[Darryl Hughes]

Here's what I mean. I'm currently running ads for one of my children's books. A pretty cluttered category. My campaign is $.31 per bid with $10 daily limit. The ad just started and is getting good impressions but no click thrus. So I checked where the book was being placed and the number one placement was on product pages. So I checked out one of the products showing my ad. There is 128 pages of sponsored ads on that particular product page and, sure enough, my book ad was there--On page 50. I know that technically page 50 on a page of 128 pages worth of sponsored ads is an "impression", but you can't really expect people to scroll through 128 pages worth of them looking for something to read.

So my question is this, does the price of your bid/daily limit determine where on those 128 pages worth of ads your ad actually shows or does it just determine that it shows there at all. And if it determines where on the 128 pages worth of ads you show, and my ad is showing on page 50 at a bid of $.31 per click, how can an author with a small budget to work with expect his/her ads to ever honestly be seen by anyone?

Dee

 

[Decon]

From my experience, its down to the bids where you are placed.

When I was deep into AMS, I'd look at keywords for named books that had lots of impressions but no sales. Usually I'd find that I was nowhere near the 1st page. So what I'd do was to increase the bid slightly and low and behold, I'd move up the pages. I'd keep doing this until I got on the 1st page and clicks and  sales would follow. If I ended up with clicks but no sales to the value of the royalty, I'd pause it.

Bids were nowhere near what they are these days. At the sort of bids you are quoting to get so far down the list, I'm guessing to get on the 1st page would not be feasible to end up with profit because the bid would be so high to get to the 1st page. Its not worth bidding 35c to be so far down the list and in the example you give, impressions are worthless to you. The sort of bids these days for the first or second pages is why I ducked out.

 

[Darryl Hughes]

From my experience, its down to the bids where you are placed.

When I was deep into AMS, I'd look at keywords for named books that had lots of impressions but no sales. Usually I'd find that I was nowhere near the 1st page. So what I'd do was to increase the bid slightly and low and behold, I'd move up the pages. I'd keep doing this until I got on the 1st page and clicks and sales would follow. If I ended up with clicks but no sales to the value of the royalty, I'd pause it.

Bids were nowhere near what they are these days. At the sort of bids you are quoting to get so far down the list, I'm guessing to get on the 1st page would not be feasible to end up with profit because the bid would be so high to get to the 1st page. Its not worth bidding 35c to be so far down the list and in the example you give, impressions are worthless to you. The sort of bids these days for the first or second pages is why I ducked out.

I think you're absolutely right. I'd probably have to bid $.50 and over to appear anywhere near the top 20 pages in the cluttered children's book category, if not an outright $1.00 per click for top 10. Meaning I'd only get 10 click thrus per my daily budget, so I'd have to hope to make a sale per click in order for the ads to work to in the long run.

 

[Simon Haynes]

You only pay an amount per click equal to the bid below you +1c.  So if you bid $1 and the next highest bid (next book to the right of you in the carousel) bid 52c, you pay 53c.

 

[Darryl Hughes]

You only pay an amount per click equal to the bid below you +1c. So if you bid $1 and the next highest bid (next book to the right of you in the carousel) bid 52c, you pay 53c.

REALLY?! Something to thing about. Thanks.

Dee

 

[Darryl Hughes]

You only pay an amount per click equal to the bid below you +1c. So if you bid $1 and the next highest bid (next book to the right of you in the carousel) bid 52c, you pay 53c.

Thanks Simon. I gave what you said some thought and decided it was worth it to increase the possibility of making more sales. Once I got some sales under my belt I figured I would slowly lower the bid price hoping that the organic sales brought on by the improved sales ranking would help balance the lower bid price.

Well, I raised my bid price to $1.00 and 2 hours later I had my very first click thru's after about a week of having none on the ad at all AND I got my very first sale from the ad. And, like Simon said, I didn't pay the full dollar for the click thru's, so the sale paid for itself while making a profit.

Hopefully things will keep up that way and my ad campaign will be a success.

Dee

 

[Simon Haynes]

Good to hear! Be sure to keep a close eye on things and make sure the spend doesn't get out of hand - you might get a run where you're paying 99c per click or something.

 

[Darryl Hughes]

Good to hear! Be sure to keep a close eye on things and make sure the spend doesn't get out of hand - you might get a run where you're paying 99c per click or something.

Will do. Thanks again for the info.

Dee