When selecting Amazon keywords for PPC (pay-per-click) book ads, it’s important to consider both the relevance of the keywords to the book and the search volume for those keywords.
Tips for Selecting Effective Keywords #
1. Start by identifying the main themes and subjects of your book. These will likely be the most relevant keywords to use.
2. Use a keyword research tool such as Google Keyword Planner, Publisher Rocket, KDPilot, Amazon’s own keyword research tool or JungleScout to find additional keywords related to your book. These tools can help you identify keywords with a high search volume and suggest new keywords you may not have considered.
3. Use long-tail keywords, which are more specific and longer phrases. These tend to have less competition and may be more effective in targeting specific audiences.
4. Optimize your book’s title and subtitle to include your target keywords and make sure your book’s cover and description are also optimized for these keywords.
Remember that your goal is to reach the right audience, not to get the most clicks. So, choose your keywords carefully and test them to find the best ones.
Ways to Find Keywords #
Before setting up campaigns to advertise your book, it is important to identify relevant targets. These can usually take the form of similar competition (book titles and authors) and genre-specific keywords, which are most effective. There are several places where you can harvest potential targets:
Amazon’s Search Engines #
One way of finding targets is by manually typing into Amazon’s search box and seeing what Amazon suggests. For instance, if you were to type in “online business”, this would come up:
What you would then do is select those that are relevant (we would recommend excluding keywords ‘free’ in the above example).
Competitor Research #
Another good way is to scout out the competition. On Amazon, you can go to the Kindle Bestseller list to find the categories most relevant to your book:
On the left, you can see the categories which you can drill right down into to see the top 100 of your category. For our “online business models” book, we could go to the “Business & Money” category, choose “Entrepreneurship & Small Business” as a sub-category, and then drill down even further and choose “starting a business”.
From there, you can click on each of the books to get on the product page. You can then get keyword ideas from the title, subtitle and product descriptions, as well as the reviews.
You could also use JungleScout to easily see which keywords your competitors are ranking for.
Also Boughts on Amazon #
This is one of the most valuable sections on a product page – it allows you to see which products a customer purchased after buying your book. Not only does it potentially reveal buyer patterns, it can also show you which products are deemed relevant to yours in Amazon’s eyes and help you select relevant keywords.
Author’s Page on Amazon #
Another place to find similar authors you can target is on Amazon’s author page. Under the book cover on the product page, you can see a small section called “Follow the Author”. You can click on the author’s name to be brought to the Author page. Here, you will be able to find author targets under “Customers Also Bought Items By”.
You can also find targets on your own author page and product page if you have some sales history.
