Last week, we talked about how Amazon ads work for authors at a hypothetical level. This week. we’re going to talk about how they worked for me when I ran them.
My ad campaign was put together by a publicity agency with stock set of keywords for my type of novel, plus some that I suggested.
Here are the overall numbers and top performing keywords from Campaign #1:
Ad copy: Sometimes you have to go through Hell to claim your Heaven.
| 7,477 | 15 | $0.35 | $5.22 | $2.99 | 174.58% | |||
| Impressions | Clicks | ACPC | Spend | Total Sales | ACoS | |||
| Keywords | Match | CPC Bid | Impressions | Clicks | ACPC* | Spend | Sales | Acos** |
| books | Broad | $0.50 | 1,120 | 3 | $0.36 | $1.07 | $2.99 | 35.79% |
| win win | Broad | $0.50 | 441 | 1 | $0.08 | $0.08 | $0.00 | – |
| devil | Broad | $0.50 | 395 | 1 | $0.27 | $0.27 | $0.00 | – |
| bible | Broad | $0.50 | 292 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| demon | Broad | $0.50 | 231 | 3 | $0.29 | $0.87 | $0.00 | – |
| enemies to lovers | Broad | $0.50 | 218 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| shiloh walker | Broad | $0.50 | 217 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| widow | Broad | $0.50 | 180 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| pc cast | Broad | $0.50 | 145 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| christina dodd | Broad | $0.50 | 132 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| bitten | Broad | $0.50 | 131 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| fate | Broad | $0.50 | 124 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| touched | Broad | $0.50 | 121 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| dante | Broad | $0.50 | 118 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| halfway to the grave | Broad | $0.50 | 102 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| always | Broad | $0.50 | 99 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| the darkest night | Broad | $0.50 | 99 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| jd robb | Broad | $0.50 | 91 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| cheyenne mccray | Broad | $0.50 | 89 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| rise of the fallen | Broad | $0.50 | 88 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| erin mccarthy | Broad | $0.50 | 80 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| it lucas | Broad | $0.50 | 77 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| scars | Broad | $0.50 | 71 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| soulmates | Broad | $0.50 | 69 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| shiver | Broad | $0.50 | 63 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| *Average Cost Per Click | ||||||||
| **Average Cost of Sales | ||||||||
And here are the results from Campaign #2:
Ad copy: Sparks fly upward when fallen angel Belial comes to Earth on a mission to corrupt God’s favorite in this Golden Heart® winner.
| 20,960 | 17 | $0.37 | $6.30 | $0.00 | $.0.00 | |||
| Impressions | Clicks | ACPC | Spend | Total Sales | ACoS | |||
| Keywords | Match | CPC Bid | Impressions | Clicks | ACPC* | Spend | Sales | Acos** |
| books | Broad | $0.50 | 3,510 | 4 | $0.33 | $1.30 | $0.00 | – |
| win win | Broad | $0.50 | 1,212 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| devil | Broad | $0.50 | 1,013 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| demon | Broad | $0.50 | 769 | 5 | $0.45 | $2.27 | $0.00 | – |
| shiloh walker | Broad | $0.50 | 741 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| touched | Broad | $0.50 | 457 | 1 | $0.37 | $0.37 | $0.00 | – |
| bitten | Broad | $0.50 | 424 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| christina dodd | Broad | $0.50 | 412 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| always | Broad | $0.50 | 398 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| pc cast | Broad | $0.50 | 385 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| fate | Broad | $0.50 | 366 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| widow | Broad | $0.50 | 362 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| soulmates | Broad | $0.50 | 353 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| enemies to lovers | Broad | $0.50 | 323 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| molly harper | Broad | $0.50 | 285 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| halfway to the grave | Broad | $0.50 | 266 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| redemption | Broad | $0.50 | 239 | 1 | $0.37 | $0.37 | $0.00 | – |
| shiver | Broad | $0.50 | 232 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| marked | Broad | $0.50 | 223 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| donya lynne | Broad | $0.50 | 223 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| cheyenne mccray | Broad | $0.50 | 222 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| erin mccarthy | Broad | $0.50 | 217 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| rise of the fallen | Broad | $0.50 | 216 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| tina folsom | Broad | $0.50 | 207 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
| the darkest night | Broad | $0.50 | 202 | 0 | – | $0.00 | $0.00 | – |
Before we talk about results, let’s take a moment to review what we learned last week:
- Impressions (i.e. position in search results) is determined by:
- Keywords and match type (exact, phrase or broad)
- Bid per click.
First takeaway–despite getting 27,000 impressions across both campaigns, I only sold one book. On the plus side, I only spent $11.52, so not a huge investment for an opportunity to start figuring things out.
Second takeaway is that Campaign #2 did much better than #1 in terms of impressions (like, three times better), but they used the same keywords, matching and bid per click. Both ads ran at the same time, so that’s not a factor.
The only difference I can identify between Campaign #1 and Campaign #2 is the ad copy. The copy for campaign #2 contains the word “winner,” which is a broad match for my keyword “win-win.” That accounts for 1212 extra impressions, but it doesn’t explain the full delta.
For example, Campaign #1 got 1120 impressions for the keyword “books,” while Campaign #2 got 3510–three times as many.
Third takeaway is that, while Campaign #2 did better in terms of impressions, Campaign #1 did better in terms of clicks per impression by 40:1.
If I’m constructing an ad campaign aimed at brand awareness, which has value for a total newbie like myself, but no immediate payoff, the second campaign was better.
If, on the other hand, I’m shooting for impressions that drive clicks, the first worked better.
My fourth and final takeaway from this initial foray into Amazon ads is that before I try this again, I need to glean a much better understanding of how Amazon ads work.
Some of the other Eight Ladies have indicated they’d rather stick a fork in their eye than spend hours analyzing data. I, on the other hand, have a data analysis background and I’m totally geeking out over this.
You’ll be hearing more on this topic.
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