have used it at http://www.readerbookreviewform.com

Reviews first, advertising on Amazon second

Please don’t throw your money away on ads until your book has been reader-tested and has the honest, favorable reviews to prove it.

You’ll be happier with the outcome, and so will your checking account.

What’s your best tip for getting reader reviews? What works for you?