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.
Back in the good old days of the Model T, Henry Ford paid his suppliers by simply weighing their invoices and making a guess at the amount he owed. Apparently nobody complained; business was booming. Do we have a similar situation here? Or just an element of chaos?Cassie Leigh said:I had this happen on an ad. It was at $8,600 in estimated sales one day and $8,300 the next. But no returns either on the ebook or the paperback side, so I figured it was some sort of random adjustment to the AMS dashboard.
Thanks JenaJena H said:I recently paused a long-running ad that had become more or less stagnant, and then restarted it, after less than a week. So far, the performance of the now-active ad has been.... underwhelming. If it was sluggish before, the ad is downright comatose now.
Thanks Cassie. I checked my returns. For the book with the biggest loss, I've had no returns in this month and only one in last month. Even if the one return was a paperback I still lost sales. I could write AMS but since I'm doing so little sales, I'm figuring it's not worth the aggravation. I'll just write it off as a "random adjustment." Do random adjustments ever add sales?Cassie Leigh said:I had this happen on an ad. It was at $8,600 in estimated sales one day and $8,300 the next. But no returns either on the ebook or the paperback side, so I figured it was some sort of random adjustment to the AMS dashboard.
rikatz said:My most recent novel came out on 5/1. That afternoon, I put up a SP ad with about 500 keywords, bids between 25-40 cents. I put up 2 more the next day, same bids, each another 500 keywords. Each ad was approved after 2 full days, which is longer than ever before but much, much worse than the long approval time, all 3 ads are completely dead, just dashes (not even 0's) where impressions and clicks should be. Amazon usually supports new books with at least a few days of excellent impressions, but I've never had a SP ad, let alone 3, show absolutely nothing. The first ad is now on its 3rd day, with no response at all. Has this happened to anybody else?
[/quote
You have to understand the algorithm, which works like this:
Round about the couldron go:
In the poisones entrails throw.
Toad,that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Sweated venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first in the charmed pot.
Double,double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blindworm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing.
For charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double,double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and couldron bubble.
Scale of dragon,tooth of wolf,
Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd in the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat; andslips of yew
silver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by the drab,-
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For ingrediants of our cauldron.
Double,double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Cassie, thanks. I had hoped that doing the second and third might be enough to get the first one running, but nope. I'll give it a day or two and wait to see what Amazon has to say. My bids are already pretty high (25-40 cents). I don't think that could be the reason that these ads are dead on arrival. Shutting them down and re-submitting is something that I had not thought of but I'll try it if I can't get them to run in another couple of days.Cassie Leigh said:Since they're not running, you have nothing to lose. Try pausing two of the ads and see if that gets the third one running. Or up your bids. If that doesn't work it sounds like AMS has been glitchy on new ads this week. Might try shutting those down and resubmitting.
Sorry to hear this. I pulled out of AMS a couple of months ago because I hit the same wall. I planned to test the AMS pool soon, but I keep hearing more and more of the same stories. I'm sure it's not the same for everyone, but it seems that AMS has dried up for too many. I'll keep my focus on other channels for now - at least until the almighty algos make a favorable shift.LilyBLily said:It finally happened. Unless my math is wrong, or my regular Amazon dashboard is not recording recent sales, the cost of my AMS ads so far in May is greater than the income from sales.
25 clicks would cost about $8.25 on a book with a royalty of $2.70.Cassie Leigh said:The book's in KU and it's a fantasy title. So I wouldn't worry about no sales until about 25 clicks. But as LilyBLily says above, if you want a better click:buy ratio than that then look at possibly tightening your keywords.
Funny ... . new age math ... increase the bid ...Kay7979 said:25 clicks would cost about $8.25 on a book with a royalty of $2.70.
Rising Sun: You can use a tool called import.io. I explain in this guide I created: https://authorstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AMS-Keywords-Playbook-Final.pdfCassie Leigh said:You might want to start a new thread and ask this question so those who don't come here can see it, too. I'd love a little tool that mines my book's also boughts for me...