#116: The Amazon Ads Trap That's Costing You

Read Time: 2.5 Minutes

I need to come clean about something.

When I first started running Amazon Ads back in 2020, I was a complete disaster.

I spent weeks consuming every piece of Amazon Ads content I could find. YouTube videos, blog posts, podcasts—the works.

I learned about broad match vs exact match, product targeting vs category targeting, dynamic bidding strategies.

By the time I felt "ready," I was drowning in options.

So naturally, I did what most authors do:

I created campaigns with 150+ keywords (because more = better, right?).

Created multiple campaigns with multiple targeting options inside each campaign.

Checked my dashboard multiple times each day, making tiny adjustments based on yesterday's data.

The result?

We lost more money than we made.

I'd become an Amazon Ads technician instead of a strategist.

Mastering complexity while missing the fundamentals.

The Trap That Gets Us All

Here's what I've discovered after years of testing and significant ad spend:

Amazon Ads aren't complicated.

We make them complicated.

The platform offers dozens of features, bidding options, and campaign types.

Most of us (especially in the beginning) see this buffet of choices and think we need to use everything.

We don't.

The authors who actually profit from Amazon Ads ignore most of what's available.

They focus on precision, not complexity.

What Actually Works

Our Amazon Ads results significantly improved when I stopped trying to be clever.

Instead of 150+ keywords, I identified the 15 most relevant ones.

Instead of multiple targeting options in every campaign, each campaign had one single objective (and single targeting option).

Instead of daily tweaking, I optimized once per week, following a system.

The difference was immediate.

Same budget. Same books. Completely different results.

Laura (a member of my Amazon Ads course) shared her transformation:

"I went from bidding on 200 keywords to 15 and what a difference that makes!"

She found her top performers in under 2 weeks.

Cut her time spent on ads from hours to minutes.

And didn't learn advanced tactics.

She eliminated the noise.

The Real Cost

Every month you spend trapped in complexity costs you:

Money – Wasted ad spend on irrelevant clicks (I learned this the expensive way)

Time – Hours analyzing reams of data instead of writing (I was spending hours and hours each day "optimizing" the ads)

Opportunity – Missing readers actively searching for your books

Confidence – Questioning if Amazon Ads even work (they do, when done right)

I know because I lived through every one of these costs.

But here's the good news:

Once you break through this trap, you build systems that work while you focus on writing.

Your Next Move

Pick one thing from today's newsletter and test it this week.

If you're currently running Amazon Ads, audit your keyword list.

How many are you bidding on? If it's more than 20, cut it down to your 10 most relevant ones.

If you're not running Amazon Ads yet, do some keyword research and note down the 5-10 keywords your ideal readers would type into Amazon to find books like yours.

That's it.

Stop overthinking. Start doing.

That's all for today.

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

See you next Saturday.

To Your Success
– Matt