Read Time: 2.5 Minutes

One of the biggest attractions for authors considering running Amazon Ads is the granularity of the targeting.

Heck, with ASIN Targeting, you can target a specific book, by a specific author, in a specific format.

Yep, those product carousels on book product pages, you can advertise your books right there.

So when a reader is looking at a book by a comp (comparable) author to you, your book could appear on their book product page.

And this all sounds hunky-dory on the surface.

The reality though...

→ It's expensive (because of the specificity)

→ Conversion tends to be low

→ Sales from product pages don't impact bestseller rank much

And this is why I'm not overly keen on using ASIN Targeting.

That's the short of it.

But let's dive a little deeper and discuss my alternative strategy for targeting product pages.

In my experience of running Amazon Ads, keyword targeting is much more effective than ASIN targeting.

ASIN targeting, which predominantly places your Ads on product pages (though they can also appear on search results pages for keywords related to the ASIN you're targeting), often results in low CTRs (Click-Through Rates) and when your Ads are lucky enough to be clicked, they cost an arm and a leg.

And just to rub salt into the wound, very few of the clicks your Ads do get from ASIN targeting actually result in a sale or a borrow.

But I'm not here to lambast ASIN targeting, because it has its place.

When I Use ASIN Targeting

There are two scenarios I like using ASIN Targeting:

→ #1: Targeting ASINs of authors who convert well as a keyword (e.g. Stephen King)

→ #2: Your brand ASINs (i.e. targeting your own books to protect your product pages)

Looking at Scenario #1 first, if you've tested targeting author keywords of your comp authors (e.g. Stephen King, Robert Harris, Lee Child) and found a handful that convert well, choose 1-10 of their bestselling, highest ranking books and target them with ASIN targeting.

For Scenario #2, protecting your brand on Amazon is key because if you're not targeting your own keywords and ASINs, you can bet your bottom dollar that other authors are.

So, I use ASIN targeting to protect all of my wife, Lori's book product pages, ensuring that we're taking up as much real estate on these pages as possible.

For Book 1 of Lori's, I target books 2, 3 and 4 of hers with ASIN targeting. For Book 2, I target books 1, 3 and 4 with ASIN targeting. And so on.

Wrapping Up...

Aside from those 2 scenarios, I find the granularity of ASIN targeting pretty useless.

Keyword targeting is my go-to targeting option because, for us, it just converts that much better.

The other thing to mention here is that Automatic Targeting Campaigns will do ASIN Targeting for you, on your behalf, whether you like it or not.

Then use negative targeting to stop advertising on certain ASINs from Automatic Targeting Campaigns if you feel they aren't relevant, or they're sucking up too much of the budget and not converting.

You can read my recent take on Automatic Targeting Campaigns here, as I don't believe they're all they're cracked up to be.

ASIN Targeting is also something you can achieve with Category Targeting Campaigns, which allows you to target books in a specific category (i.e. genre/subgenre). This is a topic for another day though.

But to tie a little bow on all of this, ASIN targeting certainly has its place, but I feel a much better use of your time and budget is on keyword targeting.

So, if you're considering using ASIN Targeting, by all means, test it because your results could be very different to mine, but just go into it with the expectations of what I've shared today.

Thank you so much for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

To Your Success
– Matt