# Beware of Amazon Advertising's Lockscreen ads.



## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Amazon's Advertising (previously AMS) will be doing away with the Product Display ads on March 28th, and we should all be aware of how these new Lockscreen click ads actually work because when going from the Product Display ads to the Lockscreen ads, we should expect to see close to twice the clicks to reach a purchase compared to the results of the previous Product Display ads.

I've been playing with the Lockscreen ads since the day it was opened for their creation, and it has been frightening. Many of the clicks of a lockscreen ad don't go to the book's purchase page. This wastes a click that we are actually charged for, and as per several KDP-Support responses to several questions from myself and others who have spent tens of thousands of dollars yearly on Product Display ads, Amazon Advertising knows this and is apparently ok with it, with no plans to change it.

The previous Product Display ads worked well. The Detail Page View (DPV) count of a every Product Display campaign was always higher than its click count, as they should be, but with the Lockscreen ad campaigns their DPV count are lower than the click count, in some cases less than even 35%. Why? It seems that the Lockscreen ads run on the devices (Kindle and Fire) while they are *offline* and any clicks on the ads go nowhere where a purchase can be made, making the click useless but *still *counted and charged for when the device is back online.

Amazon Advertising knows that the Lockscreen ads are running this way, recording clicks that go nowhere while offline and then registering and charging us for them when then online. They know that those offline clicks are not doing as promised, not bringing the device user to the Book's detail pages with the option to purchase, and they are good with that, and good with charging us for them. Basically, advertisers will be paying close to twice the clicks because of this new policy compared to the Product Display ads, which didn't count offline clicks.

So beware of the Lockscreen ad scam brought to you by Amazon Advertising.


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## Joseph M. Erhardt (Oct 31, 2016)

Yup.  See my "Amazon Ads Playing with the Algorithms Again" thread in the "Voice of the Author / Publisher" forum on the KDP forums.  I can confirm that this is the way LS ads have been reported to me to work.  This actual topic arises a bit down the post list of that thread.  I actually computed the cost of the excess clicks and asked for a refund before someone at KDP/AA coughed up the explanation.

All that aside, if I had a Kindle and went off-line and found I was still getting ads, I'd be p*ssed.  (I'm currently using the Kindle-for-PC software.)
Second thought:  Following up on that, if I were off-line and saw an ad for a particular product, I might wind up p*ssed at the product.  It would be the equivalent of a NEGATIVE-VALUE ad.  Or have Kindles always shown ads, even while off-line?


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## MMSN (Feb 27, 2019)

Wow. And I thought Amazon giving our books away for free to KU readers via Page Flip without telling us was bad. 

They really have no shame.


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## Joseph M. Erhardt (Oct 31, 2016)

MMSN said:


> Wow. And I thought Amazon giving our books away for free to KU readers via Page Flip without telling us was bad.
> 
> They really have no shame.


The bit about not counting pages read while in Page-Flip is silly for two reasons:

1) Doing this right wouldn't cost Amazon anything, as the payout pool is unaffected by how the pages-read are calculated.
2) Adding some timing logic to the Page-Flip logic would make it easy to tell if someone were only flipping or actually reading. This is not rocket surgery.


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## MMSN (Feb 27, 2019)

Fixing Page Flip _would _cost Amazon money. Heck, that's probably why they designed Page Flip to "disappear" page reads in the first place.
If Amazon reported_ all_ the pages read, Amazon would have to put lots more money in the pot to attract authors. With Page Flip, Amazon gets to hand out books for free to KU readers with us authors taking the financial hit, not Amazon.

And Page Flip doesn't have anything to do with "actual" pages read. If a reader reads every page of a book, while in Page Flip, Page Flip will only report (and pay for) one page read to the author.

I'm just saying if Amazon is willing to do this to authors, the ad thing seems par for the course.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Joseph M. Erhardt said:


> Or have Kindles always shown ads, even while off-line?


Product Display ads were also shown offline, but Amazon never registered the offline clicks for payment. My best guess is they've changed much of the ad team personnel since way back when and those working on it now just don't get it.


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## DanKGirl (Sep 14, 2017)

Yeah, the lockscreen ads have been a mess since day one. I gave up writing to Amazon after I was sent an email that said "the ads are working as intended". I shut down all my ads. I am now running just one for each of the series I have so I can keep tight control over the spend. Before that, one month cost me over $300 USD in total - compared to my usual AMS spend of about $40USD total a month. It was horrifying!! And just kept getting bigger each month. Would have been great if I was getting corresponding sales but not even close.


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## jb1111 (Apr 6, 2018)

Joseph M. Erhardt said:


> Or have Kindles always shown ads, even while off-line?


I keep my Kindle offline most of the time to save on the wi-fi draining the battery.

However, I always see adverts when switching on the Kindle. Sometimes they're for books, other times for other Amazon media products.

It's been that way for several years. Not sure if this is what you are referring to, but it's been my experience.


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## Jack Krenneck (Feb 9, 2014)

Carl Johnson said:


> The previous Product Display ads worked well. The Detail Page View (DPV) count of a every Product Display campaign was always higher than its click count, as they should be, but with the Lockscreen ad campaigns their DPV count are lower than the click count, in some cases less than even 35%. Why? It seems that the Lockscreen ads run on the devices (Kindle and Fire) while they are *offline* and any clicks on the ads go nowhere where a purchase can be made, making the click useless but *still *counted and charged for when the device is back online.


I'm not defending Lockscreen ads. People have to do their own testing on them. But...

It's not correct to say the click is wasted, useless or that type of ad is a scam.

Amazon allows a 14 day attribution model for ads. And most (all?) advertising works on a similar concept. Not everyone sees the ad and buys the product straightaway. There's often a delay. On average, prospective buyers see the ad/product seven times before buying.


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## DrLiz52 (Mar 9, 2019)

TwistedTales said:


> If that's how it works, and I haven't used lockscreen ads to know, then that's outright dishonest, which seems to be the way these days.


Another brick in the fake click scheme. Totally dishonest, and we should all be aware of this issue. 
I have not tried the Lockscreen ads, wanted to do so later, but not anymore...

Thanks for letting us know!


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Jack Krenneck said:


> I'm not defending Lockscreen ads. People have to do their own testing on them. But...
> 
> It's not correct to say the click is wasted, useless or that type of ad is a scam.
> 
> Amazon allows a 14 day attribution model for ads. And most (all?) advertising works on a similar concept. Not everyone sees the ad and buys the product straightaway. There's often a delay. On average, prospective buyers see the ad/product seven times before buying.


Actually, it may even be fraudulent and class-actionable. The clicks are supposed to bring the user to the Book's detail page, commonly called a Detail Page View, and if they don't there should be no charge as it's not acting as stated. The Product Display ads never registered and charged for offline clicks, as it should be, so why would it be ok for Lockscreen ads to do it?

Viewing ads is one thing, purchasing is another matter based on interest level from the full description, price, and all the other blah, blah, blah. I fail to see how your seven views before a purchase are even relevant to clicks, as those are views of the ad, not clicks on the ad. If they were seven clicks on the ad on average to get to a purchase, then my Product Display ads would have cost me much, much more than they had. More important than the views is the number of mouse clicks required to purchase, and the more clicking required to make a purchase the less chance of that purchase happening, making offline clicks a waste of time for both the advertisers and the device users.

As to the 14 day attribution model for ads: On both Product Display ads and Lockscreen ads, I see clicks and sales the first day the ads run, around a steady 150-200 impressions (views) to a click and about 5-20 clicks to a sale depending on the targeted interest (at least double that for the Lockscreen ads because of the offline clicks) and it continues that way until I change the ad copy so as to avoid the consumers' ad fatigue. Obviously my bids are lower on the interests that require more clicks to a purchase. The recording of sales, though neither here nor there to the topic, take much longer to register on the AA reports, with about a third not registering at all, and Amazon gives itself 21 days to register a sale, or remove it if it's returned.


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Carl Johnson said:


> Actually, it may even be fraudulent and class-actionable. The clicks are supposed to bring the user to the Book's detail page, commonly called a Detail Page View, and if they don't there should be no charge as it's not acting as stated.


Untrue.

If a user's device is online, the user is directed to the book's detail page. If a user's device is offline, the user is directed to a landing page. The advertiser pays for the click either way.

There's nothing fraudulent about it as the details are explained on Amazon.com.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Anarchist said:


> Untrue.
> 
> If a user's device is online, the user is directed to the book's detail page. If a user's device is offline, the user is directed to a landing page. The advertiser pays for the click either way.
> 
> There's nothing fraudulent about it as the details are explained on Amazon.com.


Have you seen this landing page? Can the user make a purchase on this landing page?


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Carl Johnson said:


> Have you seen this landing page? Can the user make a purchase on this landing page?


Yes, I've seen the landing page.

There is no purchase option on the lander. There is a link that says "Read more" at the bottom right. Clicking the link takes you to the book's detail page.


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## Jack Krenneck (Feb 9, 2014)

Carl Johnson said:


> Actually, it may even be fraudulent and class-actionable. The clicks are supposed to bring the user to the Book's detail page, commonly called a Detail Page View, and if they don't there should be no charge as it's not acting as stated. The Product Display ads never registered and charged for offline clicks, as it should be, so why would it be ok for Lockscreen ads to do it?


I understand that you may not like Lockscreen ads. But before you start throwing around words like scam and fraudulent...it would be a good idea to be fully conversant with the relevant terms and conditions.

As for the advertising part...every type of ad works differently. By their nature, it's impossible for Lockscreen ads to work like PD ads. The fault lies with you for having expectations that they will.

Each ad type has advantages and disadvantages. Some might work for you and others not.

Ultimately, if you don't like what Amazon offers, you don't have to advertise with them. They're not making you.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Anarchist said:


> Yes, I've seen the landing page.
> 
> There is no purchase option on the lander. There is a link that says "Read more" at the bottom right. Clicking the link takes you to the book's detail page.


Hmmm, and *if a click causes the device to bring up the landing page because the device is offline, then how exactly does a link take you to the Book's detail page?*

I've found no info about the landing page on Amazon.com, but I know of two people that got the landing page answer from KDP-Support, which changes nothing if the book can't be purchased, and we know how unreliable they are. Maybe you could point me to it?

Still, the point is, we are paying for clicks that don't give the option to purchase the books when the device is offline. That can more than double the clicks to get to a sale, making it a cash drain with little sales to make up for it.


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Jack Krenneck said:


> I understand that you may not like Lockscreen ads. But before you start throwing around words like scam and fraudulent...it would be a good idea to be fully conversant with the relevant terms and conditions.
> 
> As for the advertising part...every type of ad works differently. By their nature, it's impossible for Lockscreen ads to work like PD ads. The fault lies with you for having expectations that they will.
> 
> ...


Get outta my head!

Freaks me out, man.


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Carl Johnson said:


> I've found no info about the landing page on Amazon.com, but I know of two people that got the landing page answer from KDP-Support, which changes nothing if the book can't be purchased, and we know how unreliable they are. Maybe you could point me to it?


https://advertising.amazon.com/help

It's near the bottom of the page.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Jack Krenneck said:
 

> I understand that you may not like Lockscreen ads. But before you start throwing around words like scam and fraudulent...it would be a good idea to be fully conversant with the relevant terms and conditions.
> 
> As for the advertising part...every type of ad works differently. By their nature, it's impossible for Lockscreen ads to work like PD ads. The fault lies with you for having expectations that they will.
> 
> ...


Of course it's my choice to advertise with them, and now that I'm sure it's no longer effective, I have recently chosen to cut my advertising down to a small fraction of what I used to run because of the dramatic jump in clicks to get to a sale. I posted this to warn folks that the click to purchase ratio is guaranteed to increase, maybe even more than twice that of the PD ads. You can accept that, but I think folks should be warned. I wish I had been.

I certainly don't agree that it's "impossible" for Lockcreen ads to work like PD Ads. Why do you accept that it is? The only difference is the addition of offline click charges and the ads that are now placed on the fire tablets, which is really not that great of an addition since the users may not be Kindle readers, but to me that's neither here not there. Like I wrote before, if the PD ads didn't charge us for offline ads' clicks that don't lead to a purchase screen then certainly the Lockscreen ads could not charge us for them too. I can't help but think this new system is going to hurt Amazon Advertising.

But I do agree that scam is too harsh a word, though charging for clicks that don't lead to an option to purchase should certainly raise alarms, and I never said it *was* fraudulent, but *might* be.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Anarchist said:


> https://advertising.amazon.com/help
> 
> It's near the bottom of the page.


Thanks.

Saw it. Yup to a landing page, but not to a purchase page -so it basically still goes nowhere if not to a purchase option and still maybe doubling the clicks to a purchase compared to the Product Display ads.


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Carl Johnson said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Saw it. Yup to a landing page, but not to a purchase page -so it basically still goes nowhere if not to a purchase option and still maybe doubling the clicks to a purchase compared to the Product Display ads.


I believe the way it works is that the reader is presented with the landing page if his device is offline. If he clicks the "Read more" link without connecting his device via wifi, it does nothing. But if the device connects, the reader is sent to the book's detail page.

I haven't tested this myself, but the process was confirmed in an AMS group I'm in.

Charging the advertiser for the click in this scenario may seem unfair. On the other hand, I'd never expect Amazon to display landing pages promoting our books for free.


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## Jack Krenneck (Feb 9, 2014)

Anarchist said:


> Get outta my head!
> 
> Freaks me out, man.


If I wanted to freak you out, I'd tell you what a huge Sun Tzu fan I was...


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## Anarchist (Apr 22, 2015)

Jack Krenneck said:


> If I wanted to freak you out, I'd tell you what a huge Sun Tzu fan I was...


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## Jack Krenneck (Feb 9, 2014)

Carl Johnson said:


> I certainly don't agree that it's "impossible" for Lockcreen ads to work like PD Ads. Why do you accept that it is? The only difference is the addition of offline click charges and the ads that are now placed on the fire tablets, which is really not that great of an addition since the users may not be Kindle readers, but to me that's neither here not there. Like I wrote before, if the PD ads didn't charge us for offline ads' clicks that don't lead to a purchase screen then certainly the Lockscreen ads could not charge us for them too. I can't help but think this new system is going to hurt Amazon Advertising.


At the root of all good marketing lies an understanding of target audience behavior.

People browsing Amazon looking for a book to read have different behavior patterns to someone picking up their Kindle to read a book. Pretty much everything about Lockscreen ads is different from PD ads. Including that the reader may be off line.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Anarchist said:


> Charging the advertiser for the click in this scenario may seem unfair. On the other hand, I'd never expect Amazon to display landing pages promoting our books for free.


Sounds like you're ok with the jump in clicks that everyone who has used or is still using the new system extensively has felt or is still feeling.

I never expected Amazon to charge for clicks that don't end up with a DPV, not allowing the reader to purchase. I have a few campaigns with a DPV of less than 20%. 80%+ clicks that never brought the users to the Book's detail page.

When we first saw this dramatic change in clicks, we thought it was the same malfunction with the PD ads that happened last summer, which we were credited for. Some of us thought it might be on the scale of the report error three years back that sent $5K in credit our way a year later. But as Amazon stated, the new Lockscreen ads are running as it they should be.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Jack Krenneck said:


> At the root of all good marketing lies an understanding of target audience behavior.
> 
> People browsing Amazon looking for a book to read have different behavior patterns to someone picking up their Kindle to read a book. Pretty much everything about Lockscreen ads is different from PD ads. Including that the reader may be off line.


uh...yeah...ok.


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## Jack Krenneck (Feb 9, 2014)

I'll give you another hint. 

Count up how many other books (ads and also-boughts) compete with your PD ad on an Amazon page. Then do the same for a Lockscreen ad. 

Still think the ad types are pretty much the same?

My advice (which you're obviously free to ignore - and probably will) is to spend less time proclaiming Amazon is fraudulent and more time figuring out how some people make Lockscreen ads work...


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Jack Krenneck said:


> I'll give you another hint.
> 
> Count up how many other books (ads and also-boughts) compete with your PD ad on an Amazon page. Then do the same for a Lockscreen ad.
> 
> ...


PD Ads that appeared on the Amazon page had a stand-alone spot to the right of the screen. Those did little for me so were immaterial, much like Sponsored ads. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm talking PD Ads on the Kindle. Not my first rodeo, and I even make a good living with my novels and spent almost $4k testing out the Lockscreen ads through about 150 campaigns. I did find some unusual happenings, some that are in my favor, but yet there's $1k of that $4k that I'll never get back. At the beginning, I was seeing *triple* the clicks to a purchase compared to the PD Ads, so double is better but still very poor.

It's hard to take someone's advice seriously when half of what they write is irrelevant to the issue and half of that appears like it's from a fortune cookie. Again, didn't say it was fraudulent, said it might be.


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## Jack Krenneck (Feb 9, 2014)

PD ads didn't just show as stand-alones to the right of the screen. They also showed on search results pages, customer review pages and top of the offer listing pages. Possibly other places I forget, too.

And yes, you could target a PD ad by interest. That meant some ads were shown on e-readers...and some on Amazon.com. But you had _zero _control over that. Amazon showed them where they wanted to, and I'm guessing most were on .com because a _lot _more impressions are available there.

As for fortune cookies, don't you know that they contain the distilled wisdom of humanity?

Anyway, I think what I've been saying has been relevant. This is relevant too. Blaming Amazon for your own failures is not conducive to success in this business.

I'm outta this thread. Your poor (and possibly libelous) attitude is non-responsive to help. I have better things to do.


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## Carl Johnson (Dec 11, 2014)

Jack Krenneck said:


> PD ads didn't just show as stand-alones to the right of the screen. They also showed on search results pages, customer review pages and top of the offer listing pages. Possibly other places I forget, too.
> 
> And yes, you could target a PD ad by interest. That meant some ads were shown on e-readers...and some on Amazon.com. But you had _zero _control over that. Amazon showed them where they wanted to, and I'm guessing most were on .com because a _lot _more impressions are available there.
> 
> ...


First, I never asked for your help, and your advice has just been vague canned words that someone who has never even used the system could give, and if your advice had some substance, I most likely wouldn't take it unless I knew how credible the person was who is giving it, which you're not seeming to be.

Second, it sounds like your confusing PD ads with Sponsored ads.

Third, we had a choice to show PD ads on Amazon.com or both that and Kindles. I tested it years ago just on Amazon.com to see the results, and it was poor compared to the Kindle device ads.

Fourth, of course you think your points were relevant, otherwise you would have stated them, which is where I question your credibility and the validity of what you write.

Fifth, of course there were many more impressions on the .com site. It would take 1,000-2,000 impressions to get to a click through ads placed on Amazon.com, but it's not relevant to the issue of clicks to purchase through the Lockscreen ads. If you focus on impressions then you do not have a grasp of the situation.

Sixth, pointing out that the click to a purchase may more than double is hardly blaming someone for my failure, which hasn't happened yet as there are several ways I use to advertise and Amazon Advertising is only one. The assumption certainly lets me know how successful you have been. Do you even know that AA offers packages for campaigns for $35k+

And finally, I mention your fortune cookie responses because trying to sound profound and wise only comes off as_ needing_ to sound profound and wise -I read that on a fortune cookie somewhere. Offering weak advice is worse than offering no advice, especially when it's neither required nor solicited.

And after all that, there is still the fact that the *click to purchase ratio on the new Lockscreen system has more than doubled* when compared to that of the old Product Display system, and there is little to nothing that can be done about it. My warning here is not to tell folks not to use the Lockscreen system but what to expect when using it.


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## DrLiz52 (Mar 9, 2019)

Carl Johnson said:


> But I do agree that scam is too harsh a word, though charging for clicks that don't lead to an option to purchase should certainly raise alarms, and I never said it *was* fraudulent, but *might* be.


*It does look way more than just an alarming issue to me! Scam or a scheme look more becoming in this case where clicks don't lead you to the option of purchase*... We are paying for leads to our purchase page, anything else does not help and should not be charged for.

They must fix the problem ASAP, if they want writers to take on the Lockscreen ads option !!!


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## RedAlert (May 15, 2015)

I just think that Amazon is messed up, period.  I have been attempting to buy cat pan liners for two days.  These are liners with elastic in the rims, an item that is only available on Amazon.  These are really nice.  I purchased them before on Amazon with no issue.

What the shopping cart is doing now is, doubling the item order.  You order one of something, the cart doubles the number, and then won't let you change it on the drop down edit widget thingy.  You have to wait a long, long time to change it.  Then, it will simply go back to the doubled order on the next screen.  There is no update button, like there is on another screen I tried.

So, I ordered some stuff, worked relentlessly ALL DAY on getting the order right, having to do it over and over and over again.  Then, I remembered I needed these pan liners.  Since I had them on my old order, I returned to that, where I was greeted with the "Buy it again" button.  Great, I thought, I'll do that.  Punch the button, and it takes me to a completely unrelated screen.  I had expected to have the item added to my current order, which wasn't finalized.  So, I somehow found my way back to my cart orders, and I discovered that the numbers had gone back to what they were before, some of them doubled.

I started working on the order all over again, and I finally thought I had it done, and I punched "Proceed to checkout," which in the past has given a buyer the opportunity to review for a final time, the order.  This time it just told me the order was done.

Today I decided I would go ahead and order the pan liners separately.  And...it wants to double the order up again.  Somehow, I ended up on a screen that told me, "Your cart is empty.  You can go here and order one or more and add it to your cart" (paraphrased.)  So, I did that, but the order is doubled, and no matter what I do, I cannot change it from a 2 to a 1.  I am now offered a chance to just delete the order.  I don't know what to do.  It's looking like I am going to have to buy either 2, when I only want 1, or just not buy from Amazon.  And, I can't get these pan liners anywhere else that I know of.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  And, how much money does Bezos need, anyway?  Why is it that, in the quest for money, this company is busy just destroying the buyers experience?  I thought it was bad to have to fight the cart, but now they seem to want me to fight to use their store.  They don't want me as a customer, and they have made it impossible to talk to them, also.  I can't find a good email for this problem anywhere.

Once in awhile, I dream of hitting a screen that says, "Congratulations!  For your customer loyalty, you get a 20% discount!"  Instead, I am nagged unto death to join Prime, when I don't want to do so.

So, I feel for ya'll.  Having to pay for stuff you didn't want just because you dared to step into their store and use their system is really lame.


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## MajesticMonkey (Sep 3, 2013)

So far LSA are performing like total garbage unlike auto (some results since early test) or the Sponsored ads which I'm getting okay results with. 

Anyone getting good results with their LSA?


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## DrLiz52 (Mar 9, 2019)

MajesticMonkey said:


> So far LSA are performing like total garbage unlike auto (some results since early test) or the Sponsored ads which I'm getting okay results with.
> 
> Anyone getting good results with their LSA?


Interestingly, the Lock Screen ads are displayed on Amazon.com campaigns also when readers access them outside the US, unlike Sponsored Product Ads that are now limited to Amazon.com only when accessed from the US.

As mentioned in other topics, these rotating Sponsored Product Ads disappeared from view without any warning from the Zones for readers' access outside US. Does anyone have a clue as to why it happened?


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## MajesticMonkey (Sep 3, 2013)

DrLiz52, thanks didn't know this.

I have advertised Lockscreen Ads in 3 categories. Continued in one after seeing two sales in the first day. Than it started chewing trough money for a week. I lowered bids to 2 cents and still got 28 more clicks at 30 cents. 

So yeah... 3 campaigns, 181 clicks and two sales. You gotta try but still sucks off the money. RIP.


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## Jaka Tomc (Feb 28, 2018)

My "best" ad spent 100$ and generated only 2 sales at 457 clicks (328 DPV). It has happened before and I had to kill the ad. Before you say it - my cover and blurb are fine. 

I agree that product display ads functioned better.

Amazon is getting a lot of money from us, but it's also losing advertisers.


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## John Etzil (Nov 15, 2016)

Don't listen to what anyone else here says, including me  

Run your own adds, and see if they work for you


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## Jaka Tomc (Feb 28, 2018)

John Etzil said:


> Don't listen to what anyone else here says, including me
> 
> Run your own adds, and see if they work for you


That's true. I've read a lot of different stories about ads. What works for one person doesn't work for the other, so ... It's trial and error basicaly.


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## DrLiz52 (Mar 9, 2019)

Jaka Tomc said:


> That's true. I've read a lot of different stories about ads. What works for one person doesn't work for the other, so ... It's trial and error basicaly.


It's trail and error... but when it comes to Lockscreen Ads, it's more error than trail.


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## Kathy Dee (Aug 27, 2016)

Carl Johnson said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Saw it. Yup to a landing page, but not to a purchase page -so it basically still goes nowhere if not to a purchase option and still maybe doubling the clicks to a purchase compared to the Product Display ads.


Thanks - I appreciate the info. May have saved me a lot of time and hassle.

To Amazon: I would say there is nothing wrong, in principle, with how these ads appear to work when offline i.e. charging to move a visitor to an info screen rather than a purchase screen. There is some value in that action for an author. However, my suggestion would be that, as the value of the action to an author is significantly lower than delivering the reader to the purchase page, the advertiser should be charged a lower rate for that click.

If a 2 tier charging model were adopted, Amazon could easily work out, from advertising data, what the cost of the off-cline click should be i.e. a percentage of the cost of the click that goes directly to the sales page. For example, if as the OP suggests, it takes double the number of lockscreen ad clicks to get a purchase, perhaps the price for such a click should be 50%.


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## ET (Oct 23, 2014)

If you aren't already doing so, you should be listening to Bryan Cohen's "Relentless Author's Advertise" podcast:

http://authorsadvertise.com

Each week he details his own advertising activities and results. He has talked about the lockscreen ads in the past.

Bryan Cohen is one of the hosts on the "Sell More Books Show"

He's been doing this new podcast since January. I would recommend listening to the past episodes (each is only about 20 minutes) as they contain a lot of information.


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## DrLiz52 (Mar 9, 2019)

_


Jaka Tomc said:



(quote author=Jaka Tomc link=topic=310111.msg3793457#msg3793457 date=1554716130)

"My "best" ad spent 100$ and generated only 2 sales at 457 clicks (328 DPV). It has happened before and I had to kill the ad. Before you say it - my cover and blurb are fine.

I agree that product display ads functioned better.

Amazon is getting a lot of money from us, but it's also losing advertisers."

Click to expand...

_


Jaka Tomc said:


> [/quote
> 
> Amazon is earning lots of billion dollars from KDP PPC ads scheme, whose functioning is constantly being compromised by Click Fraud.
> 
> ...


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## DrLiz52 (Mar 9, 2019)

ET said:


> If you aren't already doing so, you should be listening to Bryan Cohen's "Relentless Author's Advertise" podcast:
> 
> http://authorsadvertise.com
> 
> ...


Looks like a good advice. Will take a listen, because from what we heard the Lockscreen ads were not doing well.


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## MajesticMonkey (Sep 3, 2013)

MajesticMonkey said:


> DrLiz52, thanks didn't know this.
> 
> I have advertised Lockscreen Ads in 3 categories. Continued in one after seeing two sales in the first day. Than it started chewing trough money for a week. I lowered bids to 2 cents and still got 28 more clicks at 30 cents.
> 
> So yeah... 3 campaigns, 181 clicks and two sales. You gotta try but still sucks off the money. RIP.


A few more $ got tacked on this week and to my relief a few more sales also. Went from 350+ ACOS to slightly above 100+ ACOS

It seems like my Ads dashboard was frozen. $ spent went up slightly but had a major adjustment today (in $ spent and sales). Never seen such massive delays (almost two weeks) before. It was like I didn't check it for weeks.


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## DrLiz52 (Mar 9, 2019)

MajesticMonkey said:


> A few more $ got tacked on this week and to my relief a few more sales also. Went from 350+ ACOS to slightly above 100+ ACOS
> 
> It seems like my Ads dashboard was frozen. $ spent went up slightly but had a major adjustment today (in $ spent and sales). Never seen such massive delays (almost two weeks) before. It was like I didn't check it for weeks.


Looks like the wild west. Need to be really wary of those Lockscreen Ads. Sponsored Product Ads (SP Ads) are nothing better due to Amazon Ads Fake Click Fraud. I can tell.

You can read more on this issue here:
https://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,310085.0/topicseen.html

Furthermore, your ACOS rates suggest that you pay Amazon (at least for this ad) far more than you earn on your book sales... This should not be the case. I hope with other ads your experience is better. If not, like millions advertisers you're elegantly ripped-off.


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