Issues with Advertising on AMS Since Dec 1st - Huge Bid Jumps

[redxxii]

I just started selling on KDP this year, and my AMS setup was doing pretty well, generally biding .30-.45 for auto-targeting, and .25 for AISN aimed stuff, spending $15-25 a day.

Since yesterday though, I haven't served a single ad.  When I get my recommended bids, AMS is telling me to bid $1+ for something that cost .20 last week.  I'm assuming it's because it's December, a big retail season, and the month just began, so agencies have huge budgets to drop.  Is this normal?  Has anyone, with more experience, seen this in years past?

[KBoards.com]

[Simon Haynes]

Could it be related to relevance?  Not asking you to share clicks and CTR, but if Amazon was showing all those ads and they weren't converting, eventually the algos will push them further down the carousel in favour of ads from other people that convert better.

I'm only guessing, as it's hard to say without all the figures.

One thing you can do is go and look at one of the ASINs you're targeting, and scroll all the way through the carousel until you see your ad. (You might have to refresh the page after #65 or so, when it gets stuck.)

[redxxii]

My CTR has been surprisingly good on my auto and ASIN targeted campaigns, .79% and .81% respectively.  When I go check out my targeting ASINs, I see ads for a ton of books that only generally fit the genre (ie, I focus on smutty dark fantasy), most of the typical I ads I see for my genre are being drowned out as well.

When I check my individual targeting for ASINs, the recommended bids have blown through the roof, going from $.40 to $1-2 dollars.  I just assume it's because it's the holiday season, and people (especially those with paperbacks and boxed sets) are trying to advertise them anywhere they can.

[Simon Haynes]

My best three ASIN targeted campaigns had CTR of 1.5% to 3.25% yesterday.  Day before they were 0.42 to 1%, so they've actually improved.

[markpauloleksiw]

Since yesterday...the bids seem to have risen dramatically.

Here is what I think...for portfolios you can set a monthly budget...and it resets on December 1...so campaigns are suddenly funded again...this makes me wonder if the best time to saturate with ads is the last 5-7 days of a month when other campaigns are out of money.

Mark

[鬼]

Here is what I think...for portfolios you can set a monthly budget...and it resets on December 1...so campaigns are suddenly funded again...this makes me wonder if the best time to saturate with ads is the last 5-7 days of a month when other campaigns are out of money.

That assumes most users are actually using Portfolios, tho, for Budget purposes. I never have and I'm a big spender.

More likely it's just the onslaught of Xmas traffic and end of year. Time to spend the money when the going is good!

[DmGuay]

Always ignore the Amazon suggested bid. Even Amazon says they didn't design it for low price items such as ebooks.

[Dpock]

Since yesterday though, I haven't served a single ad.

The other day I had an ad running for seven hours with no impressions or clicks registering, which was odd. I logged out and logged back in and suddenly had 20k impressions and fifty clicks.

[redxxii]

Hoping to just wait this out, and that after a few days budgets will be spent and things get back to normal.  If not, I have my third book launching in January, so hopefully, that will bring sales back up after the lull.

[KBoards.com]