Buy. My. Book.
Amazon Ads…
My writing self has walked around those for a year or more. Now it is time to actually get into the game, to become visible, and that’s difficult on two levels.
One level is craft, and I will take you through the steps to set up an ad during this month. And I’ll show you how it works with my books and my genre, so you can make decisions about ads with a bit more material at hand. I’ll also tell you about two great books to make this easier.
The other level is, obviously, emotional.
Buying ads means spending money, in the hopes of making it back through sales.
Sounds simple.
But of course, it’s a risk.
I’m planning to keep the risk low while experimenting and playing with the ads.
Playing with ads.
That’s the mindset I want to achieve while doing this. I want to stay in a playful mode and have fun choosing the keywords and writing the copy and then following advice to choose the other settings. And then you send your ads out into the wild and watch them perform.
How exciting is that?
The steps to take are:
Select the keywords.
Create the ad copy.
Set up the parameters.
Check performance.
Tweak.
Keep checking.
Set up more ads.
It’s all doable.
Even though it sounds like a huge challenge.
But each step is just that, one step.
You can do one step, take a deep breath, rest a little and then take another step. That’s how every journey gets done. Step by little step. And each step isn’t so bad if you look at it individually.
Today is about the mindset, because that’s fundamental.
Check back with yourself: How does it feel to think about setting up an ad?
If that’s stressful, tap a little. Allow yourself to feel that fear and then release it. Setting up ads is part of the indie author’s life. We can get used to that.
How does it feel to write ad copy?
Tap a little and remember, this is what writing groups are for. Write a few sound bites. Get feedback on them and tweak until it flows well and makes people curious. Choose the one with the biggest impact.
Those parameters?
The guide books are very specific about that, so simply follow expert advice. Here are the two books I’m using for this journey:
Brian Meeks, “Mastering Amazon Ads”
This is the fundamental, basic book to understand how Amazon Ads work. It’s full of math and statistics, and you’ll probably have to read it more than once. I’m going through it again…
A. Sharpe, “AMS Ads for the Rest of Us: Simple Solutions for Busy Authors”
Much less math – you can’t really get around all of it, though – and a lot of fun. A good read, and very helpful, especially emotionally.
And yes, tap on this, as well, if you feel any negative emotions coming up.
Of course, you have to check performance and that can be tricky. You’ll need some math for it – that’s where you need Brian Meeks. He has a great chapter on performance. Key take-away: Don’t be in a rush to give up on an ad. (And quite likely, I will write about that, as well, at a later point.)
And then you tweak. You experiment and play.
And yes, that’ll take some deep breathing before I can do that myself, because I learned that playing with money is bad. But doing it scared is how we learn. That’s how we grow. That’s how we become experts.
It’s doable. I’m telling that to myself right now, too.
So here’s some tapping, and believe me, I’m tapping this stuff myself…
Tapping Suggestions
Even though I’m really scared of setting up AMS ads, after all, that’s playing with money, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to do this in a responsible and careful way.
Even though setting up those ads is a difficult and tricky process, simply because I’ve never even done it before, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to test and learn and become an expert in it.
Even though taking this step and moving into working with ads is scary and way beyond just writing stories, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now give myself permission to step into the bigger role of indie author and businessperson.
Asking you:
How do you feel about ads?
Have you set them up?
Did the tapping help?
*Image source: F. Moebius
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PPS: I can help you overcome mindset blocks and emotions like resistance. EFT is the fastest way I know to shift limiting beliefs, old thought habits and other kinds of blocks. Click HERE and send me an email. Together, we’ll figure out how I can support you best.
