KDP Advertising Tips

Daffyjkl

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I have been advertising using the KDP marketing service and have had some reasonable results. I have 5 campaigns running for my two books. Sales have been slow (35 per month) and the cost outweighs the returns, (if I include KENP I make a small profit). The most successful is the Product Display option. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for using this method? Thanks in advance.
 

Daffyjkl

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Ok, I was hoping for some tips from other writers using the KDP Marketing Service, but none have been received yet. First tip from me, is that with Sponsored Product Campaigns, you need to populate your campaign with hundreds of similiar products to get results. Using just 25 or so categories will yield little in the way of results. Add hundreds of authors that write in your genre. An author name will link to all of that author's catalogue. To start with scroll to the bottom of your book's page and go to the the categories for your book. View the top 100 books in each section. Add each of the authors to your Sponsored Product Campaign. Every book has three categories, so that should give several hundred authors to add to your list (which could mean exposure to thousands of books). Set the CPC (Cost Per Click) to whatever you are comfortable with. Note that you can set an Average Daily Budget so there will be a limit to your total expenditure and you can control your outlay. It's only when you start adding hundreds of Keywords (author's names) that you will start seeing significant Impressions (views) and remember you only pay for Clicks (when someone clicks on your add, Impressions cost nothing). The number of Clicks will depend on the quality of your cover, your blurb and the number of reviews you have for your book. Hopefully, others can add tips to this brief summary. Thanks.
 

Arpeggio

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Good tips Daff. Not used yet myself but will heed your advice. A smiling face pic helps on your Author profile it helps build trust in customers eyes. Split paragraphs more and perhaps use bullet points in your description.
 

WriterBN

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I have several campaigns running and they're profitable, but not as profitable as they used to be (my goal is to keep the ACoS around 30%). I think you covered the main points.

The overall tip is that AMS isn't a "set it and forget it" type of system. You have to constantly optimize and tweak your campaigns. Also, since the reports are delayed by several days to weeks, it can be difficult to see the effects of changes, so don't make any hasty decisions.
 

Daffyjkl

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Thanks for the advice. WriterBN, I agree, the campaigns need to be worked on regularly. Mine are profitable only when I factor in the KENP royalties. Arpeggio, thanks for your comments. The author photo you mention. Is that for Goodreads? Amazon? Or both? Also, are the split paragraphs & bullet points you mention are they referring to my post or something else? Always looking for helpful advice like this. Thanks again.
 

Daffyjkl

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I also find that short runs of the campaign work better. For some reason the campaign seems to go stale after a while. I suggest shortening the period to a week. If not much is happening try changing something, your cover, the price or your blurb. And when you can add more products or authors to your list.
 

Arpeggio

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Thanks for the advice. WriterBN, I agree, the campaigns need to be worked on regularly. Mine are profitable only when I factor in the KENP royalties. Arpeggio, thanks for your comments. The author photo you mention. Is that for Goodreads? Amazon? Or both? Also, are the split paragraphs & bullet points you mention are they referring to my post or something else? Always looking for helpful advice like this. Thanks again.

A photo for your Amazon author profile and on Goodreads. The split paragraphs and bullet points not for your post here, but for your book description on retailer sites. Amazon allows minimal html, it's worth learning. For example something like this:

Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1. Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2.

into this

<p>Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1.</p>
<p>Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2.</p>

will publically look like this:

1 Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1.

2 Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2.

(<p> is for new paragraph </p> is for close paragraph)

Interesting that KDP advertising uses other authors to show your books. I know a few who are faking their own reviews on a large scale, so perhaps the exposure they get from their own fraud could benefit others who aren't scamming the reviews.
 

Daffyjkl

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Thanks Arpeggio. How does splitting the paragraphs and using bullet points help sales? Forgive my ignorance. The photos I understand, I just have to find a decent one... there aren't many.
 

Arpeggio

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Thanks Arpeggio. How does splitting the paragraphs and using bullet points help sales? Forgive my ignorance. The photos I understand, I just have to find a decent one... there aren't many.

A customers perspective can be quite different than what an author might think matters. Their attention span is very limited when you consider yours will be one of several different books they choose from, so you want to make your sales page as compelling as easy as you can. Splitting paragraphs is just one small part of the greater sum. Bullet points aren't necessary but look cool (and perhaps more suited to technical books) but definitely space your paras. Also italicize your GR review and bold the source i.e. GoodReads Reviewer
 

WriterBN

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<p>Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1.</p>
<p>Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2.</p>

will publically look like this:

1 Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1 Ipsum lorem 1.

2 Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2 Ipsum lorem 2.

(<p> is for new paragraph </p> is for close paragraph)

Paragraph codes won't get you numbers. If that's what you're after, you need an ordered list:

Code:
<ol>
<li>First numbered list item.</li>
<li>Second numbered list item.</li>
</ol>
 

Daffyjkl

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Right, thanks for the updates. Arpeggio, I'll take your points onboard and make the changes tomorrow. WriterBN, an ordered list, I don't understand, but I am sure is valid. Please explain how that works. Forgive my ignorance. Thanks again.
 

WriterBN

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WriterBN, an ordered list, I don't understand, but I am sure is valid. Please explain how that works. Forgive my ignorance. Thanks again.

My reply was to Arpeggio's example of using paragraphs, which they showed incorrectly as being numbered. You don't need to use an ordered list if you don't want one, obviously. The only times I've used one is when listing the contents of a boxed set or a series bundle.
 

Arpeggio

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My reply was to Arpeggio's example of using paragraphs, which they showed incorrectly as being numbered. You don't need to use an ordered list if you don't want one, obviously. The only times I've used one is when listing the contents of a boxed set or a series bundle.

Numbers 1 and 2 were used to distinguish parts of the same line to be split into paragraphs. Otherwise I wouldn't have repeated each number three times in each sentence. Perhaps I should have just started with this:

Ipsum lorem Ipsum lorem Ipsum lorem. Ipsum lorem Ipsum lorem Ipsum lorem.
 

Daffyjkl

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Ordered Lists? Is that a technical term? Thanks.
 

Daffyjkl

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Ok, what does an ordered list mean/do? Thanks.
 

WriterBN

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Ok, what does an ordered list mean/do? Thanks.
It's the equivalent of a numbered list in any word processing app. A common example would be a list of steps that are followed in a certain order.

Specifically, as it relates to book descriptions: I use an ordered list for a collection or boxed set, to list the titles in numerical order.
 

heykatydid

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Ok, I was hoping for some tips from other writers using the KDP Marketing Service, but none have been received yet. First tip from me, is that with Sponsored Product Campaigns, you need to populate your campaign with hundreds of similiar products to get results. Using just 25 or so categories will yield little in the way of results. Add hundreds of authors that write in your genre. An author name will link to all of that author's catalogue. To start with scroll to the bottom of your book's page and go to the the categories for your book. View the top 100 books in each section. Add each of the authors to your Sponsored Product Campaign. Every book has three categories, so that should give several hundred authors to add to your list (which could mean exposure to thousands of books). Set the CPC (Cost Per Click) to whatever you are comfortable with. Note that you can set an Average Daily Budget so there will be a limit to your total expenditure and you can control your outlay. It's only when you start adding hundreds of Keywords (author's names) that you will start seeing significant Impressions (views) and remember you only pay for Clicks (when someone clicks on your add, Impressions cost nothing). The number of Clicks will depend on the quality of your cover, your blurb and the number of reviews you have for your book. Hopefully, others can add tips to this brief summary. Thanks.

I used the ad services a month or two ago and had pretty dismal results, so I might try again with your advice. I think I only had two or three author names added and that likely was where I went wrong. I'll report back if I find it changes the results significantly. :) Thanks for the tips!
 

Daffyjkl

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My initial experience was the same, with only a small number of author names not much happened. I set a goal of spending 15 minutes a day (for a month) adding new authors and it adds up pretty quickly. Once you have a 100+ you should start seeing a lot more Impressions (free) and a few Clicks (cost per click). My author list is at the maximum of 1000. I'm not sure how accurate the sales data is, but if my campaigns stop for a couple of days I see sales drop. Good luck and remember to set a maximum Daily or Campaign Limit so there are no nasty surprises with the cost.
 

Daffyjkl

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Something I probably should have added to clarify, focus on author names (for Sponsored Product Campaigns), rather than titles. Remember an author may have many books published and the name will give exposure to all of them.
 

Catherine

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Good tips Daff. Not used yet myself but will heed your advice. A smiling face pic helps on your Author profile it helps build trust in customers eyes. Split paragraphs more and perhaps use bullet points in your description.

Thanks for the tips on html--I'd been wanting to make my coloring book descriptions with bullet points for a while now. Couldn't figure it out until I saw your post.
 

Arpeggio

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Thanks for the tips on html--I'd been wanting to make my coloring book descriptions with bullet points for a while now. Couldn't figure it out until I saw your post.

Looks good. This site I have found useful when there are gaps in my knowledge. https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_p.asp

It's very useful. For making good descriptions you only need to know a few html basics. Even under the description entry for a book on CreateSpace it has some basic guidelines when you click the part that says "Advanced users can use limited HTML instead of plain text to style and format their description".

If you save your html descriptions to your hard drive try to save them as html documents and not in word. Word includes its own bits of code that aren't compatible and need cleaning in order to use as html.
 
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Daffyjkl

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I had a couple of campaigns rejected for a RPG game I was promoting with the following reason:

The ad contains inappropriate capitalization.

It took several attempts to work out why it was rejected and I couldn't find any explanation on the KDP forums.

Ultimately, it turns out that Amazon doesn't like capitalisation in the Custom text.

This was rejected:

The Dragon’s Lair is a single player dungeon crawl game. You play a brave Knight on a quest to destroy a fearsome Dragon that threatens the realm.

Changing the word 'Dragon' to 'dragon' was accepted:

The Dragon’s Lair is a single player dungeon crawl game. You play a brave Knight on a quest to destroy a fearsome dragon that threatens the realm.