Show #15Master Amazon Ads With The Master: Brian Meeks (AMS Marketing Series Part II)

Today, Brian Meek, an AMS subject matter expert, provides some great tips on what to do and what NOT to do while marketing your books via Amazon ads. He shares about the MOST common mistakes authors make with their ads in an effort to provide the best possible advice for all those wanting to get the most from their ad campaigns. As the author of Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author's Guide, listeners get firsthand advice from Brian including why one needs to master their copywriting skills for their book descriptions and the value of analyzing your ad’s performance on a regular basis. Tune-in to discover how you can strategize and unleash the power of Amazon ads and achieve those sales! Brian’s book Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author's Guide is a must have for anyone putting out Amazon Ads Was spending 2 hours every day answering questions in the “20 bucks to 50K” Facebook Group; has put all his answers into this book People have wrong expectations when it comes to Amazon Ads They expect Amazon ads to perform like newspaper blasts or discovery sites 80% to 90% of people that start with Amazon ads result in foiled attempts Working with Facebook Ads and Google Adwords colors an author’s view AMS reports and total sales are not reliable; often it takes as long as 72 hours to report data Often, a sale is not captured in AMS reports Analyze ads based on the impact to the KDP report and not the AMS report If you are bidding at a rate which is going to optimize your return on investment, you have a shorter window where your ads are working; and so, you need to replace your AMS ads more frequently Unlike Amazon Ads, Facebook Ads can run for 3 months and still be profitable Turning off all ads will enable you to get clean, baseline data and effectively analyze A former data analyst, Brian states that an 80% accuracy is good enough to figure out the long term trends and make correct decisions Do not bother with how a specific ad is doing; look at the entire group and analyze the cost per click A lower CPC value will convert at the exact same rate as the higher one with the passage of time Imperative for an author to cultivate and practice some basic data analysis Authors should be able to calculate their ROI; in layman’s terms, ROI is pile of money earned, minus the pile of money spent, divided by the pile of money spent, multiplied by 100 Do not get bogged down by spikes in sales; as long as the numbers are positive, just keep on trying to further improve Often authors tend to overbid for their sponsor’s product ads and then lose money; lower your bid, and you might end up making money Do not fear math; the more you practice, the better you will get, and it is hard to hate what you are good at Avoid getting emotionally attached to your ad; instead become emotionally attached to your ROI Never use the synopsis of your book as the description The importance of developing your COPYWRITING skills Brian has included a couple of chapters on copywriting in his book Unhappy with the description on his book, Brian put off launching his book for 4-6 weeks He mastered the skill of copywriting, rewrote the description and published his book Conversions dropped from 1 in 30 to 1 in 10 due to this; had he done this a year back in October 2015, Brian would have saved $60,000 Reaching out and helping others is the best way to improve your copywriting skills Avoid copying your old ads to maintain integrity of your data Top Tips by Brian: Redo the description on your first book; try to have the opening line five to six words and a hook Do not fall in love with a single ad; build volumes Try to keep a tab on what your ad is producing for you by looking at it everyday 4: Give your product display ads 2-8 weeks, especially if you are bidding conservatively Connect with Brian through Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author's Guide - Beta Group 3 Key Points:    Try to keep a tab on what your ad is producing for you by looking at your metrics every day.    Do not fall in love with a single ad – build volumes; an Amazon ad tends to lose effectiveness with the passage of time.    Give your product display ads 2-8 weeks, especially if you are bidding conservatively. Resources Mentioned:    Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author's Guide - Beta Group – Brian’s Facebook Group    Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author's Guide – Brian’s book    Facebook Ads, Google Adwords – Alternatives to AMS Ads    AMS Ads -  Brian’s field of expertise