[Wayne Stinnett]

I've studied the way Amazon's algorithm to determine rank for a year now and have come to the simple conclusion that it's nothing more than a mathematical equation. An equation that can be manipulated by advertising, to achieve better results. If you followed my latest promo thread, you know I had pretty good success.

To read more about how the algorithm works, check out my blog post on the subject.
http://waynestinnett.blogspot.com/2015/03/mechanics-of-very-successful-book.html

 

[MTM]

Thank you, Wayne, for the great insight. I have been following your success for quite some time. One of my books, THE THREE KITTIES THAT SAVED MY LIFE, is currently in the middle of a $0.99 promo, and I have tried to follow your strategy as closely as I understood it at the time. My big day, Bookbub, is Monday the 23rd, so, on your succinct advice, I am trying to get my numbers up now by advertising on many of the sites you used. If I can achieve just a fraction of the success you have had, I will be delighted. Again, thank you for all your wonderful advice here at the forum.

 

[dalya]

Rank is pretty easy. It's just sales (and borrow downloads) volume, closely related to current hourly sales and with the last 30 days as a lesser factor.

How Amazon determines what books to put into other books' also-bought listings, and what books to feature in its push emails, that's the big mystery. To me, anyway. Some people think putting their books into categories they don't belong, because the categories are less competitive, is the answer.

 

[Tyler Danann]

Rank is pretty easy. It's just sales (and borrow downloads) volume, closely related to current hourly sales and with the last 30 days as a lesser factor.

How Amazon determines what books to put into other books' also-bought listings, and what books to feature in its push emails, that's the big mystery. To me, anyway. Some people think putting their books into categories they don't belong, because the categories are less competitive, is the answer.

Interesting but that can backfire. Customers may well leave poor reviews if the genre they expect, is not in the book they buy....

 

[dalya]

Interesting but that can backfire. Customers may well leave poor reviews if the genre they expect, is not in the book they buy....

But the cover, title, and blurb are usually pretty clear about what it is. People selling well enough to get onto top 100 lists are usually doing most of the branding right. Not always, mind you, but it's a pro move, not an amateur move.

I try not to worry about it too much. I've written some comedic horror, but I could never get on the top 100 list if there are a hundred shifter romance books ahead of me. But... appearing on a subcat top 100 is just one small part of the whole picture. It's not the everything.

The real problem is that Amazon doesn't have enough subcategories for the bigger genres. A secondary issue is that there's no enforcement, and you really can put almost anything into any category and keep it there unless/until people report the book.

 

[Silly Writer]

Very interesting insight, Wayne.

If you ever get tired of writing, I think you'd have s lucrative career hanging out your shingle as an Advertising Adviser (like, we pay you to organize, schedule and book our promo weeks?)

My idea... So I get first dibs 

 

[Flay Otters]

Brilliant!

 

[spike Pedersen]

Read your blog. Fantastic stuff. Thanks again for your wisdom.

 

[Chris Fox]

I love data like these, Wayne. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together.

 

[Philip Gibson]

Have you used the math in your blog to calculate the merits/demerits of:

1. Placing other ads after Bookbub?
2. Placing Bookbub in the center of a stack of ads?

It's beyond me to figure that out.

Philip

 

[SA_Soule]

Thanks for sharing, Wayne. Your posts are always insightful and eye-opening. ;-)

 

[Guest]

When you put it that way, it makes a lot of sense. It also explains some of the patterns I've seen in my own sales.

 

[Wayne Stinnett]

Have you used the math in your blog to calculate the merits/demerits of:

1. Placing other ads after Bookbub?
2. Placing Bookbub in the center of a stack of ads?

It's beyond me to figure that out.

Philip

With unlimited funding, sure, you can place ads for a week before and after. If funds are limited, I'd use every penny I could before BookBub, to gain that higher rank. The BookBub tail is nothing more than sales created through exposure, so the higher the rank, the more the exposure, and the longer the tail. Plus, getting your price back to regular price as soon as possible creates more revenue. When a reader sees a book while browsing and it's priced at $3.99 and is ranked at #50 in the whole Kindle store, they only know that it's there and are unconcerned with how it got there.

 

[NoCat]

Who knew that sales + even more sales of a book lead to better algo love and rankings!? My new plan is to get a Bookbub every month.  Thanks!

 

[Wayne Stinnett]

Who knew that sales + even more sales of a book lead to better algo love and rankings!? My new plan is to get a Bookbub every month. Thanks!

I know you meant that tongue-in-cheek, but up until last spring, the general consensus on these boards was to place ads after BookBub, to lengthen the tail. But, doing so doesn't produce as high a peak rank and thus a weaker tail.

 

[NoCat]

It was? I'd always heard to cluster, and try to boost rank before BB, because people saw good results with that (shooting higher, getting more algo love etc).

And yes, I was being tongue in cheek   Though I wouldn't turn down a BB if I could get one.

 

[J.A. Cipriano]

Now I wonder how much money you could make as a promoter, Wayne

 

[Guest]

This: It was? I'd always heard to cluster, and try to boost rank before BB, because people saw good results with that (shooting higher, getting more algo love etc).


Wasn't the case.

Conventional logic was to stack everything same day.

Then after that it evolved to 'try to maintain the boost for as long as possible'.

I'm not sure whose post it was - but someone mentioned they ran books the wrong day by mistake and saw better results.

And after that we had Wayne start sharing his method.

*******

I think Amazon is using dampening algorithms to reduce the impact of spikes. However, there's not really any way to test it.

 

[Joseph J Bailey]

Now I just need a BookBub ad!

Based on the list of sites in your BookbBub promo thread, if you can differentiate, which ad sources gave the best results based on your timing/preloading approach (I'm assuming the usual suspects)?

 

[Philip Gibson]

Now I just need a BookBub ad!

Not necessarily.

You can do the same thing by stacking mulitiple ads in front of what happens to be your strongest ad site. Or do what I have just done and combine your two strongest sites as the "anchor" on the final day of your promo.

Of course, the lesser sites will not get you the 2,000+ sales you could expect from Bookbub, but if Wayne is correct about the algorithm, the same principle will apply and you will end up with a higher rank at the end of your promo (and a longer tail) than you would have had otherwise.

Philip