Advertising books on Amazon: A guide for authors

You don’t have to be a marketing expert to excel at advertising your books on Amazon. This guide will teach you how to build your presence as an author on Amazon, launch your first Amazon Ads campaign, and create a comprehensive advertising strategy to help you drive book sales and reach new readers.

1. Keep these guidelines in mind as you prepare to create your ad:
2. Books you advertise must be available in the country where you're advertising.
3. Books must be claimed in Author Central.
4. Ads must meet the creative requirements in the Amazon Ads guidelines and acceptance policies.
5. Titles must meet the ad policy for books.

1. Sign in to KDP.
2. Select the book you want to advertise from your KDP bookshelf.
3. Click “promote and advertise.”
4. Under “Launch a Sponsored Products campaign,” choose a marketplace and click “Go to Campaign Builder.”

1. Sign in to Author Central (you can use your KDP credentials if you have them).
2. Add your books to your Author Central account. Click the “Books” tab and then click “Add it now.” In the “Search” field, enter the book title, ISBN, ASIN, or author name. Find your book and click the book cover, then click “Add this book.”
3. Click the “Reports and marketing tab.” In the Amazon Ads tile, select the country you want to advertise in from the drop-down menu. Then click “Go to ads console.”

Here are a couple of steps to get you started with your author page:

1. Add your books to your author page to help readers discover their next read.
2. Upload an author photo and biography to help readers get to know you.

Sponsored Products may help authors put their books in front of readers who are searching for similar books and genres so that they can discover something new. These ads appear in relevant shopping results and on product pages on Amazon, Kindle, and Goodreads. When customers click on the ad, they go to the product page of the book featured. When authors create a Sponsored Products ad, they advertise to the most relevant audiences by choosing specific shoppers based on similar searches. There's no up-front charge for a Sponsored Products ad. Rather, the author sets their budget and only pays when a shopper clicks on the ad. Learn more in our Sponsored Products guide.

Sponsored Brands ads are for authors who have three or more unique eligible titles under the same author's name and want to highlight a collection of books or tell their author story in their own way. These ads may help readers discover new authors and books and can include video ads. Sponsored Brands appear below the top of shopping results, within shopping results, and on product detail pages on desktop and mobile devices. Like Sponsored Products, authors can advertise to the most relevant audiences and set their own budgets. Amazon Ads uses a cost-per-click model, meaning authors only pay when a shopper clicks on their ad. Learn more in our Sponsored Brands guide.

• Familiarize yourself with Amazon Ads guidelines for book advertisers. Amazon Ads has specific requirements. Read the guidelines here.
• Start early. Amazon has an ad moderation process, meaning every ad goes through a review and approval process, which typically takes 24 hours but could take up to three business days. For a better chance of approval, check out these tips.
• Understand your reader. As you think about advertising, put yourself in the mind of your reader. How would they shop for a book? What categories and keywords might they respond to? Compile a list. This may help you when you start choosing your ad.
• Plan for events and seasons. If you expect your book sales to increase around a particular date, we recommend ramping up your advertising campaigns early and running them for at least four to six weeks.
• Monitor and optimize your ad performance. Reports are available for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands that share insights around how your ad is performing so you can make changes accordingly. Consider optimizing your campaigns to help you reach more readers and help drive book sales.