If you missed Free Advice Friday on November 26th, you can watch the replay on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/NewShelvesBooks.
November 26, 2021 Free Advice Friday Hot Topics
Everyone is running ads right now, how do I get to the top in Amazon ad search? What is my best bidding strategy?
- If you want to get to the top in Amazon searches, invest more in ads! Consider upping your bid per click ad spend as well as your overall daily budget.
- Add keywords. One of the best ways to show up in more searches is simply increasing the number of keywords you are using in your ads. Feeling stuck on where to find keywords? Remember that comp authors and titles make the best keywords – and you should be using a mix of big-name and up-and-coming authors.
Does Amazon promote your eBook when you run a Kindle Countdown or Kindle Free promotion? Nope. Amazon will facilitate a discount deal by allowing Kindle Select users to schedule a promotion. They also allow wide authors to discount their books manually. But after that? You’re on your own.
How do I promote a discount eBook? This article has a list of ideas, including bargain book newsletters you can submit for your eBook to be featured in. For children’s books and books or series enrolled in Kindle Select for Kindle Unlimited, consider running Facebook ads.
You don’t want to waste your money on Facebook ads? Good. We don’t want you to do that either. So, tune in to the replay around 8 minutes and 45 seconds in for Keri’s tips on how to optimize your Facebook ads for better conversions. (Hint: You need to narrow in on your target audience.)
If you have a Christmas themed book, is it too late to pitch it to bookstores for the 2021 Holiday season? Yes. Bookstores have already made their winter holiday selections by the time Thanksgiving rolls around. If you have a holiday themed book you are hoping to get on to retail shelves, we recommend you pitch it buyers a minimum of 2-3 months prior to the holiday.
Best idea to capture sales for your holiday book right now? Run ads! People are currently reading holiday eBooks as well as buying paperback and hardcover books as Christmas gifts. Get those ads up and running now through January 1st to cash in on the tail end of holiday sales.
Ready to start building your newsletter list? Check out the Free Advice Friday replay video at 29:00 for ways to build and engage with a mailing list.
Wondering how to optimize your categories on Amazon? Amazon allows each title to be placed in up to 10 categories. Go to 47:17 in the replay video for a walk through of how to find the best categories for your book, including information on 3 of our favorite tools for researching categories:
If your book is in the wrong category on Amazon, you can go to the “Contact Us” section of KDP and Author Central and write to Amazon asking for them to remove the incorrect categories.
If you have questions you’d like answered, join us next week, Friday, December 3rd at 10am EST to get your questions answered LIVE or e-mail your questions in advance to info@newshelves.com with “FREE ADVICE FRIDAYS” in the subject line.
