Kathy I forget now where I heard it, but if memory serves it was during one of Mark Dawson's free webinars. Anyway, the gist of it was the comparison between standard ads and those with custom text indicated that the cover was the draw for clicks, not the tiny words below. So, presuming that is correct, I say stick with standard ads and don't worry about "hook" copy for now.

 

What's on your cover? Because they most definitely ban ads due to the cover. Especially covers with guns, too much exposed flesh, and suggestive body positions.

 

Also what type of ad was it?  Amazon is a LOT pickier when it comes to their lock-screen ads than they are with standard sponsored product ads.

 

Thanks for the replies. They are all sponsored ads, so not lockscreen. My cover could be questionable though because it has a bloodied knife (not pointed at or in anyone). Just a knife by itself with blood on it. But my category ads with generic "first installment in new series" copy was approved and is delivering. So I feel that maybe the cover isn't the issue. It's only when I use a hook that includes the word "killer" that it gets rejected.

Perhaps my cover is also a problem but maybe they don't look at it unless it's flagged by violent words. I'm afraid of getting my account banned so I'm trying to tread very carefully and only launch one "safe" ad at a time. I just wish there was a list of no-no words. Will "murder" or "murdered" also get rejected? All my best hooks have those words in it. It's a crime thriller so there's definitely murder going on.

 

They do ban ads with guns or other obvious weapons on the cover. It's a pain in the butt, but I've been known to deliberately ask cover designers to make the weapons inconspicuous for this very reason.

 

I wish I could remember where I saw it, but someone had a general list of things that couldn't be done in ads. Ads are a lot stricter than publishing, since the ads go all over and not everyone is looking at books. So, sex stuff, politics and religion stuff, blood, gore and the like will get the ad rejected. It may come about that someone looks at your cover and rejects you for that.

I don't think it's any danger to your KDP account, it just makes it harder to get ads through.