AMAZON ADS
How I Reached 5.56% ACOS Running Amazon Ads for My KDP Books
I sell KDP books on Amazon and almost every time I tried advertising, I generated only losses. Now I finally found the perfect formula for running profitable Amazon ads.
I sell KDP books for more than 3 years now. I know it’s better to also have ads. Just to help them rank better.
But every time I tried Amazon Ads, it’s a nightmare! I only generated losses.
This time was no different. I started ads again in November last year. Big loss…same in January…and February…
Look at the ACOS! Even below 100% it’s still bad because the sales reflect the total sale amount and not the royalties (which are my actual earnings).
ACOS is the average cost per sale, the amount you spend for the sales you’ve got.
It was terrible! I spent $73.14 and earned $32.69…With 68.43% ACOS! And in the previous months I was even above 100% 🫣
As if I was throwing money in the toilet…
But why did I go on losing more money? Why didn’t I simply stop?
Good question!
Because:
- I am not a quitter!
- I thought it might just need time to optimize, like Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
Stupid!
I just kept the budgets low, so sales were also pathetic. But in the meantime, I got no progress on the main problem:
How the f*ck do I run profitable Amazon ads?!
I got the same problem I described in this story: I tried the same thing and expected a different result 🙄
Why?
Because:
- I knew others were running profitable Amazon ads (ok, that’s fine)
- I didn’t trust what other creators were saying about tweaking the settings (stupid!)
- I thought I must keep settings as Amazon suggests or as close as possible (even more stupid!!)
So in March, I started testing the settings (finally!!)
This is what I did:
- I kept the Campaign type the same: Sponsored Products
- I also kept the automatic keywords setting the same. I sponsored products. This is something like the catalog ads on Facebook and Product Feed ads on Google.
- But I started changing the bid setting:
You can get there from campaign -> ad group -> targeting. Initially, I have kept this setting as Amazon suggested, hoping to improve over time (Stupid, yeah, I know…).
But it didn’t, so I finally decided to change it to $0.05!
Yes! That low!
Was it better?
No…
Most of the time I got no impressions. So I gradually increased to $0.06, $0.09 and now it’s $0.10. I waited for a few days after each increase.
The results?
Ta-daa:
Now we’re talking!
A nice $21.12 royalties vs. just $5.95 ad spend!
But what is more important: I started generating organic sales! Finally! See the graphs above — sales were coming even
I finally found the perfect formula that brings me profits with Amazon Ads!
And look at my ACOS in April:
The amazing 5.56%!
And I already got two sales, which should bring me $5.28 in royalties. With only $1.11 ad spend I am more than happy.
Now what?
Once you’re profitable you can increase the budget confidently and scale from here.
You just have to keep in mind that low bids will limit impressions even with a budget as high as $1000/day. You have to balance between the two.
How about you? Ever struggled with Amazon Ads?
What did you do?
Thanks for reading!
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