Using Amazon Ads to Sell a YA Novel: A Detailed Analysis

Today’s guest post is by author Deanna Cabinian (@DeannaCabinian).


When I started a sponsored products ad campaign with Amazon, I was skeptical—just another hot new tool that might work for some authors but not everyone. But I figured if I can get my novel in front of customers while they’re in buying mode, it was worth a try.

While Amazon sponsored ads haven’t been a marketing miracle, I also haven’t lost that much money—and copies of my YA novel, One Night, have sold at a steady pace. My strategy was to try several ads and analyze them over the course of a month. If an ad didn’t sell any books in five days or so, I stopped running the ad. If the next ad I tried performed better in terms of click-thru and conversions than the current ad I was running, I stopped the lower performing ad. My goal was to break even or not lose that much money. I set a budget of $100 for the test.

To write the ads, I looked at my reviews and tried to use words that came up often (“sweet,” “charming,” “lighthearted”). I also tried to mention comparable authors and titles. At first I struggled to come up with 100 keywords, but as time went on, I built up the list to over 600 keywords by looking at keywords that led to sales and also-boughts of those keywords. (For more on this process, check out Amazon advertising advice from Robert Kroese.)

The results of my test are below. Here’s a quick explanation of what the terms mean:

  • Click-thru rate: the percentage of people who clicked on the ad after seeing it
  • Sales: the number of books sold as a result of the ad
  • Conversion: the percentage of people who made a book purchase after clicking the ad
  • Royalties: what I earned from book sales connected to the ad (gross)
  • Net profit: what I earned from sales after deducting advertising expenses (net)
  • Keywords that led to purchase: what the user was searching for on Amazon when they clicked and purchased

Amazon ad #1

I decided to mention Paper Towns, a comp title that readers have mentioned to me.

amazon ad 1

  • Click-thru rate: .073% CTR
  • Sales: 3 (2 print, 1 digital)
  • Conversion: 1.81%
  • Royalties: $9.33
  • Net profit: -$13.06

Keywords that led to purchase:

  • books for teen girls
  • jenn bennett

Amazon ad #2

I decided to speak to a specific type of reader—those who love lighthearted romance.

amazon ad 2

  • Click-thru rate: .072% CTR
  • Sales: 5 (3 print, 2 digital)
  • Conversion: 3.22%
  • Royalties: $15.39
  • Net profit: -$7.83

Keywords that led to purchase:

  • 13 reasons why
  • ashley poston
  • we are the ants
  • sarah dessen
  • the importance of getting revenge

Amazon ad #3

I tried comp authors with this one.

amazon ad 3

  • Click-thru rate: .11%
  • Sales: 2 (1 print, 1 digital)
  • Conversion: 2.56%
  • Royalties: $6.06
  • Net profit: -$5.67

Keywords that led to purchase:

  • adam silvera
  • the thing about jellyfish

Amazon ad #4

I decided to get creative with this one. I thought mentioning “quirky” characters would be good since it comes up in reviews, but based on the numbers I don’t think it worked. I guess in this case quirky was a bad thing.

amazon ad 4

  • Click-thru rate: .055%
  • Sales: 0
  • Royalties: $0
  • Net profit: -$1.94

Amazon ad #5

I’ve seen a lot of ads that pose a question so that was the tactic I tried here. It didn’t work.

amazon ad 5

  • Click-thru rate: .047%
  • Sales: 0
  • Royalties: $0
  • Net profit: -$2.91

Amazon ad #6

I was trying to speak to Elvis fans on this one since my novel has a strong Elvis element to it. My gut told me this wouldn’t work and I was right.

amazon ad 6

  • Click-thru rate: 0%
  • Sales: 0
  • Royalties: $0
  • Net profit: $0

Amazon ad #7

I tried to combine elements of ads 2 and 3, the best performing ads. This ad has been running for one week and it has already become the top performer.

amazon ad 7

  • Click-thru rate: .10%
  • Sales: 3 (1 print, 2 digital)
  • Conversion: 5.36%
  • Royalties: $8.85
  • Net profit: -$0.28

Keywords that led to purchase (so far):

  • jenna evans welch
  • the hate u give
  • upside of unrequited

Overall results from Amazon sponsored product ads

  • Total sales: 13
  • Print sales: 7
  • Ebook sales: 6
  • Royalties: $39.63
  • Ad spend: $71.32
  • Net Profit: -$31.69

All in all, I’m pleased with the results. Just having the data on what authors and titles lead to sales is valuable in itself. I will continue to optimize and test ads and add keywords to the campaign with the ultimate goal of turning a profit.

Have you run an Amazon sponsored products campaign? Share your experience in the comments.

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22 Comments
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Chris Syme

Good detailed analysis. I have found, similarly, that testing is the only way to find success with Amazon ads–and that doesn’t happen overnight. Thanks for sharing, Deanna.

Deanna Cabinian

You’re welcome, Chris!

Dotti

Thanks for the info. I’ve yet to find anyone who has had success with Amazon ads. The market is flooded, making it harder and harder to get noticed.

Deanna Cabinian

You’re welcome, Dotti. The struggle is definitely real in terms of standing out in a crowded market. As authors (and really all businesses must do this), we have to try everything and see what works and what doesn’t.

Pam Stucky

Thanks so much, Deanna, for sharing your experiences! After reading the previous article Jane posted, which you referenced (https://janefriedman.com/using-amazon-kdp-ads-sell-ebook-amazon/), I, too, starting running Amazon sponsored product ads. I’ve been running them since January … January 7? Well, sometime in January. I started with one book, and when I saw it was giving me a positive return on investment, I started running it on three other books. I have done some tweaking but not as much as you have. I think it’s time to tweak again as I’ve hit quite a dry spell.

When you said you’ve tested your ads for five days at a time, I did find myself wondering if that was enough time. I have left mine running for months, and there can be five days with no sales, then a burst of sales. If I had based the ad’s success on just the first set, I’d call it a failure; if I based it on the second set, I’d call it a booming success. But the truth is somewhere in between.

I was about to post some numbers, but I have so much data (even if I haven’t parsed it as well as you) I think it merits a post of its own rather than a giant comment! I’ll try to get a post up and share it.

Deanna Cabinian

Pam – thanks for sharing! I would be very interested to see your full results when you post them. I think the more knowledge and data authors have the better!

Sarah

Hi!

Thanks for providing this. I think your story sounds fun, but I almost feel like your cover might be at fault. I’m definitely not trying to be mean at all. It doesn’t really read YA, though, and it feels a bit dated. Your cover isn’t bad, but it just read too old, and it automatically didn’t make me want to pick it up.

I always click Amazon ads if the cover is super grabbing.

Again, not trying to harp or be rude or anything. It might get a stronger boost with a younger cover. That would definitely be an interesting test to run, using your same descriptions but with a different cover (or covers).

Best of luck!

Ash

I have to admit I agree with this point. I’m also not a fan of self-published books with redundant subtitles.

Karen Cioffi

Deanna, thank you for the in depth analysis of using Amazon ads. I use Facebook ads and Google Adwords, but hadn’t thought of Amazon ads. I do have a question about your summary: If your ad expenses were $71.32 and your royalties were $39.63, did you have an overall profit or loss. Just curious to know if this is worth the investment.

Deanna

Hi Karen, overall it was a loss of $31.69, however I do think with more testing and optimization this can be profitable. For me this is a better channel than Facebook. I have tried Facebook ads with no success – loss of money and no email signups or sales. What I like about Amazon ads is that customers are paying the full price. In general, I have found advertising on bargain book sites to be a loss because with the drop in price it doesn’t always earn back the ad spend. Also, I have no evidence of this, but users of bargain sites are looking for a bargain. I myself have tons of bargain books on my Kindle that I have never read. With Amazon I hope people are invested in the book and read it so they’ll purchase my next book. Hope this helps!

Karen Cioffi

Thanks for the response, Deanna. Amazon ads seems to be worth a shot. And, I agree about the bargain book sites – not worth the effort of expense.

Robert Wingfield

And the folks to make the profit? Amazon. I had a mate who used to get paid for clicking ads, so that the click-through rate would look better than it was.

John Van Stry

Have they fixed the part about dealing with Kindle Unlimited buys? That, as well as just how slow they are to update numbers (can be up to two days! I mean really Amazon?) has led to me being fairly skeptical of the usefulness of the ads.
It’s more like you have to do a statistical analysis of your own ads to determine if they’re useful or not. I really wish they’d get better with their reporting (and heaven forbid if you have anything that might be at all ‘triggering’ on your cover, like say an FBI agent with a gun, then your ad gets banned).

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[…] Amazon Ads to Sell a YA Novel: A Detailed Analysis (Deanna Cabinian on JaneFriedman.com): I love when authors open up and share the details and numbers behind their book marketing […]

Brian D Meeks

I like it when people spend time analyzing their data.

It was a fine effort.

Unfortunately, it seems you may have focused on the wrong metrics, but I can’t be sure.

Here are some of my observations, if you don’t mind some analysis of your analysis. It is offered to help. 🙂

1) CTR isn’t incredibly important. Is getting a good CTR nice, yes, but it isn’t worth spending time worrying about.

2) What was your bid?

This is likely part of the problem. Overbidding leads to a negative ROI. It is NOT the major issue.

3) The big problem is your description. You’ve got a synopsis. It just tells what’s going to happen in the book. This is how MOST descriptions are written. Almost all of them convert at 1:30. Meaning, it takes 30 clicks (which you may or may not have overbid on) to get one conversion.

Proper copywriting should lead to a conversion of 1:10 to 1:12. With a description designed to sell your book and NOT a synopsis that makes reading the book unnecessary, all of your ads would have been profitable.

4) You have 5 Sponsored Product ads, that’s fine. It’s a good idea to have a mix of Product Display – Interest ads in there, too. I would recommend 10 PD – I for every 1 SP ad. Of course, you’ll want to have different bids because the goal is to find the floor where you can get the most profitable conversions.

Your book SHOULD be doing VERY well. It’s an AMAZING cover. A+.

The reviews are solid with a 4.4 average and zero twos or ones. Well done.

Of course, it is more of a challenge for a single book than for one that is part of a series, because you can’t get any additional sales. Still, I imagine you’ll write other books. So, your future seems bright.

Okay, now back to the description.

Proper copywriting is all about the hook. It should be short (5 – 6 words) and lead to another hook, which leads to another, and so on. This has been proven effective by one of best copywriters of all time, Joseph Sugarman.

Let’s give it a try…

******
Break ups are terrible.

Thompson is miserable.

Can he get Caroline back?

With his mind on HER, his life takes an unexpected turn. Elvis gives him a job. He knows nothing about the world of celebrity impersonators, but he does know social media.

And so starts his adventure…

…where will it take him?

Will he find his love?

Far from home, will he be able to find his way back? Does he even want to?

If you liked Paper Towns or This Way Back, you’ll love this contemporary YA novel, because everyone enjoys teen angst with a bit of romance.

Get it now and start the adventure.

******

This is what I mean by proper copywriting. Short punchy sentences. Copywriting is NOT prose. Your writing in the description is excellent word smithing, but it’s horrible copywriting.

This description will convert MUCH better.

Note: The formatting is a HUGE part of the copy. The lines between the lines are IMPORTANT.

FB has destroyed our attention spans. People click on ads and then the “read more” and many of them just can’t be bothered with paragraphs of 5 – 6 lines.

They want short.

So, those are my thoughts.

I hope it’s helpful. Good luck.

Sincerely,

Brian D. Meeks
(Sometimes Arthur Byrne)

P.s. You asked if I have run Sponsored Product ads.

Yes, I’ve spent over $42,000 on AMS ads, and those sales have yielded over $160,000 in sales and page read revenue. Of that $42,000, around $150.00 was sponsored product ads.

P.p.s. Don’t use the AMS report for figuring out how many sales you have had from the ads. It is HORRIBLY unreliable, slow, and often misses sales. It is better to watch your data closely and monitor your KDP sales report to make a MORE educated analysis of the TRUE impact of the ads.

You can’t tell which sales go with which ads, but it doesn’t really matter.

A click is a click is a click.

Jane Friedman

Much appreciate your insight, Brian. Thank you.

Brian D Meeks

I hope people find it helpful. 🙂

Michael Wisehart

Helpful as always, Brian. You have a tendancy to pop up all over the web. Sometimes, I think you must be running a secret bot that scoures the web for any mention of AMS. Either that or you employ an underground ring of over-caffeinated guinea pig techies who search it for you. Hmm?

Brian D Meeks

Actually, someone posted a link to this article in the lab. I do like helping when I’m able.

Deanna Cabinian

Brian, thank you so much for your helpful and detailed analysis. I am definitely going to try and make these ads perform better. I actually just got your book in the mail today. Can’t wait to read it and apply your insight. Thanks again!

Matt Brandt

Thanks for taking the time to write this detailed reply, Brian. Great stuff.