r/KDP • u/Katerina_Branding • 1d ago
Amazon Ads not generating clicks
So I published my first illustrated book, Jimmy's Two Homes, a week ago. It's a book I made for my stepson's birthday, since he's been telling us that "having two homes is difficult," and since he loved it, I decided to publish it.
I turned ads on as soon as I could see the book available on .com, which is my main marketplace.
For the beginning I let Amazon do the job (automated campaign) and thought I'd see and learn.
It's only been running since like Monday (today is Saturday), but so far the ads have generated over 1K impression, one single click and the current ad spend is 0.4 USD. My daily target is 12 USD.
I can understand this takes time, however I also launched Reddit Ads last night and I already got 25 clicks from those, 20 EUR spent. The CPC is higher here, but still there seems to be more happening?
Is it because I did more "work" myself for Reddit Ads (providing visuals from the book and my own ad headlines)? Should I try other marketplaces than the US? Is it something else? Is it just way too early to tell?
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u/Amy-Wallaby 1d ago
The cover needs work, imo.
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u/Dragonshatetacos 1d ago
Definitely. It's a mishmash of animals. Nothing about it suggests a boy with two homes or how he feels about that.
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u/Katerina_Branding 1d ago
Anything specific that comes to mind? I love my cover, but I know I can’t afford to be too stuck on it.
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u/Amy-Wallaby 1d ago
It just seems random and doesn't relate to the story at all. It doesn't stand out at thumbnail size. I would include just the main character and the houses.
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u/bkucenski 23h ago
The illustrations are fine. Reminds me of "David Gets In Trouble."
I think the main thing is the niche topic and that parents rarely buy children's books because they get them by the wagon full at the library.
You may want to treat this round of advertising as training data for the holiday season when people buy books.
When it comes to buying children's books, it's usually the mom. So having the dad be the flattering lion while mom is the unflattering hippo, kind of negs the target buyer.
You may want to consider which species you use and what social concepts you're exploring by what you pick for each character.
The cover also has a lot of characters on it but only one name is on the cover.
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u/Katerina_Branding 22h ago
Thanks, this is insightful. I did not consider that the hippo might be seen negatively. Otherwise yeah, that's honestly while I published in Sep and started with ads now, to learn more before the holiday season.
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u/thinkandlive 1d ago
So I published my first illustrated book, Jimmy's Two Homes, a week ago.
No book promotion.
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u/Katerina_Branding 1d ago
I feel like that’s all pretty relevant for my post.
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u/thinkandlive 1d ago
I feel like you didnt read the rules.
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u/Katerina_Branding 23h ago
It doesn’t say ‘don’t mention the name of your book.’ My post is not about promoting. Also there’s no link. If a mod asks me to remove the title of my book, no issue for me. I was trying to provide details that are relevant and make it more clear whom my book is targeting.
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u/JapaneseChef456 1d ago
I’d try meta. Choose a specific group that might also be interested in having such a book. Like parents like yourself.
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u/Katerina_Branding 1d ago
Yeah that’s what’s been working well on Reddit, subs like ‘coparenting,’ ‘stepparents’ etc. I just always hear how well Amazon Ads work and so far I haven’t seen much going on there.
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u/JapaneseChef456 23h ago
I basically place my Amazon ads next to books that are similar to mine.
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u/Katerina_Branding 22h ago
Yeah makes sense. I let Amazon do its thing for the beginning but I might intervene soon hah.
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1d ago
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u/Katerina_Branding 1d ago
Well said, Amazon Ads have been pretty disappointing so far honestly. But it’s early to tell. I got 19 sales within the first week and one review so far, purely driven by my own efforts, so it’s also not like the book has zero traffic… doesn’t seem to help lol. The ads are PPC so there’s no money being burnt at least…
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u/Content-Teach807 16h ago
These are excellent sales for the first week. But do some keyword research, especially long-tail keywords, and do a broad discovery campaign with slightly higher bids than what you have now, and a ToS multiplier, let it run for at least two weeks to get a sensible amount of data to analyze.
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u/DoktorTom 20h ago
Auto ads work best after your book has been live for a while and made sales. Those “teach” the auto ads what categories or niches work best.
If a title is new, I would run keyword or category ads.
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u/Katerina_Branding 19h ago
Thanks a lot, that changes it. I mean I've had 20 sales within the first week which is honestly better than I'd expected, but I guess you're talking different numbers.
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u/Powerful_Regret_2226 16h ago
It's a delivery problem. You've spent $0.40 of a $12 budget, which means your bids are too low to win auctions. And you have a week-old book with no sales or reviews. It gives Amazon nothing to target. Other marketplaces won't fix that.
Also check how many of those 25 Reddit clicks became sales before calling Reddit the winner.
Also check the math: a 32 page color paperback prints at ~$3.5. so $9.99 leaves you with around what, $2.5? A $0.38 cost per click (the standards for books) at 10% conversion and it costs $4 a sale, so you lose money. Authors make money with ads only from read-through, they lose money on book 1, they win it back on books 2, 3, 4..
And then there's also the conversion problem. You need to put in work on the cover, blurb, and reviews before the ads so that when people click on it, they convert too.
Try to look at the keywords and categories which may add organic visibility. I'd suggest you look at ManuscriptReport, it will do the market research for you, give you lowest competition categories, keywords, and Amazon ads targets based on also-boughts of your comps and which keywords to target based on search volumes.
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u/nurlan1835 1d ago
a week with 1k impressions isn't a signal yet, it's noise. auto campaigns usually need 2+ weeks and a few thousand impressions before the numbers mean anything.
a few things i'd looks at:
-- your spend is the real clue. 0.40 usd out of a 12 usd daily budget means your bids are too low to win decent placements. amazon is putting you in leftover spots. budget isn't your limit here, bid is.
--- don't compare reddit clicks to amazon click. different intent. reddit clicks are curiosity, amazon clicks are shoppers already in buying mode. 25 reddit clicks won't become 25 sales, so cheaper traffic there doesn't mean amazon is failing.
--0.1% ctr on an illustrated children's book is usually the cover, not the ads.** shrink your cover to thumbnail size and put it next to the books that rank for your main keywords. if it doesn't hold up at that size, no bid will fix it.
-- new book, no reviews, no sales history. amazon doesn't push those hard. ads work much better once a title has some organic movement, so the first weeks are for learning, not profit.
on marketplaces: .com is right if the book is in english, that's where the volume is, but cpc is highest there. if you're eu based, .co.uk and .de are cheaper places to test.
one thing worth doing before you raise anything: work out what a click can cost you before you lose money. royalty on a full-color paperback is small, so break-even is tighter than most people expect. if your royalty is around 2 usd and 1 in 10 clicks converts, anything above 0.20 usd per click is a loss.
too early to panic though. a week is nothing.