# Google ADwords tips & tricks workshop thread



## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

_*Updated Feb 26th, 2015, 11:04 pm PST *_

I thought I'd start this thread (similar to the Twitter workshop thread), where everyone can chime in with their tips and tricks, and one we can all add to as a community. Besides, there are far cleverer kboarders than I around who might want to chip in some knowledge 

OK, hmm, if you haven't messed around with Google ADwords before, I strongly advise hiring someone who does it ALL DAY for a CORPORATION--have them actually sit down in the same room as you for 3-6 hours and explain how it works, how to target, and especially, how to navigate. I'm not kidding here--spend the money (if you have a friend, that's even better though!), and tell them you need them to explain it like you're five years old (ELI5).

That said, it is totally possible to learn the engine on your own. If you're the type that likes exploring systems, likes learning via instructions (clicking the "?" thingies when you don't understand a function), then you'll have it easier than some. It won't be easy, but it's doable.

If you want to learn from scratch, do the google youtube video circuit, and prepare for the long haul learning process. It's the most complex AD engine available, but also the most successful one. You can easily blow a lot of money. In fact, your first few months will be a learning write-off -- and that's normal. Another great way to learn is to call a google rep. Eventually they'll assign you a permanent one anyway.

*Tips from my experience:*

- Only pay for clicks, do NOT pay for impressions. There's a setting right when you start a campaign that will allow you to turn paying for impressions off (it's called "display networks"). It defaults to ON, so if you don't do this right off the bat, you can kiss a ton of money goodbye. It's great for branding a company like Pepsi, but not so much for corporate prawns like us.

- You can use a landing page, but I don't. To test effectiveness, I simply turn ADWords off for a day or two after sales have stabilized and note the difference. But this is only really visible when your campaign is set to $15+ a day.

- Keywords keywords keywords. Shoot for under $0.20 CPC (cost-per-click). For example, I have 1644 keywords running in a massive battle royal, but only the top 2-3% get clicks. My top keyword phrase, today alone, has 10 clicks and 47 impressions so far, yielding a 21.28% CTR for only $0.12 ( and don't ask me what it is =P ). But what keywords are effective? That's something you'll have to intuit. A small hint: you'll want to find keywords that relate to people searching for exactly your type of book, or there in abouts. ie--they want to actually _buy_ a book, and while they're looking to buy a book, your AD comes up. Sometimes a single word gets a TON of clicks, but that doesn't mean those are buyers, so be wary.

- Oh and don't bother wit misspellings. Found out Google does those automatically.

- Generally, the higher the quality score, the lower you're going to pay per click. get higher quality scores by having ADs relevant to the keywords you're using per AD Group.

- Make sure to remove DUPLICATE keywords. Guess what happens if you leave them in? They compete against each other. Yup, you bid against yourself. Don't ask how much this wee little oversight cost me. ^%[email protected][email protected]% !!

- You're going to evolve your keywords over months. When Google suggests new ones, be _very _picky as to which ones you accept. Prune them regularly (select a two-week time span when pruning). Click on the CTR (click-through rate) or impressions column to sort it from zero upwards. _Pause_ the ones that have 0 impressions. Do not remove unless necessary, otherwise the keyword might get recommended again later.

- If you're only on Amazon, then make sure your AD has the word "kindle" or "kindle only" in it. No sense paying for clicks when they want an epub, right? The word can be in your call out extension too.

- Negative keywords are crucial. My genre is fantasy. Guess what's my first negative keywords? Yup, FOOTBALL! And I used to say not to do campaign wide keywords, but if you choose them wisely, it works _better_. Also, you want to add in negative keywords from genres that likely will not enjoy your book. How to find more negative keywords: Select campaign-wide keywords. Select two week time span. Details button ==> under search terms, select "all". Now you're seeing what people are typing in conjunction with your keywords. If you see keywords there that you don't want triggering your ADs, place them in your negative keywords list.

- The algorithm is Darwinian. So you want to pit multiple ADs against each other (maybe ten ADs per AD group). Same with keywords. Best ADs float to the top (you're looking for higher CTR rates, low CPC). Make copies of them, tweaking the new clone, and let them loose for a new round. Repeat ad nauseam.

- AD Groups, keywords, and campaigns resemble a visual pyramid / a folder tree. Until you can "see" how they interact (ie, how to find a set of your own keywords per AD group, etc), keep the campaign small (5 bucks or so). It's easy to get confused at first and make mistakes. And your mistakes will cost you real money. ADWords is basically an expensive college course. The less you pay attention, the more it's going to cost you.

- It's most effective for series titles. And you just want to promote book 1 obviously. The more books, the greater the sell through. That means you could also increase your bid rates. The top most expensive keyword last year was the word "mortgage", at around $54 _a click_. Also, the cheaper the book is, the smaller the profit margin and higher pressure to convert those clicks into sales, therefore the lower the bid.

*Ideal ADWords setup:*

 Tons of specifically targeted AD Groups
 Each AD Group has about 20 keywords / short phrases max
 Those keywords are used in the ADs specific to that AD Group
 Call out extensions utilized
 Closely-monitored set of negative keywords, cross-referenced with
 Only two ADs per AD Group running at one time.
 Every few days, pause the under performing AD. copy and edit the winner of the Darwinian brawl, and let the new contender battle for a few days. 
 Same with keywords: now and then, remove under performers and introduce new ones. (Sorting by impressions)

*WARNINGS:*

- Spend a few hours just navigating the menus. Oh and use those question marks at the corner of every variable. ADWords is notoriously un-user-friendly to newbies, but once you master how the layout functions, you'll start to understand how the framework fits together.

- You'll feel a not-so-subtle pressure from Google to constantly increase your AD budget, and your keywords. Ignore this, you will, young Skywalker.

- If you set your campaign AD budget higher than $5, make sure you check up on it the next day. Nothing sucks more than forgetting to leave a campaign running that isn't working.

- Just because a keyword is getting clicks, does NOT mean it's effective. This is one of the trickiest things with ADWords: which keywords lead to sales, which ones are just lookey-loos? Unfortunately, it's different for every book, so good luck!

- Do NOT use default CPC of 0.50 ! Do your math--how many clicks do you need to make a sale? Make a moderate bid (approx 0.20 to start--maybe lower or higher depending on your bravery level).

- Start small and pace yourself. This engine is _complex_. It's kind of like the stock market--you're going to lose money at first, and you may not make any money at all even.

- You'll quickly discover AD wording is critical. Takes a while and many, many ADs competing against each other to discover what works. Usually, it'll be the one you wouldn't expect to work. Always have this angle in mind: you're trying to convert it to a _sale_. There's a whole psychology to this that's well documented online.

- And the next thing? Your cover better be damn good, because as soon as they arrive at Amazon, they're going to make an instant half-second judgment on it. *If you do not have an eye-catching cover, this is all wasted.* How to tell if your cover rocks the casbah? Take a screenshot of a google image search of awesome covers in your genre, drop that wee screenie into photoshop (or whatever program you use), and superimpose your cover over one of the others. If it still looks awesome in comparison to the big boys, you're golden.

- The final pillar here is having a great blurb. Anyway, the usual stuff comes into play (a strong first chapter, review score, etc etc etc).

- If you don't want to spend a little time daily trying to understand the engine and how you're performing, *this isn't for you*. This is a long-term investment in your career, if you can't commit to understanding it (I'm giving myself a year, for example, tweaking daily), then perhaps try Amazon's ADwords or something. Seriously, just trying to save you money here =P

- This is worth repeating: ADWords is basically an expensive college course. The less you pay attention, the more it's going to cost you. The benefit? Like every good college course, this is a skill you can use for life, evolving along with the ADWords engine.

You're going to be tweaking daily (forever, basically), until you have a streamlined set of sharp keywords and phrases and ADs that express themselves well in the algorithm. Mind you, the reports lag a few hours, so you make a change, then go back later to see how it does (takes a while to see if what you did is working or not, usually at least a day). However, the higher your AD budget, the quicker you'll see changes.

If anyone has tips, please do share 

If I think of more, I'll append this post (or add to the thread, whatever).

Anyhoo ... I was supposed to be doing other stuff and I just got caught up here.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Good stuff, Sever.  Thanks.  Bookmarking this thread.  This is part of what I do for my day job, so I'm pretty well versed in Adwords, but, like many folks I know in the online business, I seem to have a perpetual blind spot when it comes to doing this for myself.


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## MikeDavidson (Oct 5, 2013)

Thanks Sever! great info. Bookmarked as well


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

My pleasure guys, glad to help 

Just tweaked it a touch nowI should really stop ... have work to do.


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## Claire Frank (Jul 28, 2014)

OMG, my brain already feels like it might explode, and I used to do this stuff for a living (but it was so long ago, it's basically irrelevant). Thanks for this! When I get my act together and find the time to jump in on this, I'll share if I learn anything share-worthy. Until then, I'm bookmarking and learning from the masters. Or, at least, those brave enough to dive in and test the waters for the rest of us.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

I know, it's a bit dense, isn't it? Just like me! Zing


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Sever, I'm not going to actually blame you for getting me back into adwords after a six year (or so) hiatus, but... yeah, I guess I am  

Who knows, after cursing you for a while, I may end up praising you for the motivation, and tips.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

*Gulp* This can't end well...


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

The hardest part (and make no mistake--Sever is right--it's all hard) is assessing ROI, for the simple reason that you can't reliably connect the dots between a click and a sale. There is a lot of noise. 

One VERY frustrating piece is that you can't use Amazon affiliate links in search ads (which WOULD make assessing ROI easier). So you have to either run them through a landing page (and that extra click hurts a lot) or you need to just use a regular URL and try to isolate which sales come from search by isolating other variables.

Its not clicks that count; it's how many clicks convert to a sale. Figuring that out is hard.

Sever, you are THE MAN!


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## GP Hudson (Sep 16, 2013)

jakedfw said:


> The hardest part (and make no mistake--Sever is right--it's all hard) is assessing ROI, for the simple reason that you can't reliably connect the dots between a click and a sale. There is a lot of noise.
> 
> One VERY frustrating piece is that you can't use Amazon affiliate links in search ads (which WOULD make assessing ROI easier). So you have to either run them through a landing page (and that extra click hurts a lot) or you need to just use a regular URL and try to isolate which sales come from search by isolating other variables.
> 
> ...


Why do you say that you can't use Amazon affiliate links on search ads? Is this an Amazon policy?


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Yes. It is Amazon affiliate policy. No links in search ads.


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## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

I'm bookmarking this for the day when I have a brain transplant. Preferably from a modern-day Einstein as my maths is hopeless.

But A+ for effort, Sever! I'm sure it'll be really useful to those whose brains thrive on this sort of stuff. I'll just pootle off to the corner and watch.


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## Syc (Jan 17, 2014)

Awesome post! How much of this do you think can be applied to other PPC advertising channels, like Bing?


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

While the Amazon affiliate link would be convenient, I think it's better to link to a book page with buy links to every venue where your book is available.  Not everyone is loyal to Kindle and epub readers who were interested when they clicked your link go away empty-handed.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Thanks, guys 



Syc said:


> Awesome post! How much of this do you think can be applied to other PPC advertising channels, like Bing?


I would stay clear of Bing and the others as they've been caught just copying Google's search results. Then again, you could try doing half the CPC bidding and see what happens?

(Incidentally, Jake tried Bing)


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Sever, I was reading and trying to learn more about Google Tag Manager. It looks like you can use tags to track activity of persons coming FROM an Adwords campaign and what they do or click on on your site, like a buy button etc.

My plan is to use adwords to funnel readers of Jane Austen Fan Fiction to MY site, getting them to join when they reach Chapter 5. The buy buttons will also be at the bottom. I am trying to learn more about tags and the javascript involved before I jump into Adwords. Ideally, I want to make a report like Mailchimp does, where I know exactly where in a mail message people clicked.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Sever, I was reading and trying to learn more about Google Tag Manager. It looks like you can use tags to track activity of persons coming FROM an Adwords campaign and what they do or click on on your site, like a buy button etc.
> 
> My plan is to use adwords to funnel readers of Jane Austen Fan Fiction to MY site, getting them to join when they reach Chapter 5. The buy buttons will also be at the bottom. I am trying to learn more about tags and the javascript involved before I jump into Adwords. Ideally, I want to make a report like Mailchimp does, where I know exactly where in a mail message people clicked.


Now _that_ would be useful, Elizabeth! Right now, I wouldn't be able to participate as the wordpress package I have forbids javascript and the like. But let us know how that pans out! To be able to match clicked-on keywords with web activity is some powerful insight, and can help distinguish the lame keywords from the potent ones!


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

There are some Wordpress plugins to trigger the code you need Elizabeth. Just put them on the purchase confirmation page, and you have a direct ad -> sale confirmation. 

I'm in the midst of using Bing. It's basically the same as Google, so all you're doing is reaching people who prefer Bing as their search engine. I think it's market share is like 11% or something, so it's tiny compared to Google, but in terms of mass it's still huge. 

In terms of Bing, I'm sure my experience matches Sever's with Google: The higher the impression total, the lower the click-through rate. Sever does a lot better than I do, however, so I would listen to him.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I'm looking at March at earliest to play.  Setting up the German translations took a big chunk of experimenting money.  

In the meantime I am educating myself on everything I can, Google needs to go study Adobe for how to teach people. It's like their documentation team WANTS to be unhelpful.


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## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

Sever, how long did it take you before adwords was making you money?

Also, do the ads appear on websites all over the place, or do you only get placement on google.com search results? I'm also wondering what a sample ad of yours looks like.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Domino Finn said:


> Sever, how long did it take you before adwords was making you money?
> 
> Also, do the ads appear on websites all over the place, or do you only get placement on google.com search results? I'm also wondering what a sample ad of yours looks like.


I'd say at this point, ADWords is about 20-25% of my revenue, but that's a rough guess based on turning it off and back on. Took me about a month to get it going, yet I'm still fiddling with it daily. For example, yesterday I slashed my CPC bid amounts on all my top keywords, just to see what would happen. The result? An 80% drop in clicks. But what I want to find out is, will the algorithm compensate over the next few days and increase the amount of clicks on lowball keywords? My hunch is that it will, and I'll gain more clicks over time as a result but suffer a short-term loss.

I have a wide variety of ADs competing against each other (over a 100) with a huge range of variables, and they look like any other book AD really. Only the top 5% actually get shown though--the most successful ones, as declared so by the algorithm. And I only do Google.com searches.


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## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

Thanks. I'm thinking about diving into these waters myself.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Thanks so much for starting this helpful thread, Sever. I hope when you add new hints, etc, you put them in a new post rather than updating the first post which we've already read. At this point, you are basically saying that Google adwords are working for you and earning you significant income, right?

Philip


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Just looking into this for the first time and as a result of this thread so my questions might reflect my ignorance. So apologies for that.

Can I pick your collective brains with a test case? When someone types a keyword into Google, the most common site appearing at the top of the page is Wikipedia. I just typed in "Hitler". There were over 100 million results, the first one being Wiki. Before even opening that Wiki page, I see there are 5 books about Hitler  displayed on the right of the list of search results.

(However, when opening the Wiki page, I don't see any Google ads displayed.)

How does it happen that those books appear with the list of search results? Is it the result of adwords? Obviously, I would love my book featuring Hitler to appear there, or anywhere where people search for his name. Would that be possible by using adwords and would "Google", "Wikipedia" and "Wiki" be useful keywords when setting up a Google ad?


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

Sever Bronny said:


> So I keep getting questions on how I get such low CPC rates with Google ADwords and stuff. I thought I'd start this thread (similar to the Twitter workshop thread), where everyone can chime in with their tips and tricks, and one we can all add to as a community. Besides, there are far cleverer kboarders than I around who might want to chip in some knowledge
> 
> OK, hmm, if you haven't messed around with Google ADwords before, I strongly advise hiring someone who does it ALL DAY for a CORPORATION--have them actually sit down in the same room as you for 3-6 hours and explain how it works, how to target, and especially, how to navigate. I'm not kidding here--spend the money (if you have a friend, that's even better though!). And tell them you need them to explain it like you're five years old (ELI5).
> 
> ...


How do the google ads compare to the new Amazon ads? Has anyone tried paying the $100 which is very high and can we advertise all our books or is it just for one book?


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> Just looking into this for the first time and as a result of this thread so my questions might reflect my ignorance. So apologies for that.
> 
> Can I pick your collective brains with a test case? When someone types a keyword into Google, the most common site appearing at the top of the page is Wikipedia. I just typed in "Hitler". There were over 100 million results, the first one being Wiki. Before even opening that Wiki page, I see there are 5 books about Hitler displayed on the right of the list of search results.
> 
> ...


What you would need to do is use Google Adwords Keyword Tool Planner to figure out competition on the keyword and related keywords like "Hitler book" or "Hitler fiction" or "Hitler novel" then you can use Google Webmaster Tools to work on optimizing your blog for that keyword. That's organic search results.

With Adwords, you would PAY, competing with others bidding on that keyword, to be an ad up at the top when someone searched "Hitler fiction" how often your ad showed up would depend on your bid vs others on that keyword phrase, and you'd pay per click.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

This is amazing. I was just planning to message you about this, but you beat me to the punch...

Thanks.


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## RomanceAuthor (Aug 18, 2014)

Sever Bronny said:


> - Use CPC (turn display networks off). Essentially at this stage you just want to pay for clicks, NOT impressions.


This is interesting. I would think that display ads are more useful than anything else google has to offer when it comes to ads
(my adwords knowledge is rusty at best)


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Philip Gibson said:


> Thanks so much for starting this helpful thread, Sever. I hope when you add new hints, etc, you put them in a new post rather than updating the first post which we've already read. At this point, you are basically saying that Google adwords are working for you and earning you significant income, right?
> 
> Philip


I'd say it finally more than pays for itself, but it took a while to find the right combination of keywords--and I'm _still_ tweaking it.

I won't be making new posts on the topic (I don't like cluttering the board if I can help it) so you'll have to bookmark this thread 



Philip Gibson said:


> When someone types a keyword into Google, the most common site appearing at the top of the page is Wikipedia. I just typed in "Hitler". There were over 100 million results, the first one being Wiki. Before even opening that Wiki page, I see there are 5 books about Hitler displayed on the right of the list of search results.
> 
> (However, when opening the Wiki page, I don't see any Google ads displayed.)
> 
> How does it happen that those books appear with the list of search results? Is it the result of adwords? Obviously, I would love my book featuring Hitler to appear there, or anywhere where people search for his name. Would that be possible by using adwords and would "Google", "Wikipedia" and "Wiki" be useful keywords when setting up a Google ad?


If I'm not mistaken, that's actually part of the "Display Network" mechanism, where your ADs are displayed via affiliate websites based on keywords entered. It can be lucrative if done right, but I haven't messed with it (hence my suggestion to "turn display networks off" for now). Right now, my ADs only appear on google.com searches, NOT on other websites. I'll eventually test this, but it opens up too many variables, so not anytime soon.
More on the subject: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/117120?hl=en



Beatriz said:


> How do the google ads compare to the new Amazon ads? Has anyone tried paying the $100 which is very high and can we advertise all our books or is it just for one book?


There's no comparison. My last 30 days averaged 2,354 clicks with 43,630 impressions, yielding a 5.40% CTR (click-through rate) for CA$0.23 CPC (cost per click).

For my Amazon campaign (which I've allocated $200 for two kinds of ADs), I've racked up near 2000 impressions with not a single click. It's basically a free impression service.



Elizabeth Ann West said:


> What you would need to do is use Google Adwords Keyword Tool Planner to figure out competition on the keyword and related keywords like "Hitler book" or "Hitler fiction" or "Hitler novel" then you can use Google Webmaster Tools to work on optimizing your blog for that keyword. That's organic search results.
> 
> With Adwords, you would PAY, competing with others bidding on that keyword, to be an ad up at the top when someone searched "Hitler fiction" how often your ad showed up would depend on your bid vs others on that keyword phrase, and you'd pay per click.


Yeah their Google Adwords Keyword Tool Planner is incredible, isn't it? Sooo useful for sooo many things 



smikeo said:


> This is amazing. I was just planning to message you about this, but you beat me to the punch...
> 
> Thanks.


My pleasure 



RomanceAuthor said:


> This is interesting. I would think that display ads are more useful than anything else google has to offer when it comes to ads
> (my adwords knowledge is rusty at best)


I need to clarify here: These are actually two distinct variables. The first (display network) shows your ADs on other websites. The second (CPC) is me advising to just pay for clicks, NOT impressions. I'm not experienced enough with the engine to tell if you can separate the two yet (I'm sure you can, just haven't figured it out yet). I'll edit the original.


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## John Corwin (Feb 4, 2015)

Excellent tutorial, thanks!

Just to clarify, you're using the Search Network only, and you're using the text-only ads that appear when someone searches?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

jcorwin said:


> Excellent tutorial, thanks!
> 
> Just to clarify, you're using the Search Network only, and you're using the text-only ads that appear when someone searches?


Thank you, and yes and yes


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## John Corwin (Feb 4, 2015)

I've never used this aspect of AdWords, so it should be interesting. I decided to test search for certain keywords and noticed some strange stuff.

For example, searching for "Great fantasy books" returns no ads whatsoever. Searching "Great camping tent" brings back some sponsored images of tents. Searching for "camping tent" returns sponsored images and text ads.

Surely there are people using "Great fantasy books" as a keyword, right? I ran searches on several more keywords which returned no ads at all.

"Buy books" returns ads for amazon and textbooks. "Buy fantasy books" returns no ads.

I also tested this with another web browser so I wasn't logged in under my Google account and got the same results. Anyone have any idea why some searches don't return any ads at all?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

John Corwin said:


> I've never used this aspect of AdWords, so it should be interesting. I decided to test search for certain keywords and noticed some strange stuff.
> 
> For example, searching for "Great fantasy books" returns no ads whatsoever. Searching "Great camping tent" brings back some sponsored images of tents. Searching for "camping tent" returns sponsored images and text ads.
> 
> ...


Form my understanding--and this is based on intuition and observation--the amount of searches per keyword is tremendous; it's a far higher amount than there are bidders. I suspect the algorithm _staggers_ a daily budget for a keyword so that the AD is shown at an even frequency over the whole day.

For example, let's say you have $24.00 allocated for every day, and you're paying $1.00 per click of the keyword "buy fantasy books". If my hunch is correct, the algorithm will show your AD repeatedly from hour 1 until it gets a click (making it compete against other ADs at the same time to drive up the bid amount), then it will disappear, only to reappear at the beginning of the next hour, until again it gets a click. Hence, Google insures the $24 is spent over the entire day.

I may not be making myself very clear here, and I apologize for that, but does this explanation make sense?


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## John Corwin (Feb 4, 2015)

It would make sense, I suppose. Perhaps there aren't enough bidders on certain keywords to return ads every time.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

Just some terminology to keep things sorted:

*Search Engine Optimiziation or SEO*

*Google's organic results*, the list of sites you see in the center of the page, are (theoretically) not paid. They are the "best results" for your query and often are influenced by whether or not you are logged in to your Google account (your search history, browsing history and location all affect organic results) or not. Influencing organic results is big business but a few simple things you can do to get listed in the "real" results are:

Use descriptive keywords throughout your site. (No, I didn't say stuff or repeat over and over. Just use them naturally in your copy.)
Have a significant amount of text on your site. Words are important. Your cool all-Flash or funky AJAX site is probably hiding whatever words you put in them. Pictures tell stories, but not to search engines. Use words! 
Find other sites to link to you with keyword-rich text. In other words, when you do your blog tours, ask them to link to your book like this: 
Fluffy: The story of a dog who went to the moon and saved the world. A novel by Catwoman  
not like this: 
Fluffy.
Register for Google's Webmaster Tools and claim your site. 
Do a little promotion on G+. Great for visibility on Google.
List your book on Freebase and Wikipedia and Goodreads. These are the sources for the "book infobox" that appears next to some search results for books. (Go search for a book on Google and see what I mean.) 

*Search Engine Marketing or SEM*

*Google's paid results. * These are the ads at the top of the page, the right side of the page and ubiquitous throughout the Internet in headers, footers and sidebars.

You can lose your shirt paying for unqualified traffic, or you can gain highly qualified leads and targeted visibility. Be very careful of the keywords you target and monitor them closely. Boost the high performing words, take out low performers. Try them slightly differently.

Be careful of what you consider high performing. Lots of clicks without resulting sales are just wasted dollars.

If you love data, running SEM campaigns can suck away your day, so be warned! It is fascinating to see what works and what doesn't and try to figure out why.

The thing to remember about search marketing is that you are trying to connect with people looking for your product. Think about how they would search. Any deception in your attempts to get people to your site simply costs you money and annoys the user. It is OK to have low impressions and low clickthroughs because your target is narrow.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

MyraScott said:


> If you love data, running SEM campaigns can suck away your day, so be warned! It is fascinating to see what works and what doesn't and try to figure out why.


BOY this could be true for sales fluctuations too!  LOL


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Updated by request. Added "Ideal setup".


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## J. B. Cantwell (Mar 26, 2014)

Sever Bronny said:


> _*Updated Feb 5th, 2015, 10:16 pm*_
> 
> - Keywords keywords keywords. Here's the trick: You want to find obscure ones with a low CPC (under 0.20). Even misspellings, etc.


Any chance you'd be willing to give us some examples of the types of misspellings and obscure things you're talking about? I know you don't want to give away your hard-earned keywords, but if you could give a couple ideas to get started with, that would really, really help.

Thanks so much for writing this! I've been banging my head against the computer screen ever since trying to figure out how you do it!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

JB, you'll want to think about what kinds of things people (kids and adults) would search who would be interested in your book.

For example, I notice one reviewer said happy her son was more interested in books than video games. Talk about a wish for all parents! What might they search?

Books for Boys
Best Books for Boy who Like video games


You go into Adwords, then the Keyword Planner tool, then you start putting in search terms you would put in if you were a teen reader looking for a book like your. Hint, most people search Books Like _____ favorite in the blank to find more books like that one. 

then look for search terms a parent might look for: 
"get my kid to read more" "get my boy to read more" etc. etc.

Then you do what sever did, made campaigns etc. with the different keywords, you only pay if the ad gets a click, so the hard part is figuring out YOUR perfect audience and then making those keywords your ads.

Additionally, you can use Google Webmaster Tools to test those keywords on your blog and see if it gets you clicks first. This is done with using those keywords in your title, tags, or copy itself. It might provide you with insight into HOW people are finding your author page and what's making them click to visit.


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## J. B. Cantwell (Mar 26, 2014)

Thanks for your reply, Elizabeth, and that is a great tip to use the "Books like___". One of the problems I'm having is that I seem to have found cheap keywords to use, and many of them show up as having 10-20 searches per month, but when I enter them into my campaign I get a message that says "Low Search Volume". Then it refuses to put my ad on those less frequently searched keywords. Any thoughts?


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

You don't want 10-20 searches per month. You want keywords with thousands. That's the issue. 

For example:

Percy Jackson series is low competition and searched 33,100 times in the US per month.
compared to Percy Jackson book series is searched 6,000 times in the US but has medium competition (someone didn't use their keyword tool, or didn't want confusion with the movies).

So you need to do searches in the Google Keywoord tool, then when you find something with THOUSANDS searched, and low competition, you can click the little >> to the right of that group of keywords and add it to a campaign.


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## J. B. Cantwell (Mar 26, 2014)

First of all, you are a goddess. Thank you.

But it still doesn't seem to be working, or I'm just missing something. In the Keyword planning tool, I entered in "The Unwanteds". It brings up an average monthly search volume of 3600 with low competition and a suggested bid price of $0.15. Great! So I go and add that keyword to my campaign, but when I see it within the campaign it reads that it's "Below first page bid" with the first page bid estimate at $3.00.

AAARRRGGGHHH!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I think you might want to call them. They are very helpful and WANT to sell you ads that work.  I know they are super happy to help anyone set up their first campaign.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

*head explodes*


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

CadyVance said:


> *head explodes*


lol


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Doing a massive experiment with Bing starting Monday. I have over 200 different ads running across 60 keywords. It took me about six hours of labor to get it all organized and put together, and that was after I had read a couple books and grilled Sever via email. So let's see what happens.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

jakedfw said:


> Doing a massive experiment with Bing starting Monday. I have over 200 different ads running across 60 keywords. It took me about six hours of labor to get it all organized and put together, and that was after I had read a couple books and grilled Sever via email. So let's see what happens.


Exciting stuff, Jake! Anxious to hear your results  Good luck!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I think we're going to need to start an Authors using Adwords club . . .  

I'm still plugging away on getting my organic keyword garden growing . .  . March, it's ON baby!!! I also opened my site up for registrations again and solved the insane bot problem, I'm still getting 2-4 registrations a day of real people who like my stories. I wanted to make sure the registration process etc. all ran smoothly before paying for ads for people to signup.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Good luck! Hope it goes well. I think...this is something I'm going to have to do waaaaaay later than now.


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I think we're going to need to start an Authors using Adwords club . . .


Hey, not a bad idea.



CadyVance said:


> Good luck! Hope it goes well. I think...this is something I'm going to have to do waaaaaay later than now.


For me, I was already familiar with Adwords, having run campaigns years ago for my albums. I was strictly trial and error in those days. For those just starting out (or restarting), this thread, and the tips provided, can make a world of difference in results.


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Sever, do you have any sense of conversion rates for the click-throughs? Or do you not care about the actual sales and are just doing this for eyeballs on your books/brand awareness?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

nico said:


> Sever, do you have any sense of conversion rates for the click-throughs? Or do you not care about the actual sales and are just doing this for eyeballs on your books/brand awareness?


Heyas again, Nico--right now, it's generating about 20-25% of my sales, based on turning it on and off. Lately though I've been experimenting heavily trying to get the CPC down, so it's a bit all over the map. Will need much more time to get the system stable.


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Sever Bronny said:


> Heyas again, Nico--right now, it's generating about 20-25% of my sales, based on turning it on and off. Lately though I've been experimenting heavily trying to get the CPC down, so it's a bit all over the map. Will need much more time to get the system stable.


Thanks for sharing the figures (and all the deets). This is so daunting, it seems like a full time job just to manage Adwords.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

nico said:


> Thanks for sharing the figures (and all the deets). This is so daunting, it seems like a full time job just to manage Adwords.


Yeah, I look forward to the day I don't have to mess around with it so much. It can be frustrating and exhausting, especially when I should be writing.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

ゴジラ said:


> This is interesting Sever, thank you. I'm going to hold off on this until I have more mental real estate to dedicate to learning a new thing, but I'll bookmark the thread for later.


My pleasure 

Save it for when you're itching to bang your head against the wall for a few weeks on end. While you're losing money. And you want to kill everyone.

But at least you won't be alone 

Okay, it's not _that_ bad ... just the first part sucked, the part where you're totally confused as to how it works.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

So interesting! Thanks a lot for this.

I'm completely new to this and am just experimenting with the new Amazon version of pay-per-click. Not getting great (or any) results yet and am continuing to tweak my settings, but at least I'm learning about this whole method of advertising. Seems like Google ad words might be the way to go once we can get our heads around it.

So much to learn - so little brain!


Philip


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## coolpixel (Sep 17, 2012)

I am playing around with this at the moment. How many keywords or key phrases would you folks recommend?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

coolpixel said:


> I am playing around with this at the moment. How many keywords or key phrases would you folks recommend?


You want to shoot for around 20 keywords / phrases per AD Group. Number of AD groups is unlimited basically. Just try not to repeat keywords in the other AD groups, and make sure your ADs reflect the keywords sets.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Have you done Goodreads ads, Sever? I understand those a lot better than this complicated mess. I tried it and got a lot of clicks. I don't know if it translated to anything, but it was fun seeing the clicks every day. Thoughts?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

CadyVance said:


> Have you done Goodreads ads, Sever? I understand those a lot better than this complicated mess. I tried it and got a lot of clicks. I don't know if it translated to anything, but it was fun seeing the clicks every day. Thoughts?


Yeah I did Goodreads ADs. Had to request a refund after it failed miserably. I tried so many different variations but nothing got anywhere really. Waste of my time


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Sever Bronny said:


> Yeah I did Goodreads ADs. Had to request a refund after it failed miserably. I tried so many different variations but nothing got anywhere really. Waste of my time


Okay, well that answers that!


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Between blurbing, editing, cover work, and marketing, I've been messing with this engine, and I've noticed another nuance: more clicks for less CPC (cost per click) statistically leads to greater ROI (return on investment).

Hey, but as long as we're spending less than we're taking in, we're golden, eh? I mean, that's what they teach in marketing, right?


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

Sever Bronny said:


> _*Updated Feb 8th, 2015, 2:57 pm*_
> - If you're only on Amazon, then make sure your AD has the word "kindle" or "kindle only" in it. No sense paying for clicks when they want an epub, right?


The only gotcha here: Amazon has a trademark restriction on using "Kindle" in ad copy. Basically, that means that your impressions (and therefore clicks and sales) will be throttled. Google will only allow your ads to show some of the time. I recommend A/B testing it - try one ad with "kindle" in the copy and one that doesn't use the trademark, and set the campaign to rotate evenly instead of optimizing for CTR. If you get tons of clicks and no sales on the ad that doesn't use "Kindle," you know that you're getting unqualified traffic. (tip -- you can back into testing conversions on the ad level with unique affiliate tags for each ad)

Basically, my biggest piece of Adwords advice - test it.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Freebooksy_Taylor said:


> The only gotcha here: Amazon has a trademark restriction on using "Kindle" in ad copy. Basically, that means that your impressions (and therefore clicks and sales) will be throttled. Google will only allow your ads to show some of the time. I recommend A/B testing it - try one ad with "kindle" in the copy and one that doesn't use the trademark, and set the campaign to rotate evenly instead of optimizing for CTR. If you get tons of clicks and no sales on the ad that doesn't use "Kindle," you know that you're getting unqualified traffic. (tip -- you can back into testing conversions on the ad level with unique affiliate tags for each ad)
> 
> Basically, my biggest piece of Adwords advice - test it.


I think he means in the keywords, or is that bad too?


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I think he means in the keywords, or is that bad too?


You can bid on their keywords all day long, but if you use Kindle in your ad copy (like "Buy X book for your Kindle"), you risk getting flagged for trademark infringement.

I mean, try it - the worst that would happen is that your ad gets disapproved. More likely, you'll get 'approved with limited reach.'


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

nico said:


> Thanks for sharing the figures (and all the deets). This is so daunting, it seems like a full time job just to manage Adwords.


Pre-Freebooksy, that WAS my full-time job. There are entire agencies that primarily manage paid search ads for clients!


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Freebooksy_Taylor said:


> You can bid on their keywords all day long, but if you use Kindle in your ad copy (like "Buy X book for your Kindle"), you risk getting flagged for trademark infringement.
> 
> I mean, try it - the worst that would happen is that your ad gets disapproved. More likely, you'll get 'approved with limited reach.'


No, no, no. I mean in keywords at Google "science fiction kindle book" or some other phrase. That goes to my website where all my books are for sale on all the stores. No Kindle in the actual advert. In the advert there would be something like "Free and discounted ebooks." or something like that. So someone types in the phrase at google, my advert will be on that page. I get an impression, and if the searcher likes "free and discounted ebooks" I might get a click.


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> No, no, no. I mean in keywords at Google "science fiction kindle book" or some other phrase. That goes to my website where all my books are for sale on all the stores. No Kindle in the actual advert. In the advert there would be something like "Free and discounted ebooks." or something like that. So someone types in the phrase at google, my advert will be on that page. I get an impression, and if the searcher likes "free and discounted ebooks" I might get a click.


We're talking about the same thing, just using different language


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Freebooksy_Taylor said:


> The only gotcha here: Amazon has a trademark restriction on using "Kindle" in ad copy. Basically, that means that your impressions (and therefore clicks and sales) will be throttled. Google will only allow your ads to show some of the time. I recommend A/B testing it - try one ad with "kindle" in the copy and one that doesn't use the trademark, and set the campaign to rotate evenly instead of optimizing for CTR. If you get tons of clicks and no sales on the ad that doesn't use "Kindle," you know that you're getting unqualified traffic. (tip -- you can back into testing conversions on the ad level with unique affiliate tags for each ad)
> 
> Basically, my biggest piece of Adwords advice - test it.


Interesting, I'll definitely test it, thanks. But why would they throttle it? Why not just block out the ADs completely?


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

Sever Bronny said:


> Interesting, I'll definitely test it, thanks. But why would they throttle it? Why not just block out the ADs completely?


It's a matter of scale, I think. How it usually works - if you have filed a trademark with Google Adwords and you notice that an advertiser is using your trademark in ad copy, you can report them to Google. Google will then pull some levers on their backend to disapprove those ads (and write a script that says 'IF x advertiser creates ad with y keyword in ad copy THEN disapprove' so that all subsequent ads that advertiser creates using your trademark will be automatically disapproved). The problem - there are probably thousands of people using Kindle in their ad copy. Amazon isn't that negatively affected by it, at least not enough to hunt down every advertiser and force Google to stop them.

As to why Google doesn't automatically disapprove those ads after you file the trademark... I'm not sure because I'm not Google. My guess: Google wants your money too. If you try to run an ad that uses a trademark, their happy medium between pleasing the advertiser and the trademark holder is to throttle your reach. They still make money off of you, but the trademark holder isn't as angry.


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## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> No, no, no. I mean in keywords at Google


Mark, that is what Taylor means too. That's why she said "You can bid on keywords all day long." As far as what Sever originally suggested, he was talking about putting "kindle" in your ad copy. Keywords aren't gonna cut it, because you obviously need non-kindle keywords. And for people not searching with the term "kindle", Sever was suggesting to filter them out by having the ad state that it will take them to a kindle book.

After 5 days, here are my impressions of and advice for ADwords:

1) It's fun to experiment but man do they update slowly. It's like once a day. That means I can change a bunch of stuff in the morning and Google still reports the same outdated information at midnight. I guess this makes it easy to only check the info once a day.

2) Use campaign-wide negative keywords. If you only sell on kindle, add "nook" "barnes" "noble" "kobo", etc.

3) Start slow. It took me 3 days to get a single click. I'm fine with that because I don't want to waste money. The steps of discovery should be 1) Learning the system, 2) Finding keywords, 3) Tweaking ads and converting on those keywords, 4) Tweak to maximize profit.

4) I'm surprised that so many phrases are too specific and too low-volume to be usable. Even phrases that autocomplete in Google are often too low-volume to advertise with!


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## evawallace (Aug 7, 2014)

Thank you for this, I'm just finishing reading a book about facebook ads, have you used facebook? Do you find Google better?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

evawallace said:


> Thank you for this, I'm just finishing reading a book about facebook ads, have you used facebook? Do you find Google better?


My pleasure. Yeah, I'm experimenting with Twitter ADs, Facebook ADs, and ADwords. I tried Goodreads but that was just a total waste of time. Still learning FB ads. It'll take a while.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

My single best keyword is "amazon." It has generated over 1,600 clicks (at a CTR of 5%) to my ads at a cost of 2 cents CPC. 

After two days of advertising, I've spent $40 and sold 2 books.


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## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

jakedfw said:


> My single best keyword is "amazon." It has generated over 1,600 clicks (at a CTR of 5%) to my ads at a cost of 2 cents CPC.
> 
> After two days of advertising, I've spent $40 and sold 2 books.


Like, just "amazon" and nothing else? That doesn't sound specific enough to do you any good.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Yes. Just "amazon."

I thought it would be too broad to do much good, but a 5% CTR for such a broad term does not suck. When I look at specific ads the CTR is higher, too (over 10%). The real question to me is sell through rate, which is very low. I'm curious what is a decent sell through rate for others, but it is difficult to assess.


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## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

It sounds like you have pretty awesome ad copy then, Jake. I still struggle with selling and am seeing sub-1% CTR, but at least the learning experience isn't costing me anything much.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> Yes. Just "amazon."
> 
> I thought it would be too broad to do much good, but a 5% CTR for such a broad term does not suck. When I look at specific ads the CTR is higher, too (over 10%). The real question to me is sell through rate, which is very low. I'm curious what is a decent sell through rate for others, but it is difficult to assess.


What are you using as a destination URL? Surely not your kindle sales page?


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

> What are you using as a destination URL? Surely not your kindle sales page?


Display URL: Amazon.com
Destination URL: My specific product page
Keyword: "amazon"

(Note that I had to request an exemption the "amazon" keyword, which was auto-unapproved, which was subsequently approved when I noted that it pointed to a specific amazon page).


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## coolpixel (Sep 17, 2012)

Isn't there something about not linking Amazon pages directly?


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## evawallace (Aug 7, 2014)

jakedfw said:


> My single best keyword is "amazon." It has generated over 1,600 clicks (at a CTR of 5%) to my ads at a cost of 2 cents CPC.
> 
> After two days of advertising, I've spent $40 and sold 2 books.


Thanks Jakedfw was this for adwords or facebook?


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Sorry, I noted above but should remind you all: This is for Bing/Yahoo search ads. The process and structure is probably 99% identical to Google adwords, but there may be different regulations, which is possibly a benefit if it is less restrictive than Google.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Ok, I'm diving in! This is my first question too:



coolpixel said:


> Isn't there something about not linking Amazon pages directly?


Are you guys setting up Google ads that click through to your Amazon book link or to your website where you have a link to your Amazon?

Sorry if this is a dumb question or has already been answered!

Thanks for starting this thread, Sever!


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

I do both, intermittently. 

What you're not supposed to do is put an affiliate link in your ad which goes directly to Amazon. At least, that's my understanding.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

I'm using Bing so can't speak to Google. When I chose amazon as a keyword and then as a site, I got flagged both times. But they give you a form to request an exception. In the form I noted that the ad pointed to a book for sale at Amazon, and they approved it within 24 hours.

There is a major reason to link the ads to your website: You can then use sitelink ad extensions which are really great at catching the eye of the user. Plus, one of the links can be "buy this book," which you can direct to a page with links to all the storefronts.


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## Mike_IAA (Feb 10, 2015)

My big suggestion is to hire a firm that do it full time, and have them manage it.

I spend around $80,000 a year on Google Ads. My management company has cost me around $6000 a year for the past eight years. Compared to when I was doing it myself, they yield an extra $150,000 in profit annually. 

$80,000 ad spend and $6000 in management fees is a hard pill to swallow when you look at the numbers, but the true reality is that I more than double every dollar I spend on ads, because I can focus on running my business rather than tinkering with Ad settings I will never truly understand. I could save that $6K a year, but I'd liklely make $60-70K less in profit.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

I'd love to do that one day, as long as it comes with some form of tracking sales via a conversion page--that they manage. Not that I could afford a company like that anytime soon. Or probably ever.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

This was too good not to share. Today I received a call from my google rep (you're assigned one after a while apparently). Anyway, we spent an hour on the phone, and he went over all these cool features that are going to be _extremely_ useful, such as:


Automating a reduction in bids from midnight to 8 am
Upping bid percentages in certain locations (such as New York, LA, etc)
Upping bids for devices (choice of three: tablets, mobile, desktops.
Adding two "call to action" AD extensions to my ADs, like a "BUY NOW" and a "Kindle & Paperback" word addition.
"Dimensions" reporting, which allows you to see day of the week performance, as well as hourly performance.

He also went over a bunch of other smaller features I never would have found otherwise. Can't recommend talking to your rep and having him actually walk you through your account.

I also now get this neat monthly booklet detailing all my stats. So damn cool.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

I love extensions. The sitelinks extension is awesome if you link to your website. Keep us posted, Sever!


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

When I try to make my landing page my Kindle book link on Amazon, adwords keeps say "invalid URL."

But it lets me do my paperback link. What am I doing wrong?


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Are you using a separate ad for your Kindle link and using the link both for the display and landing page?


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

I think I want to make my Amazon kindle link my landing page don't i?


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

This is my first and campaign if that helps.


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Emily Wibberley said:


> I think I want to make my Amazon kindle link my landing page don't i?


Right, using a separate Ad for the link. Both the display and landing page will be your Kindle link. Just so it is not an affiliate link.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

What's an affiliate link?

P.S. I swear I am reading Adwords for Dummies and googling these things before I come here to pepper you nice people with dumb questions.


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Emily, you are doing quite well for yourself and book. No dumb questions from you! As I'm sure you've read here, Adwords can be imposing and expensive until you figure out what works best for you.

An affiliate link is used by those who have an affiliate account with Amazon. Take a look at your link for your book here. Basically, just exclude any information in your link past the ASIN number.

And it's a whole different ballgame if you are linking to your site. Many more options there.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

No dumb questions here, Emily! 

Okay, I have a useful tip I just learned:

Top right hand corner click "last 30 days" or "last 14 days" or whatever.
click on keywords tab
click on details button
under search terms, click on "all"

This shows what people are searching (thus triggering your keywords). Scroll down the list, and if you're paying for clicks for words you don't want to be paying for, put those words in your negative keyword list. Make sense?


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Very useful tip, Sever.

On clicking through to my search words I was reminded of a negative keyword I wanted to add to my campaigns.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Thanks you two! That trick on the Amazon link worked, G 

I just posted my first campaign which was denied because of something I did wrong but it forced me to figure out how to navigate a few more things. 

The learning curve on this is huge and you really can't read a book on it. You have to read a little. Try a cheap ad. Watch it. Then go back here and re-read this thread. I think you've been saying this, Sever. I'm just reiterating it.

Keyword question:

Are they like Amazon keywords which are really long strings of stuffed words? Or does each keyword have to be an actual phrase that we are guessing people are typing into search? Like "YA Fantasy ebooks" or "books like Harry Potter"?

And when you guess a phrase and the keyword tool predicts 0 clicks, is that a fact or a guess? I am about to find out with my crazy first attempt at keywords haha


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Emily Wibberley said:


> Are they like Amazon keywords which are really long strings of stuffed words? Or does each keyword have to be an actual phrase that we are guessing people are typing into search? Like "YA Fantasy ebooks" or "books like Harry Potter"?
> 
> And when you guess a phrase and the keyword tool predicts 0 clicks, is that a fact or a guess? I am about to find out with my crazy first attempt at keywords haha


Yep, it's keywords you're guessing people are typing in. If keyword tool predicts zero clicks, it's most likely accurate, though not always, from my experience. Also, each keywords set has higher chance of clicks if the ADs in the AD Group are relevant to those keywords. You want to shoot for a quality score of 5 or higher--and the quality score of a keyword is based on how relevant it is to the AD, if that makes any sense.

And don't forget to use those ? marks -- they have a lot of good info


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Where do you disable paying for impressions?  I cannot find that.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

thewitt said:


> Where do you disable paying for impressions? I cannot find that.


Hmm, should be somewhere in here:

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6310?hl=en


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Sever Bronny said:


> Hmm, should be somewhere in here:
> 
> https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6310?hl=en


Not obvious... seems to only be an issue with the Display Network though, so I've turned that off for now.

It doesn't appear that any of my keywords are going to hit anyway though... I am way below the first page bids.

Interesting if I search with one of those keywords, the only ad on the first 10 pages is books.google.com


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## J.A. Cipriano (May 27, 2014)

Thanks so much for this Sever, I spent my afternoon here thanks to you!

I spent 30 minutes tying to figure out how to turn off CPM (impressions)  to realize it's only for display networks. =D


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## thewitt (Dec 5, 2014)

Just thought I would share this to save anyone else the grief.

Google Adwords does not allow you to send people to a landing page where they would sign up for a free download.

I have been using this page for several other ad campaigns with very good results.

http://www.triadinesaga.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=214

For most ads I use a TinyURL alternative link, just to be clean.

http://tinyurl.com/nqh94kj

They first disallowed the ad because the destination URL did not match the displayed URL. OK, that's easy to fix. I just put the ugly URL into the ad and got by that rejection.

Then they kept disapproving the ad because of a "free book" keyword. Well since this was a keyword they recommended, this surprised me, so I stripped off all the "Free" keywords and was rejected again.

It turns out that you cannot send users to an "opt-in" mailing list signup page to get a free eBook. This is considered information harvesting and is not allowed.

You can only send them to a free download page if no personal information - including an email address - is required in order for them to download the free ebook. I guess sending them to Amazon's store, where they have to provide an email address to Amazon is still allowed....but I digress.

So... Sending them to your Permafree book on Amazon or presumably Smashwords or some other "real" bookstore site will work fine, but sending them to your opt-in email list, or your product purchase page will be rejected if you ask for their personal information at checkout.

I need to rethink my Adwords strategy now it seems.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Well that's interesting. Let us know what you decide to do next with ADWords! (Maybe try a small direct-to-Amazon campaign with really low second page bid rates?)


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

JACipriano said:


> Thanks so much for this Sever, I spent my afternoon here thanks to you!
> 
> I spent 30 minutes tying to figure out how to turn off CPM (impressions) to realize it's only for display networks. =D


This is a great tip. Thanks for sharing and saving the rest of us the time and effort. Much appreciated!


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Updated original post with additional insights.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Found this free keyword tool online to help find keywords and negative keywords but I don't know how legit or helpful the results are:

Keyword tool.io


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

I read on the thread to specify "Kindle" in your ad if you're only available on Kindle (you don't want to pay for clicks for people looking for ibooks).

But when I use the term, I get kicked back for a trademark violation. :/


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Emily Wibberley said:


> I read on the thread to specify "Kindle" in your ad if you're only available on Kindle (you don't want to pay for clicks for people looking for ibooks).
> 
> But when I use the term, I get kicked back for a trademark violation. :/


Hmm, that's really odd! I'd call them and tell them your link goes directly to Amazon (if it doesn't, that might be the reason).


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Google Adwords told me to contact Anazon to get authorization. Amazon said that wasn't necessary, fair use and all that. By the time I got back to my ads they had been approved so apparently it was just a hiccup. The GA interface is definitely clunky.


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## J.A. Cipriano (May 27, 2014)

Sever, I was wondering how long you tweaked on this before you started having success? I can easily see this as something I tweak on every day for a couple months before it really takes off, is that realistic?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

JACipriano said:


> Sever, I was wondering how long you tweaked on this before you started having success? I can easily see this as something I tweak on every day for a couple months before it really takes off, is that realistic?


I'd say three months before I finally felt at home in the interface and mostly understood the relationship between the ADs, AD Groups, and keywords. Only this month did it start paying for itself really, but somedays it's really hard to tell how well it's doing as I tweak it daily. Talking with my google rep helped a lot, as he showed me all these cool tricks.

I can't recommend enough exploring the interface as much as you dare


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Sever Bronny said:


> I'd say three months before I finally felt at home in the interface and mostly understood the relationship between the ADs, AD Groups, and keywords. Only this month did it start paying for itself really, but somedays it's really hard to tell how well it's doing as I tweak it daily. Talking with my google rep helped a lot, as he showed me all these cool tricks.
> 
> I can't recommend enough exploring the interface as much as you dare


Are you going to produce an easy to understand, step by step book on this once you feel you've really got your head around all the details?

Hope so. I'd be a buyer, as I'm sure a lot of others would since you're established a lot of credibility in this thread.

Philip


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Philip Gibson said:


> Are you going to produce an easy to understand, step by step book on this once you feel you've really got your head around all the details?
> 
> Hope so. I'd be a buyer, as I'm sure a lot of others would since you're established a lot of credibility in this thread.
> 
> Philip


That's kind of you to say, Philip. I have no plans to do so at this time, but will let you know if that changes 

P.S. Added a change to original post regarding duplicate keywords.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Are two keyword phrases that have similar words in them considered duplicates? For example, would "good books for teens" and "good books for teenagers" be considered duplicates?

BTW, I'm not using those keywords even though the Google Adwords people suggested I use them, but they ended up costing me too much. Sigh.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Emily Wibberley said:


> Are two keyword phrases that have similar words in them considered duplicates? For example, would "good books for teens" and "good books for teenagers" be considered duplicates?
> 
> BTW, I'm not using those keywords even though the Google Adwords people suggested I use them, but they ended up costing me too much. Sigh.


No, not considered duplicates as far as I know. If the keywords are too expensive, drop the bid to something you'd be willing to pay for those keywords. It's totally okay to get clicks from the second page. In fact, most of your "cheap clicks" will probably come from page 2 searches (they do for me at least).


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

An example of the typical "help" I get in emails from the Google Adwords techs:



> 1. UPGRADE SEARCH ONLY TO SNDS
> 
> I observed that your ads are currently running in "Search Network only" campaigns. If you haven't explored the Google Display Network, you may be missing out on relevant traffic. "Search Network with Display Select" shows your text ads selectively on the Display Network by determining when and where your ads are likely to perform best. Then by automating your bid SNDS helps you to reach the customers who are most likely to be interested in your products and services. By migrating your campaigns to Search Network with Display Select you can work to increase conversions without losing the simplicity of your Search Network Only campaigns. Learn more about this campaign type, and how to upgrade, here.


Sigh.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Emily Wibberley said:


> An example of the typical "help" I get in emails from the Google Adwords techs:
> 
> Sigh.


Don't bother with that, Emily--you'll be paying for impressions 

EDIT: And call them direct, their one-on-one techs are much better versed in your own needs.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Yes I remember learning that important fact here so the email made me laugh. And yes I have to get on the phone with a tech at some point. The chat is pretty useless.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Google Adwords is finally not telling me that every keyword I choose either never gets searched or costs $11.00 for a first page view. 

I'm still not sure if any of my prawny sales are from Adwords, but for some reason I feel like I'm making progress.

Today, I've gotten 5 clicks and one sale. The 5 clicks cost me $0.53.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

BTW...

Figuring out Google Adwords is definitely like trying to crack the Enigma Code so if you feel intimidated by it when you first try it...you're not alone. Benedict Cumberbatch is right there with you.


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

That's great news, Emily! 

Here are some tips in the form of a sample AD, specifically to heighten keyword relevance:

New thriller book series
Try *TITLE*. "*super short reviewer quote*"
Only $2.99 (Amazon kindle)

A sample list of keywords:

new thriller book
new thriller book series
new thriller series
latest thriller book
new thriller books
new thrillers
etc ...

Create a new AD Group per keyword set. The set above is focused on the word "new". Create one for *Dan Brown*, one for* thriller series*, one for the word *novel* instead of "book", additional ones for other authors similar to your book, etc etc. The more focused the AD set, the higher relevance the keywords, and the less you pay.

Example of Dan Brown keyword AD Group set:

thriller like dan brown
thriller similar to dan brown
book like dan brown
etc ...

And don't be afraid to take google's suggestions. The trick is, google's suggestions will overlap. *You do not want identical keywords in separate ad groups.* You'll be bidding against yourself. Download Google ADwords editor to find duplicate keywords. It's easy to use.

Notice the keywords are mostly in the AD. This increases relevance. The higher the relevance score, the lower you pay per click.

*Don't bother with first page--shoot for clicks on second page onward.*


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## Northern pen (Mar 3, 2015)

Dammit this thread keeps getting better ! Sever bunny if you ever in the Shuswap, I buying you a beer or three !!


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Hehe, I love me some beer. I'm a scotch ale fan meself =P


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

I don't know if this "TIP" has been mentioned here or not but when you choose a search phrase and adwords tells you that it's "Rarely Shown Due to Low Quality Score" that doesn't mean your ad won't get shown. I realized this after I left a group of keywords running and woke up to find a "low quality score" keyword had several clicks. For cheap.

That said, most low scores get no love. But I also have a lot of supposedly high scoring keywords that are getting nada zilch zero.


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## RomanceAuthor (Aug 18, 2014)

Okay, so, to sum up 2 things:

1. We are not allowed to send people to a mailing list sign up from a google ad

2. We are allowed to send them directly to Amazon?

Regarding 2, I don't know why I was under impression this is not allowed hmm. . .


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

RomanceAuthor said:


> Okay, so, to sum up 2 things:
> 
> 1. We are not allowed to send people to a mailing list sign up from a google ad
> 
> ...


I'm not aware of number 1, but definitely allowed number 2. Perhaps you're thinking of affiliate links?


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

The first time I tried to do an Adwords ad for Amazon, my Amazon link was rejected.

Then someone here pointed out that you need to use the stripped down Amazon link that ends with the AISN and delete the other stuff after that. Then it worked fine.


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## RomanceAuthor (Aug 18, 2014)

Sever Bronny said:


> I'm not aware of number 1, but definitely allowed number 2. Perhaps you're thinking of affiliate links?


Ah, okay, so affiliate links are not allowed. I see. Well, that makes tracking a bit difficult, but it's great that it is allowed! I don't know why i thought it wasn't )


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Emily Wibberley said:


> Then someone here pointed out that you need to use the stripped down Amazon link that ends with the AISN and delete the other stuff after that. Then it worked fine.


Cellophane. Mister, cellophane...



RomanceAuthor said:


> Ah, okay, so affiliate links are not allowed. I see. Well, that makes tracking a bit difficult, but it's great that it is allowed! I don't know why i thought it wasn't )


You can still use a two step method and send to your website, then use your affiliate link there. Not as effective as direct to Amazon, I think, but track-able.


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

Very informative thread! Thanks for starting it.


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

RomanceAuthor said:


> Okay, so, to sum up 2 things:
> 
> 1. We are not allowed to send people to a mailing list sign up from a google ad
> 
> ...


You can absolutely send people to a email signup landing page via Google Adwords. Tip -- include the keywords you're bidding on in the landing page copy for a better quality score. Example Bargain Booksy Adwords landing page below.

http://www.bargainbooksy.com/kindle-deals

That said, CPCs in Google Adwords will mean that your CPEs (cost per email address) might be higher than you'd like.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Keyword tip for YA authors:

"teenage" is sometimes misspelled "teen age"


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## delly_xo (Oct 29, 2014)

This is such a helpful thread. Thanks for sharing Sever!


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Ad extensions:

So I guess I finally have enough reviews that my ads now automatically get the Amazon star rating "4.6 stars" added to my ads. But I think it's trumping the ad extension I've manually added which are succinct reviews like "This book doesn't suck." - BooksThatDon'tSuck.com

Is that how it works? Just one ad extension? And if your landing page is Amazon you just automatically get your star rating? No way to override?


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Emily Wibberley said:


> Ad extensions:
> 
> So I guess I finally have enough reviews that my ads now automatically get the Amazon star rating "4.6 stars" added to my ads. But I think it's trumping the ad extension I've manually added which are succinct reviews like "This book doesn't suck." - BooksThatDon'tSuck.com
> 
> Is that how it works? Just one ad extension? And if your landing page is Amazon you just automatically get your star rating? No way to override?


That's a good question. I'd like to know the answer to that too, Emily =P

EDIT: Found some short additional info:

http://www.cpcstrategy.com/blog/2014/05/adwords-extensions-seller-ratings-annotations/

Appears to be automatic?


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Thanks, Sever 

In that article, it looks like BOTH extensions (Amazon plus a review) can appear:



In mine, only the Amazon star rating is. Something new to figure out.

BTW, it's taken me all this time (7 weeks) to finally get my ad previewer thingie to work so I finally saw one of my ads which was fun. Now, if only I could get some googlers to click it. :/


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## dragontucker (Jul 18, 2014)

How are you guys still doing with the google ads?


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

I'm still experimenting with them. I recently turned off an ad group that was getting me the most clicks but few sales. My sales dropped after I did that but I'm not sure it's worth the cost to keep that ad group running.

That said, google adwords is VERY cheap when you look at the cost per click compared to FB and Twitter.

This week, for example, my CPC was $0.21 with 21 clicks...so cheap! Not sure if those clicks amounted to any of my sales this week but they were:

10 Kindle sales
21 Borrows
4 paperbacks

I'm pretty sure the paperbacks are Google Ads since I don't really advertise it anywhere else. But it could be completely unrelated.

It's really hard to know without turning everything off.


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## Julz (Oct 30, 2014)

Emily Wibberley said:


> I'm still experimenting with them. I recently turned off an ad group that was getting me the most clicks but few sales. My sales dropped after I did that but I'm not sure it's worth the cost to keep that ad group running.
> 
> That said, google adwords is VERY cheap when you look at the cost per click compared to FB and Twitter.
> 
> ...


Woah, those are great results!


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Thanks Julz! I'm happy with my prawny numbers 

But like I said, it's really hard to know if it's google Ads or the fact that I started another giveaway on Booklikes or it even could have more to do with the promotional stuff I'm experimenting with on Goodreads for book 2.

I'd love for Sever to check in.


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## Northern pen (Mar 3, 2015)

Emily Wibberley said:


> I'm still experimenting with them. I recently turned off an ad group that was getting me the most clicks but few sales. My sales dropped after I did that but I'm not sure it's worth the cost to keep that ad group running.
> 
> That said, google adwords is VERY cheap when you look at the cost per click compared to FB and Twitter.
> 
> ...


What kind of CTR you getting?

I have been playing with adwords for my serial, using low budget and low max bid, just to get familiar with how things work so when main novel comes out can hopefully google up some sales.

Got my cpc down to 0.13 but my ctr sucks. Of course my first week or so I had terrible use of keywords in comparison to ad copy.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

My best CTR is 7% but my average is 3% and I have a lot of ad groups that do nada, but I keep trying to tweak the ads to bait more clicks.

That's a fantastic CPC.

I sadly had to turn off India because I was getting 100 clicks a day from there but no buys. I wish I could crack the India code because they certainly aren't afraid to click Google Ads for books.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

After July 1st, will I be unable to use my smart URLs which redirect clicks to their country's relevant Amazon.com? I've gotten conflicting answers from Google Adwords. 

At first, they said hyper and smart URLs were fine since I don't use Value Track parameters or Google Analytics.

Then today I got an alert saying they've detected bad URLs in my ads, so I called them and they said they had to ask a supervisor and get back to me. 

I thought the answer would be simple. 

ETA: Found an article about this. Reading it now.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Emily Wibberley said:


> After July 1st, will I be unable to use my smart URLs which redirect clicks to their country's relevant Amazon.com? I've gotten conflicting answers from Google Adwords.


Your smart URLs expire?

I've used and continue to use several smart URLs (the ones that direct to the different stores) but I've never seen anything about them expiring. This is somewhat worrying.

Philip


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Only on Google Adwords. They said they won't allow links that redirect. Smart URLs can be used elsewhere. 

I've tried to read the article about GA's new URL policy but its very confusing. I'll try to link it.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Here's the link to the GA explanation:

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6049217

It says if u don't use tracking u r fine but then I got an alert saying that GA had detected that the URLs in my ads were incompatible with their July upgrade. I'm trying to get a definitive answer.


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