I wrote 3000 words today.
And I created almost 100 Amazon Ads today…and my previously-created ads are switching on. And it’s not pretty!!! More on that in a minute.
First off, thanks to everyone who left kind comments on the blog last night. Very much appreciated.
And second thank you to those who bought the Beast Mode Collection. I’m publishing this post a little early so that folks know it’s still available until about 10PM Central Time. Last chance before it goes away forever, and last chance to get a potential consultation with me: https://authorlevelup.combeastmode. Winners will be notified in the morning.
LESSON LEARNED TODAY
Watched about 2 more hours of Bryan Cohen’s Amazon Ad School content. Things are really clicking for me now.
I know y’all are eager for me to share some of the learnings but I need time to consolidate my thoughts.
LESSON EXECUTED
I created around 100 new ads today…oh boy. I’m just digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole when these things turn on. Or am I?
Well, a couple dozen ads started to turn on this morning and I’m definitely getting a lot of impressions and clicks, but no sales yet. I’m BARELY staying profitable today due to my other, more successful ads keeping me afloat. Take those out of the picture and I’m losing money.
But today is just one day.
When you’re writing books, you’ll have 0 word count days, or even days where you have to erase words. But if you keep showing up and keep working, you’ll have enough GOOD days that the 0 days don’t matter in the end. I’m learning that it’s the same with marketing.
Clicks with no sales is scary. Most authors I know would start killing their ads right about now. But I’ve got a pretty high tolerance level. If the ads do turn out to be a colossal failure (which I don’t think will happen), at least I’ll have some data on keywords and categories that I can explore deeper to find better similar books. So in a way, even if I lose money, I consider it a tax-deductible expense that I can write off as “market research.” At least that’s what I tell myself to stop from crying myself to sleep….
But clicks with no sales IS scary, especially when you consider that no one has an unlimited budget. No one wants to waste money, myself included. But I’ve had enough experience at this over the last 9 months that I can see success on the other side. I know the “warning signs” of when things are going south and what to do, and that ain’t happenin’ yet.
The last time I was here with a bunch of ads, a lot of clicks, and no sales, I waited about 3-5 days and then EVERYTHING CHANGED. And it wasn’t luck. It was because of a deliberate strategy and actions that I could prove. So I just have to do the same thing here even though the emotional rollercoaster is the same.
I learned to stay the course because:
1: Amazon doesn’t report sales right away. There are a lot of days where it looks like my sales are low and then I wake up and discover that a jackpot happened overnight.
2: It takes customers time to buy your books. Maybe they won’t buy until they’ve seen the books a few times. Or they’ll see it, pass, and then decide to buy it a few days later when they can’t find anything else that suits their need at the time.
3: Amazon is slow to spend your money anyway. With a $5/day budget you’ll be lucky if they spend $1.00. Very lucky. Usually it’s way lower.
4: I make a profit every month, meaning that the total amount I spend on my ads is lower than what I make on the books I advertise on. Sure, I lose some days. But I’ve learned NOT to manage Amazon Ads on a day-to-day basis. That’s what freaks people out and drives them to quit when they might have had some success.
So things are going to start getting very, very interesting, especially when you consider that:
1: I’m advertising books I’ve never advertised before.
2: I will be officially running ads on 95% of my properties now (well, 95% of Book 1s—I’m not running ads on sequels). I’m committing to that for the foreseeable future.
3: I have no idea how some of my books will perform under ad pressure. I’m straight-up sending ads to my poetry collections. LOL
Anyway, I got a lot of clicks today which is good. It means I’m doing something right with my ad copy (remember those copywriting books and courses I consumed?)
Surprising fact…? My poetry collections are actually getting tons of impressions and the clicks are improving. My hunch was that few poets are running ads on poetry collections. So I used a lower bid and targeted a broad range of poets and collections. No idea what will happen. I do have one of my collections in audio, so running ads can only be a good thing long-term.
I’ve got to hold the line and resist making any decisions for at least a week or so more. And that’s not easy. In fact, I have to continue making even more ads. Yikes.
Anyhoo, this is uncharted territory. Up until now I’ve run ads on my top 10-20% titles since that’s where they have the biggest impact.
But I’ve been thinking a lot about the Pareto Principle lately.
The Pareto Principle says that 20% of your inputs will drive 80% of your results, so that’s where you should focus your time.
But if you were graded on performance and you only got an 80%, that would be a C. What about the remaining 20%?
What if it were true that I had books that weren’t in my 20%, but they were just outside of it? Maybe they could become “20% books” with some time and attention. And maybe by running ads on EVERYTHING I can figure out what those books are, and therefore improve my income, even if it’s only slightly.
That’s what I’m working on tonight. Hope everyone has a great Saturday night.
