Free Guide: How To Revive Your Poor Performing Amazon Ads Campaigns

Poor performing Amazon Ads campaigns are par for the course, unfortunately.

That's just the way it is.

Further to that, 20% of your campaigns will be generating 80% of your results.

Just as 20% of the keywords, categories and ASINs you are targeting, will be responsible for 80% of your results.

When you have campaigns that aren't working though, but they show potential, what are the tell-tale signs you should be looking for and steps should you be taking?

What you don't do is nothing, or turn off the campaign.

Optimization is key to successful Amazon Ads

Today, I'm going to share the 3 most common scenarios you'll encounter with your Amazon Ads and how to move past them, specifically:

- No Impressions

- Impressions but no Clicks

- Clicks but no sales

Let's begin...

#1 No Impressions

If you're not getting impressions on your Amazon Ads, there are a few questions to ask yourself:

- Is your targeting relevant?

If it isn't, really hone in on the 10-15 most relevant keywords or ASINs for your advertised book.

- Are your bids high enough?

Make sure your bids are at least above $0.40 for most keywords, and usually over $0.60 for the majority of ASINs. For category Ads, bids above $0.30 usually suffice. With automatic targeting campaigns, for most genres, you'll need to be bidding over $0.40.

- Is your budget high enough?

I always recommend a minimum daily budget of $10. This way, you are proving to Amazon that are willing to spend a reasonable amount on Amazon Ads. $5 per day is usually too little to gain much traction these days. It can be done, without a doubt, but you will find that it takes longer to gain traction and gather data.

- Have you been making 2-3 sales a day for the past 3-4 weeks, at least?

The Amazon Algorithm takes sales history into account. Whilst not impossible to sell books with Amazon Ads that haven't been selling 2-3 copies for a few weeks, it definitely helps. If you can prove to Amazon that your book converts, they are more likely to show your Ads (i.e. more impressions).

So, those are main questions I ask myself if I have campaigns that aren't generating impressions. Let's now move on to the second most common scenario.

#2 Impressions But No Clicks

When you are generating impressions, but just not getting the clicks, this usually comes down to one problem... bad targeting. 

You're clearly bidding enough because Amazon has decided to show your Ad to readers. But if you continue to generate little to no clicks, Amazon will soon demise that your targeting is irrelevant and your impressions will drop off a cliff within as little as 7-14 days.

However, if readers are seeing your Ad but they aren't interested enough to click, then there's something not gelling between the book and the reader.

As an extreme example, if you're advertising your romance book and targeting crime thriller books, there aren't many crime thriller readers who are going to be in the market for a romance book!

A warning sign that your targeting isn't relevant is your CTR (Click-Through Rate). If your CTR is below 0.10%, fine-tune your targeting.

#3 Clicks But No Sales

When you're generating clicks on your Amazon Ads, you've clearly enticed readers enough to come and check out your book. 

At this stage, however, it's down to your book to sell your book.

If you're not generating the sales (or page reads), then there is something about your book product page that is preventing readers from buying or borrowing your book.

Generally, this comes down to 1 or more of 5 things:

- Book Description

- Book Cover

- Price

- Reviews/Ratings

- Look-Inside

This is all part of building your foundation. Without this in place, your Amazon Ads won't work as well as they could - or work at all for that matter. You can read more about building your foundation in this Growth Guide I wrote.

Ideally, you're looking for at least a 10% conversion rate with your Amazon Ads. That means, for every 10 clicks on a particular target, you would want to see at least 1 sale or borrow.

Less than this, then something is off with either the targeting or the book.

And there you have it...

Those are the 3 most common problems authors face with their Amazon Ads and how to solve them.