Authors in all genres are finding the newest marketing powerhouse is right in front of them: Amazon ads! Positioned right on the page of other, similar books, these ads work the same way as the treasured "also-boughts," targeting the exact customer most likely to buy your books. If you've only got time for one new marketing platform this season, you can't afford to ignore Amazon ads as your number one choice. 
Advantages of Amazon Ads
The new Amazon ads come packaged designed for your ideal market: readers who already love books just like yours. Even if you're just starting out with book promotions, Amazon ads are the perfect place to begin.
- The ads can be refined to fit your budget. You can start for as little as $1 per day, then scale up as your sales increase
- Readers looking at your ad space are already primed to buy something exactly like your books
- The web space is already there, which means no building sales funnels, websites or other platforms
Look at the bottom of any Amazon book listing. You'll see a line of books that have also been bought by readers who bought this book. Directly below this is another line of similar books. The two lines look exactly the same, except the second one is filled with paid book ads. The perfect placement makes these ads a natural for selling more books to your ideal customer. You don't have to deal with cold selling or trying to find readers, they're already here looking for books just like yours.
Pricing
The pricing for these ads depends on two variables: how much you want to spend each day and how many days you want the ad to run. The daily budget will be an average, with some days spending higher and some lower, but the total will average out over your total number of days.
Parts of the Amazon Ad
Each ad consists of three parts. The first is your choice of book, plus your daily budget and running time. Second, you'll choose the keywords that direct your ad. Finally, you'll need the ad copy or promo text that describe your book. All three combine to make your ideal Amazon ad.
Creating Your Amazon Ad
Go to your AMS dashboard by starting on your KDP dashboard and clicking on Reports at the top of the page. On the lower left side you'll find a link to your ad campaigns. Click on this link. If this is the first time doing this you'll have to fill out some details, but you'll end up at your AMS dashboard. Check the box labeled Payment Settings before going any further, which is in the line at the top of the page.
Once those details are correct, click on the orange box marked New Campaign. This will take you to the campaign choice screen. Go with Sponsored Product Ads for the best results.
Next, choose the book you want to feature. It must already be published on Amazon, can't be erotica, and must have a cover that complies with Amazon cover rules. After this step, the product guides you easily through the process. You'll name the campaign and choose your budget and ad duration. Make sure to give each ad campaign a unique name. Once you start working this successfully, you'll want to do more than one, and it's easy to mix them up if they aren't clearly labeled. Use lower budgets for cheaper books, but start with an affordable amount so you can scale up. Begin with an ad campaign of at least two weeks, so you can get some good data to work with. This allows you to fine-tune subsequent ads for better results.
The product will ask you for targeting on the ad. Click on Manual Targeting, which will aim your ads at the books related to the keywords you're going to choose. This generally gives the best results.
Keywords
Next comes the part that most people find the trickiest, the keywords. Settle in, this is going to take some time. Your book will be advertised only on the pages of books that relate to your keywords, which means you can choose the people who see it. Start by looking at the suggested keywords. It's not an exact list, but it's a good place to start brainstorming. You have a total of 1,000 keywords you can use, and you should use as many as possible. Some best ideas are:
- Your own name and your other book titles
- Keywords that describe your book. Combine words in different fashions: dog, dog training, puppy training, dog housetraining, etc.
- Authors in your genre
- Bestselling books in your genre
When looking for authors and books in your genre, start by looking as the also boughts for your book. This will give you a rabbit hole to go down. Creating this list is the job of a couple of days, but making it as large as possible will pay off in the end. Once you have the list, click Add Your Own Keywords and a box will appear for you to enter them in. In this box you'll also enter the Cost per Click you're willing to pay for the ads. Standard is $.25, but many authors go lower than that to make their ad money go further. When you run out of money for clicks, Amazon won't show your ad any more, so lowering your price can squeeze in another ad or two each day.
Finalizing the Ad
After you've finished with the money and keywords, fill in the ad copy. Make it a snappy hook with just enough detail to reel them in. Hit the orange button marked Submit Campaign for Review, and you're done!
Use your AMS dashboard to track results for keywords, and narrow down the list in subsequent ads. Authors are seeing amazing results, with higher sales for less marketing money than just about any other promotions method.
Keep the Faith and may the Force be with You!
