AMS Ads

Hello boys and girls,

My name is Christos Angelidakis and I am a Book Cover Designer and Amazon Ads Expert.

Today we are going to talk about Amazon Ads and how you can utilize them to reach more
readers, and boost your organic sales and create a monthly passive income stream from your books.

What Are Amazon Ads

AMS Ads is a service that Amazon provides to its sellers and authors. AMS stands for Amazon Marketing Services and it’s a platform that allows you to run targeted ads to Amazon’s customers. Think of it like Facebook Ads or Google Ads but inside the Amazon Marketplace.

This, of course, creates a huge advantage over all the other kinds of PPC(Pay per Click) Ads, because you advertise your book only to people who navigate to Amazon’s website. That means that they are into buying mode and they are more than willing to take out their card and buy your book.

Compare this to Facebook or Google Ads where somebody just hangs out or he/she is
searching for something. They are not into “buying mode” and your ad will merely serve as a
distraction instead of something fruitful.

Setting Up Your Account

In order to start advertising on Amazon as an author, all you have to do is go to

https://advertising.amazon.com/

Click Register, choose the country you want to advertise in (United Stated is a great place to
start), and choose the option that says “I have a Kindle Direct Publishing account”

Creating your First campaign

This is quite a straightforward process. You click the button that says Create a campaign and then you choose between Sponsored Ads and Lockscreen Ads. Product Display Ads are not available for Authors.

Based on my experience, I’ve seen better results with Sponsored Ads and I would advise you to start with these.

Then you need to put your budget, product, write your ad and submit it for review. You also have an option to create an automatic ad or a manual ad where you manually need to target specific keywords.

Auto Ads

If you decide to use the Auto Ads, the Amazon algorithm will do the “heavy-lifting” for you. It’s going to decide which customer is more likely to buy your book and show the ad to them. Of course, this is easier said than done. The algorithm needs time to find the best keywords for your book and you need to spend a good amount of money in order to gather the required data.

It’s very easy to set up and you don’t need to do any actual work for the first weeks. You just need to give the algorithm time (and money 🙂 )

The cons here are that Amazon will use all of your daily budget (not in the most optimal way)
and you end up overpaying for clicks or impressions.

Manual Ads

This is the more advanced section of AMS since you are going to be the one that decides which keywords to use, or which products to target.

Keyword Targeting

Here you need to find the best keywords that describe your book and base your ads on them. Also, you need to think about what kind of keywords would a potential customer put into the Amazon bar.

Amazon’s Autocomplete feature is a great way to find some amazing high-traffic keywords. You could also use a website like https://keywordtool.io/ in order to get some more ideas.

Another good idea is to target authors that write similar books to yours or that resonate with your ideal client.

I would advise starting with at least 50 keywords. Even though they sound a lot you need to test many different ones in order to find which one works best.

Product Targeting

The product targeting option is quite straightforward. I would definitely experiment a little bit with it. You need to find similar products or products that your customer avatar would buy and target them with your ads.

Let’s say your book is in the self-help genre and you decide to target the “7 Habits of highly
effective people” by Stephen Covey. Then when somebody types this specific phrase and goes to check this book he/she will see your ads.

It’s a great way to reach more targeted readers. You just need to make sure that you target the
right products. A great way to look for similar products is below your listing, in the “customers also bought section”.

How to Best Approach AMS

The key to getting the most out of AMS ads is to be patient and willing to invest a good amount
of money in them.

If you start with $1 per day and you pay $0.50 per click you will only get 2 clicks per day which
will get you nowhere.

The most important thing is to gather data along the way and optimize your ads on a daily basis.

You need to have in mind the in the first 1 or 2 months you will mainly gather data. Don’t get
discouraged if don’t have a good ROI(Return on Investment), just stay positive and keep running your ads.

With AMS Ads you need to play the long term game. Be patient and good days will come 🙂

Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions about AMS Ads. I would be more
than happy to assist you.

You can find me through my personal email: angelidakis.chris@gmail.com

Stay safe and have a good one!

Christos Angelidakis
Book Cover Designer & AMS Ads Expert