Chasing the Algorithm: My Ongoing Amazon Ads Experiment
Spoiler Alert: This post does not contain the magic answers to unlocking success with Amazon Ads. It’s merely a reflection of my journey trying to navigate this confusing aspect of being an author.
If you’ve ever dipped a toe into Amazon ads, you know the feeling. You click “Create Campaign” with optimism. You imagine new readers discovering your books. You envision steady sales rolling in while you peacefully draft your next chapter.
And then… You open the dashboard.
Clicks. Impressions. ACOS. CPC. So many acronyms. So many numbers.
And suddenly you’re staring at charts instead of writing your book.
When I first started experimenting with Amazon ads, I leaned heavily into auto-targeted campaigns. It felt safe. Let Amazon’s algorithm do the heavy lifting, right? It scans, it matches, it magically places your book in front of the perfect readers.
In theory.
Auto ads were appealing because they felt passive. Set a budget, write a blurb, upload the cover, and let it run. That’s the dream. I wanted something that worked quietly in the background while I focused on what I actually love doing: writing mysteries, building new worlds, and developing projects like A Bookish Moment and BookstaBundles.
But auto ads, while useful for data gathering, aren’t exactly “set it and forget it.” They wander. They test strange territories. They sometimes show your cozy mystery to readers clearly searching for something… not cozy.
I quickly realized that if I wanted more control, I needed to understand what was happening behind the scenes.
Enter: Manual Targeting
Manual targeting felt intimidating at first. Keywords? Comparable authors? Negative keywords? Match types? It felt less like marketing and more like studying for an exam I didn’t remember signing up for.
But the more I learned, the more I realized that manual ads give you clarity. You’re choosing the phrases. You’re deciding which authors your books align with. You’re telling Amazon, “No, not that audience. This one,” and there’s power in that.
For example, targeting specific cozy mystery keywords allows me to hone in on readers who already love small towns, amateur sleuths, and clever twists. Adding negative keywords helps prevent my ads from drifting into unrelated genres. It’s more work up front, yes, but it’s intentional. And intentional feels better than guessing.
Still, it’s far from passive.
The Passive Marketing Dream
Here’s the honest truth: I want marketing that supports my writing, not replaces it. I don’t want to spend hours every day refreshing ad dashboards or obsessing over whether a campaign dipped by 0.2 percent. I want systems that run steadily while I’m outlining a new book or editing the next installment in one of my series. The goal isn’t to eliminate effort. It’s to create sustainability.
I’ve started thinking of ads less like a quick win and more like a long game. Data gathering. Refining. Testing. Adjusting bids. Letting campaigns run long enough to tell me something meaningful before I panic and change everything.
That patience is hard. We live in a world of instant results. But ads don’t always reward urgency. Sometimes they reward consistency.
What I’m Learning
Auto ads are great for research.
Manual ads are better for strategy.
Negative keywords are your quiet heroes.
Not every campaign needs to be perfect to be useful.
Emotional decision-making and ad dashboards do not mix.
Perhaps the biggest lesson? Marketing is iterative. The approach I used two years ago isn’t the approach I’m using now. And the approach I’m using today may evolve again in six months.
That doesn’t mean I’m failing. It means I’m refining. And honestly, that mirrors writing. We draft. We revise. We test. We improve. Amazon ads are just another creative experiment, one with more spreadsheets.
Where I’m Landing (For Now)
Right now, I’m leaning into a hybrid approach. Auto campaigns for discovery. Manual campaigns for precision. Careful budgets. Strategic keyword lists. Regular, but not obsessive, check-ins. Will this become the passive marketing engine of my dreams?
We’ll see.
That’s part of the journey. There isn’t one magic formula. There’s only testing, learning, and adjusting as you grow. In the meantime, I’ll keep chasing balance. Less dashboard staring. More drafting. More storytelling. More building worlds that readers want to escape into.
Because at the end of the day, ads might bring readers in the door, but the writing is what makes them stay.
