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A New AMS Thread

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#1 ·
Edited to say: Sorry guys. Based on new ownership at this site and their response to legitimate author concerns I've chosen to withdraw from participation here.
 
#102 ·
AMS ads interface hasn't updated in a while. It is severely lacking compared to other websites ad interfaces. Nothing will probably result from this, but maybe we can put together a list of things we'd like to see and then email it to people at various people Amazon. Maybe, just maybe (a man can dream), it may have an effect.

So here's what I would like to see.

- I'd like to be able to breakdown my ad spend per day, so I can see how much I spent on a specific day easily.
- I'd like to be able to delete permanently campaigns from my view rather than just having them as terminated.
- It'd be nice if it tracked borrows. Maybe just say, this ad resulted in 3 borrows.

What am I missing?
 
#103 ·
Michael-Allen said:
What am I missing?
I believe AMS is experiencing massive computer (Algorithm) problems. Lately, lots of weird things have been happening with my AMS data.

In a recent post, I aired my biggest complaint with AMS; their basically non-existent, or at least somewhat timely, reporting of sales data in the "Est. Total Sales" column of our Advertising Campaigns chart.

Without at least estimated sales data for individual ads, it is impossible to determine individual ad effectiveness. That all-important data rarely appears on my chart. Is anyone else having that problem, or is it just me?

The primary purpose of any business it to turn a profit - to make money. I assume most folks on this forum share that opinion. Amazon exists solely for that reason - to make money. They know precisely where each and every dollar is invested - why are we not given that same consideration - or, is it just me?
 
#104 ·
R.E.Conary said:
I'm surprised by the number of impressions this quickly for a 10-cent ad--and especially the number for a single keyword. Is this normal or even possible? ???

UPDATE (Nov. 2 @ 6:20 p.m. EDT):My 10-cent ad has been running now for 42 hours and this one keyword has 82,456 impressions with 5 clicks. Don't understand what is happening. The keyword is an author's name and he only has five books on Amazon. Of those, my ad appears on three titles but as far back as pages 14 or 15. This doesn't explain the high number of impressions.

Any thoughts? Comments?
As mentioned in my last post - I believe AMS is in the mist of massive computer (Algorithm) problems.

With your particular situation (82,456 Impressions with 5 Clicks on a single Keyword) - IMO that is a reflection of their problem - which, hopefully, will soon be resolved.

Along that line, IMHO, many folks attach far too much importance on performance of individual Keywords - in regard to the interaction of all 3 factors (Impressions, Clicks, Sales). I assert that it is mathematically impossible for AMS to provide useful stats in that regard. At best, all they can offer is a rough guess as to individual Keyword performance - and I seriously question their ability to do even that.

We tend to dwell on the effects of changing individual Keywords in response to performance stats. If such change(s) boost ad performance, our tendency is to feel gratified with our brilliance. My feeling is that the result of such changes (good or bad) is mere circumstance.
 
#106 ·
Sorry to interrupt the discussion with a couple of complete newbie questions (i.e. newbie to AMS), but I suspect they're far too basic to justify their own thread.

Firstly, what exactly is an 'impression'? I assume it's every time your ad is displayed, but am not entirely sure.

Secondly, I've started a Product Display ad at a low level ($0.10) because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing and preferred to err on the side of not spending enough than overspending. I see here that I may soon need to go in to increase that. Is that easy to accomplish? I'm looking at the ad dashboard and can't see how I would amend it.

 
#107 ·
Sam Kates said:
Sorry to interrupt the discussion with a couple of complete newbie questions (i.e. newbie to AMS), but I suspect they're far too basic to justify their own thread.

Firstly, what exactly is an 'impression'? I assume it's every time your ad is displayed, but am not entirely sure.

Secondly, I've started a Product Display ad at a low level ($0.10) because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing and preferred to err on the side of not spending enough than overspending. I see here that I may soon need to go in to increase that. Is that easy to accomplish? I'm looking at the ad dashboard and can't see how I would amend it.
An impression is each time someone views your ad.

For the product display ad, copy it, and then up the bid. You can cancel the old one if you want.
 
#108 ·
Sam Kates said:
Secondly, I've started a Product Display ad at a low level ($0.10) because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing and preferred to err on the side of not spending enough than overspending. I see here that I may soon need to go in to increase that. Is that easy to accomplish? I'm looking at the ad dashboard and can't see how I would amend it.
You can raise it as others have mentioned. But it's not the only choice. You might consider doing more ads. I'm assuming you're starting with your Earth Haven Book 1.

Make 10 ads at 10 cents per click with $1 max. See if one piece of ad copy you write does better than the others. (If their ads behave like usual, you don't have to worry about spending even that $10 per day.)

What you're watching for is "how many clicks on average to get a sale?"

The other thing you want to know from your past experience is "what percentage of people who buy book 1 go on to buy book 2 and 3?"

With a 99 cent book, it's hard to run a profit because 4 clicks for 1 sale is pretty unheard of, and you've spend .40 cents for those clicks that result in .35 revenue. So you need to factor in how many of those buyers go on to buy the other books in the series. Let's say half for simplicity.

And let's say your conversion of clicks to sales is more like 10 clicks for a sale. So now 20 clicks costs you $2, results in 2 sales of book 1 at $.99, and one sale of book 2 and book 3 down the road at $2.99 each. That's $2 in ads resulting in $4.35 in revenue.

Your actual math probably won't be that rosy, but that's the power of series and you want to figure out that basic break point for yourself so you can then figure out how high a bid makes sense because AMS doesn't figure this out for you. But testing at 10 cents is fine. You can even do tons of ads and try 02 cents.
 
#109 ·
Cassie Leigh said:
Click on the ad. That should take you to the Campaign Settings tab for the ad. About halfway down that list you should see CPC Bid with an edit button next to your current bid. Click on it, edit, save.

As for impressions, Amazon says "an impression is generated every time your ad is displayed." What that actually means has been debated quite a lot.
Yep, that works - thanks, Cassie. The dashboard looked so alien that I hesitated to click anywhere before asking around here first. I've been in this game for around five years, but am a complete novice when it comes to AMS.

As for impressions, that seems as woolly as I suspected it might be.

Thanks, again.
 
#110 ·
David Beers said:
An impression is each time someone views your ad.

For the product display ad, copy it, and then up the bid. You can cancel the old one if you want.
Thanks, David, but Cassie's method of simply editing the existing bid seems easier, unless there's a catch. If there are two or more ways to do anythng when it comes to technology, I'm all for the simplest one.
 
#111 ·
J. Tanner said:
You can raise it as others have mentioned. But it's not the only choice. You might consider doing more ads. I'm assuming you're starting with your Earth Haven Book 1.

Make 10 ads at 10 cents per click with $1 max. See if one piece of ad copy you write does better than the others. (If their ads behave like usual, you don't have to worry about spending even that $10 per day.)

What you're watching for is "how many clicks on average to get a sale?"

The other thing you want to know from your past experience is "what percentage of people who buy book 1 go on to buy book 2 and 3?"

With a 99 cent book, it's hard to run a profit because 4 clicks for 1 sale is pretty unheard of, and you've spend .40 cents for those clicks that result in .35 revenue. So you need to factor in how many of those buyers go on to buy the other books in the series. Let's say half for simplicity.

And let's say your conversion of clicks to sales is more like 10 clicks for a sale. So now 20 clicks costs you $2, results in 2 sales of book 1 at $.99, and one sale of book 2 and book 3 down the road at $2.99 each. That's $2 in ads resulting in $4.35 in revenue.

Your actual math probably won't be that rosy, but that's the power of series and you want to figure out that basic break point for yourself so you can then figure out how high a bid makes sense because AMS doesn't figure this out for you. But testing at 10 cents is fine. You can even do tons of ads and try 02 cents.
Thanks, J. Tanner - the notion of running additional ads alongside didn't even occur to me. Food for thought, indeed.

(I'm not running ads on The Cleansing, for reasons I won't bore you with, but on my latest release - a collection of Christmas-themed short horror stories. I know shorts are a hard sell, so wanted to advertise them in the run-up to Christmas. I don't mind a negative ROI because a couple of the stories are set in the Earth Haven world and are exposure for that series. Provided, of course, I can get eyes on the collection.)
 
#112 ·
Sam Kates said:
Thanks, J. Tanner - the notion of running additional ads alongside didn't even occur to me. Food for thought, indeed.

(I'm not running ads on The Cleansing, for reasons I won't bore you with, but on my latest release - a collection of Christmas-themed short horror stories. I know shorts are a hard sell, so wanted to advertise them in the run-up to Christmas. I don't mind a negative ROI because a couple of the stories are set in the Earth Haven world and are exposure for that series. Provided, of course, I can get eyes on the collection.)
OK. You've got that priced at $2.99 which gives you some room to work with. Same principle applies. I like more ads with .10 bids because the math is easy enough to do in my head. :p

You need sell 1 book per 20 clicks to break even.

This is doable. Check crowd wisdom, but my guess is most people will tell you if you aren't converting 1 in 20 mildly interested parties you've got a problem with your store page: blurb, price, sample, cover attracting wrong genre reader, etc.
 
#114 ·
J. Tanner said:
OK. You've got that priced at $2.99 which gives you some room to work with. Same principle applies. I like more ads with .10 bids because the math is easy enough to do in my head. :p

You need sell 1 book per 20 clicks to break even.

This is doable. Check crowd wisdom, but my guess is most people will tell you if you aren't converting 1 in 20 mildly interested parties you've got a problem with your store page: blurb, price, sample, cover attracting wrong genre reader, etc.
Thank you for the advice - I shall fully consider all you've said, but it will have to wait until Sunday. (It's my 53rd birthday today, I'm a little under the weather - i.e. sozzled - and we're out again tomorrow.) I really like the idea of running concurrent ads and shall give this my undivided, and sober, attention on Sunday. Thank you, again - it's truly much appreciated.
 
#118 ·
Philip Gibson said:
I'm currently not seeing a row of Sponsored Products ads on any book.

Philip
I noticed that last night, thought it might be my ad blocker, but it wasn't. I still can't find any Sponsored Product
Ads carousel on any book, but my impressions and clicks keep rising, so I really don't get it. :'(

Is anybody seeing any?
 
#120 ·
Rob Tran said:
Very new to the book publishing business!

I am running my first AMS ad at a budget of $2 per day.

Just wondering if this considered too "low" for anyone? Do people spend most of their advertising dollars on AMS or on other advertising platforms?
There's really no set rule. You just have to experiment. If you hit your daily limit, Amazon will send you an email suggesting you increase it.
 
#122 ·
loraininflorida said:
You're right. I can see them on Internet Explorer, but not on Chrome.

I have no clue whatsoever why this would happen but dang, it messes up my data keeping if right now most people aren't seeing the ads.
I'm also on Chrome and not seeing any Sponsored Products ads.

Do we think Amazon knows about this, or should we be contacting them?

Philip
 
#126 ·
Philip Gibson said:
Are others here able to see Sponsored Products carousels?
I use two browsers, Firefox and Chrome. I just did an experiment by clicking on the same books on both.

Firefox didn't show the sponsored products carousel or the product display ad on any of them. They never show probably because I have an ad blocker installed.

Chrome showed them. I never got around to installing ad-blocker.

I went back to Firefox and accessed the ad-block icon (Adblock Plus) to disable blocked items on that page. The SP carousel still didn't show, but the product display ad did. Strange. Maybe Firefox doesn't support whatever Amazon uses to display the SP carousel?
 
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