PPC stands for pay-per-click. On Amazon it means ads that cost you nothing to show and charge you only when a shopper clicks. For authors, it is the main way to put a book in front of readers searching Amazon, and the easiest way to lose money if you don’t know your numbers.
What PPC means on Amazon
You choose where your ad can appear — on certain searches, or on certain books’ pages — and the most you will pay for a click. When a shopper searches, Amazon runs an auction among the ads that qualify and decides which to show. You pay only if someone clicks. If they then buy within 14 days, the sale is credited to your ad.
The ad types authors can use
| Ad type | What it looks like | For authors |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | Your book, shown in search results and on other products’ pages | Where most book ad money goes |
| Sponsored Brands | A headline banner featuring several of your books | Useful once you have a series or several titles |
Authors advertising through KDP get these two. The rest of this guide is about Sponsored Products.
How you choose where it shows
Automatic targeting lets Amazon decide, in four groups: close match (searches closely related to your book), loose match (searches loosely related), substitutes (pages of similar products) and complements (pages of products that go with yours). You can bid on each group separately.
Manual targeting lets you choose: keywords, in broad, phrase or exact match, or specific products and categories. Negative keywords, phrase or exact, stop your ad showing on searches you don’t want. How the match types performed.
Bids and bidding strategies
Your bid is the most you are willing to pay for a click. On top of it, three bidding strategies decide whether Amazon may change it:
| Strategy | What Amazon does |
|---|---|
| Fixed bids | Uses your bid as it is for every opportunity |
| Dynamic: down only | Lowers your bid when a click seems less likely to become a sale |
| Dynamic: up and down | Also raises it, by up to 100%, when a sale seems more likely |
You can also raise bids by placement — top of search, rest of search, product pages — by up to 900%. The bid that breaks even for a book is its royalty per sale × conversion rate. Free toolAmazon PPC bid calculatorA starting bid from your price, royalty and conversion rate.
What it costs
The minimum daily budget is $1; Amazon suggests starting at $10. On a real KDP catalogue of 254,473 clicks, the average click cost $1.04 and 12.8% of clicks became orders — roughly $8 of ads per order. Whether that is profitable depends on the royalty.
ACOS = ad spend ÷ ad sales
Compare it with your break-even ACOS: royalty ÷ price. Under it, the ads are paying for themselves.
Why an ad gets no impressions or spend
- It is still in review. Book ads are usually reviewed within 24 hours, sometimes up to three business days.
- The book can’t be bought. A book must be available for sale or pre-order in the marketplace you advertise in, and the ad shows only if your listing wins the Featured Offer.
- The keywords don’t fit the book. Amazon matches ads to what is on the product page; a keyword unrelated to your book may never show.
- The budget ran out. A small daily budget can be used up early in the day.
- Few people search it. In our data, most keywords that were never clicked were already bidding more than the search had paid when it converted. A higher bid doesn’t create searches.
- The bid may be too low to win on competitive searches. Raise it in steps, but stay under break-even.
Where to start
- Work out your break-even ACOS and bid.
- Run one automatic campaign and one manual campaign of 20–30 keywords, per book.
- Give each keyword 10–15 clicks before you judge it. When to pause.
- Promote searches that sell; negate the ones that don’t. The search term report.
Common questions
What is Amazon PPC?
Pay-per-click advertising on Amazon: your ad shows in search results or on product pages, and you pay only when someone clicks. For authors, it mostly means Sponsored Products ads for a book.
What does PPC mean on Amazon?
Pay-per-click. You set the most you will pay for a click, Amazon runs an auction for each ad opportunity, and you are charged only for clicks, not for views.
How much does Amazon PPC cost for a book?
The minimum daily budget is $1, and you pay per click. Across one KDP catalogue of 254,473 clicks, a click averaged $1.04 and about one in eight clicks became an order.
What ad types can authors use on Amazon?
Authors advertising through KDP can use Sponsored Products, which show a single book, and Sponsored Brands, a banner with several of your books.
Why is my Amazon ad not getting impressions?
Common reasons: the ad is still in review, the book isn’t available or isn’t the Featured Offer, the keywords don’t match the book, the budget ran out, or few people search those words.
- Amazon PPC charges per click, not per view; sales within 14 days of a click are credited to the ad.
- Authors get Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands.
- Automatic targeting has four groups; manual targeting uses keywords or products.
- Bidding strategies: fixed, down only, or up and down (up to 100%); placements up to 900%.
- The test of profit is ACOS against your break-even ACOS: royalty ÷ price.