ASIN Targeting - Expanded vs Exact Test

Hey,

Welcome to a new week! I hope you had a great weekend, you're recharged and are ready to hit the ground running today for the week ahead.

Over the past few months, I've been testing Amazon's relatively new ASIN Targeting option. If you haven't yet seen this addition to Amazon Ads, when targeting ASINs, you now have the choice between Exact and Expanded.

Essentially, you can target just the Exact ASINs you want to, or you can choose Expanded to allow Amazon to find ASINs it thinks are relevant to your chosen ASINs.

I have been testing the Expanded option for the past few weeks with my 7 Day Authors Guide To Amazon Ads Book, because the Exact option is essentially what we've always known with ASIN Targeting - you're just targeting the ASINs you choose!

And, whilst I haven't optimized this Expanded campaign just yet, I keep an eye on it to see what Amazon deems relevant to the ASINs I'm targeting. So far, the results aren't too great. Let me show you what I mean...

The ASINs I'm targeting are all related to the topic of self-publishing, such as the craft of writing, editing, KDP self-publishing, marketing of your own books and other such topics.

And yet, the books that Amazon deems relevant to these self-publishing books I'm actually targeting are topics such as:

- LinkedIn

- General online marketing books

- Get rich quick type books

- Google SEO

- Computer programming

- Business leadership

Don't get me wrong, there were a scattering of books it targeted related to self-publishing that I wasn't targeting, so I will harvest those and target them directly with ASIN Targeting using the Exact option.

And the campaign itself hasn't performed too bad overall, with a spend of $51 and total orders of 24, meaning a Cost-Per-Sale of $2.12. Once I optimize the campaign, remove those irrelevant ASINs Amazon has found and let it run for another few weeks, things might improve. Or they might not!

I am also targeting the same ASINs from this Expanded campaign in an Exact ASIN targeting campaign, and whilst the Exact campaign has a lower Cost-Per-Sale ($1.80), the reach hasn't been as big, so I've had fewer impressions, clicks and orders.

So, would I recommend using the Expanded ASIN Targeting option? If you have the budget to test it, then yes, test it, because every book, every campaign, performs differently.

For me though, I'm still reserving judgement. Never say never, but I feel that these Expanded ASIN Targeting campaigns are similar to a Category Targeting campaign, just with a little more control and refinement.

And once optimized, maybe, just maybe, these Expanded ASIN targeting campaigns will work like gangbusters.

I'll continue testing them and keep you updated on their results and any insights I find.

To Your Success

- Matt