Want to sell more books on KDP?

The free 5-day Author Ad Profit Challenge is what you’re looking for.

Last year a random sponsored post popped up in my feed for a 5-day Author Ad Profit Challenge. 

Although I had only done a few low and medium-content books at the time, I thought I’d sign up and check it out because I’m partway through writing a few short stories at the moment, and having that knowledge before I press publish would probably be useful.

However, I was pleasantly surprised when throughout their presentations they talked about low-content books as well and gave the different settings they recommended between a fiction or non-fiction book to a low-content book.

Because of this, I was able to participate instead of just sitting back and taking in the information, and I’m sure glad I did. I learnt a huge amount.

I had previously tried using Amazon ads for my books a year or so before. And while I wouldn’t call it a failure (I didn’t lose money), I definitely didn’t do well. I really had no idea what I was doing.

During the first 5-day challenge I did, they went through the basics. For a complete beginner, setting up and logging in to your Amazon Ads dashboard, to what type of ad to make, how much to bid, and how long to set it for.

They also talk a bit about what to look for over time for the people returning to the challenge. If your ads aren’t converting so well (which they also look into as the Amazon reporting tool isn’t the best when it comes to showing how affect your ads actually are), they talk through different options that might help your book sales.

One thing I noticed doing it the second time, I assumed the lessons were going to be the same pre-recorded videos as I had experienced the first time through. But while some of the information is the same, so any new people know how to set up their accounts and create an ad, they had also recorded new videos to cover some things they hadn’t previously. 

During the week you also get access to a Facebook group, or Slack group, for the challenge. There are quite a few moderators, all of who are authors themselves and help with any questions you have.

After both times of doing the challenge, I’ve seen a boost in my sales. And although I can’t show thousands of dollars in sales yet, I have done a lot better than when I was trying all by myself.

So what’s the catch? Why are they doing it for free? 

Yes, you’re right, like any free challenge there is a bit of a sales promo at the end.

Basically, they also run an Ad School for authors, and this is kind of an introduction to what they teach over there. 

They don’t really shove it down your throat or make you feel bad about not joining. And a lot of people who join do the challenge multiple times first, so don’t let that put you off if you think it might be useful (for the record I haven’t joined yet either).

I am looking forward to participating again this time around, especially as Amazon has made a few changes within KDP itself, I’m keen to find out if it’s affected the ad side of things at all. 

Knowing they update their recordings to the latest information every time they run the challenge really makes it worth going along each time it runs.

If you feel you might find this useful for your books, head over to this page and sign up. The next one starts on July 19.