Amazon Ads rewards structure and punishes improvisation. One campaign with two hundred keywords and a single bid tells you nothing about which of them works, and by the time the budget is gone you have learned only that the book did or did not sell. Split correctly, the same spend returns a keyword list you keep for the next launch.
What you receive
- A campaign structure separated by match type and by targeting method, so every report is readable.
- Keyword research from your listing, your comparables and the phrases your reviews use.
- Product targeting on comparable titles and categories where your book belongs.
- Bids and budgets set from the category’s typical cost per click rather than by instinct.
- A negative keyword list from day one, plus a weekly routine for reading the search-term report.
How the account is built
- Start with the listing. Ads on a weak cover and description convert badly; the listing is fixed first.
- Build four campaigns — broad, phrase, exact and product targeting — each with its own budget.
- Seed keywords at a controlled bid, then let the search-term report reveal what Amazon actually matched.
- Prune weekly: move performers to exact, add wasters to negatives, and raise bids only where the data supports it.
The metrics that matter, and the one that does not
Impressions are vanity. Click-through tells you whether the cover works in a sponsored placement. Conversion tells you whether the listing works. Cost per sale and return on ad spend decide whether to keep going. The metric that misleads is average cost per click, which can look healthy while every click fails to buy. We report on cost per sale, because a cheap click that never converts is the most expensive thing in the account.
When ads are the wrong answer
If the book has fewer than ten reviews, a category where the top titles have thousands, and a cover that does not read at thumbnail size, advertising simply buys impressions that convert poorly. We will say so, and recommend the cheaper fix first. Ads amplify a listing that works; they do not repair one that does not, and the budget spent finding that out is better spent on the cover.
Scaling without losing control
Once a keyword produces sales at an acceptable cost, it moves to exact match with a higher bid, and the broad campaign keeps discovering. Budget increases happen in small steps, because a sudden jump changes the placement mix and can push spend toward impressions that never converted. A book scaled this way keeps its cost per sale stable, which is the only thing that makes a long campaign sustainable.
Seasonality and launch timing
Amazon ad costs move with shopping behaviour: December is expensive, January is cheap and full of resolution-driven buyers, and a launch week competes with established titles’ own promotions. Setting the campaign against that calendar matters as much as the keyword list. A book launched in a quiet week at a modest bid often reaches a stable cost per sale faster than the same book pushed into a crowded one, and the budget goes further.
Pricing
| Tier | Scope | Price | Was | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 campaign | $50 | $50 | |
| Professional | 3 campaigns | $130 | $140 | |
| Bulk / Authority | 5 campaigns | $200 | $200 |
Frequent questions
Do you manage the account monthly?
Setup is the standard service; ongoing management is a separate monthly arrangement if you want it.
What budget do I need?
Enough to gather data — usually a few hundred dollars over a month rather than a large spend in a week.
Do you need access to my account?
We can work from an invited user with limited permissions, or hand you a complete build sheet to implement.
Set up my ads — send the listing link and your monthly budget.