C. M. Skiera's Blog

Wishing everyone a peaceful and joyous holiday season! I hope 2020 ushers in a wonderful year for us all. I look forward to sharing during the upcoming year, including more humorous tales about interacting with Amazon. And if you're looking for a last-minute gift, or a magical adventure to distract you from the cold, all my e-books are on sale for 99 cents from now until Christmas Eve. And remember--there's no better gift for an author than leaving a book review on Amazon or Goodreads--even milk & cookies!

As promised, here's the conclusion to my Amazon Ads overcharging dilemma . As usual, the Corporate Behemoth crushed the little indie, as they have sapped me of any motivation to dig deeper, and I'm throwing up my hands in disgust. Just for laughs, here are the e-mails where Amazon tries to explain how their dynamic bidding works. If you can make any sense of their math, I would love to hear it. As it is, I'm done with dynamic bidding. If I'm going to gamble, I'll stick to something simpler, like Exacta Box Bets at the horse track. Me (11/22/2019):  "I am running an Amazon Ad campaign where I have the maximum bid set at $0.57 and the dynamic bid up set at 14%, which should make my maximum bid $0.57 x 1.14 = $0.65. However, on 11/21/2019, I recorded 5 clicks at an average of $0.85 per click. How is this possible?" Amazon (11/23/2019):   "Please give us some time, I'll get back to you with an update by the end of November 26 , 2019." Ama...

Happy (US) Thanksgiving! This post serves as both a question and warning. I've noticed something odd with my Amazon Ads and--so far--Amazon has not offered an explanation. Maybe you can? I use  Amazon Advertising  to run paid ads for my ebooks ( I ran a post earlier this year if you're interested in how the process works ). The problem I'm having is that Amazon appears to be overcharging me for ads. Now, I'll admit, being only an engineer, my math skills may be sub-par, but indulge my logic, if you will. For each ad you run, Amazon lets you select a default bid (below I have $0.52 set) and allows you to adjust your bid dynamically (I selected a 14% maximum increase). This means that under certain conditions Amazon deems favorable, my $0.52 bid could go as high as $0.59 ($0.52 x 1.14 = $0.59). However, Amazon also lets you set prices for each individual key word (i.e., search term). As you can see below, my highest individual bid is set at $0.57, which would mak...

You're likely familiar with BookBub and their service that alerts millions of readers to free and discounted ebooks. BookBub is arguably the most popular and effective service of its kind, and they are very discerning about which ebooks are selected to be featured on their daily e-mails. Getting a spot on BookBub can feel like chasing the Holy Grail to indie writers. But did you know you can also advertise on BookBub, similar to how you advertise on Amazon and Facebook? I've included images of a few of the BookBub ads I've run so far. Here's a quick primer on BookBub Partners and BookBub ebook ads: Who? BookBub Partners Advertising and you What? Customized, paid ads for your ebooks and discount promotions Where? Ads appear at the bottom of BookBub's daily e-mails. Placement is not guaranteed--you set your auction bid prices similar to how Amazon and Facebook ads work. When?  Schedule your ads to run whenever you want--you choose the start and end d...