With the publication of Delay of Game, I’ve been looking at different ways to get the book in front of people. This includes Amazon Ads.
I started with a low dollar amount of $3/day. The ad platform then places my book in various places that it thinks might work to sell it. I don’t pay for those placements, called “impressions.”
I only pay if someone clicks on the ad. The cost for those clicks varies, I set a maximum price of $1.06. The placement of the ad uses that price to “bid” against other possible ads that could go in the same spot, and it picks based on who’d pay the most if someone clicked on that ad. I’m often not paying maximum price for the click, though I can.
In theory, once someone clicks, you can track whether they buy the book or read it through Kindle Unlimited and compare that to your ad spend.
In practice, Delay of Game is struggling.
I only have one review so far, which doesn’t inspire confidence in an unknown author. It’s also cross-genre, so someone who clicks from a mystery page might see “half-elf” and bounce. Someone who clicks from an urban fantasy page might see “football” and bounce.
The title and cover lean into the mystery and sports elements. The fantasy side isn’t immediately visible, which may be creating mismatched expectations.
For now, I’m letting the ads run a bit longer to gather more data.
I’m also working to build a community and continuing to write. What I’ve learned through this will be helpful to the next book, and it might also help this one in the long run. Onward and upward!
