Published My First Book: Should I Use Amazon Ads for Books?

About this video

Dale Roberts answers a new author’s question — should I use Amazon Ads for my first book? — with a conditional answer that depends on genre and back-end. For nonfiction, yes, but only if the book contains a call to action that moves readers off Amazon to an email newsletter or website where they can be upsold additional products. For fiction, not yet with only one book: there is nothing else for a buyer to purchase, so he advises building a back catalogue first so advertising can take customers through a journey across multiple titles. He says Amazon advertising is, in his experience, easier and cheaper than Facebook or Google ads and reaches a warmer audience because people go to Amazon to buy. Beginners should treat early spend as paying to learn, invest only money they can stand to lose, and start very low at about $1 to $10 per day. His starter setup is a Sponsored Products ad with manual targeting, dynamic bids down-only or fixed bids (not up-and-down, which he says lets Amazon take more), a standard rather than custom ad, and a custom bid of $0.10 per click — never the suggested bid — to chase low-hanging-fruit keywords instead of ones costing around $1.50. He suggests loading up to a thousand keywords using Publisher Rocket, or Google Ads Keyword Planner as a free alternative. Ads typically take 12 to 24 hours to be approved; monitor daily and watch the impressions-to-clicks-to-buys ratio, with his preference being roughly one sale per ten clicks.

Key takeaways

• Nonfiction authors can use Amazon Ads for a first book only if the book has a call to action to an email list or website with further products to upsell; single-book fiction authors should build a back catalogue first.
• In his experience Amazon Ads are easier and cheaper than Facebook or Google ads because Amazon shoppers arrive with buying intent.
• Start at about $1 to $10 per day with money you can afford to lose, treating early spend as paying to learn the platform rather than expecting immediate profit.
• Starter settings: Sponsored Products, manual targeting, dynamic bids down-only or fixed bids, a standard ad, and a custom $0.10 bid instead of the suggested bid, targeting up to a thousand keywords gathered via Publisher Rocket or Google’s Keyword Planner.
• Monitor campaigns daily after the typical 12–24 hour approval, tracking impressions to clicks to sales; he aims for roughly one in ten clicks converting to a sale.

Episode details: published April 1, 2020 · 8:24 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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