Marketing is a task many writers struggle with, including me. However, without it, our books don’t get much notice.
There are plenty of platforms where we can use either paid or free advertising. So far, I’ve only used one paid platform and that’s Amazon Marketing Services (AMS).
One thing I’ve learned about marketing is the importance of keywords and keyword phrases.
What Is a Keyword?
A Google search provided this definition:
an informative word used in an information retrieval system to indicate the content of a document.
When you do a search for information on Google (or any other site), you are entering a keyword or phrase.
Keywords are used in
- search engine optimization (SEO) of web content (e.g. your blog posts),
- social media (hashtags are keywords),
- in books,
- in advertising, and more.
If it can be searched, it can contain keywords.
If you’ve indie published a book on Amazon, you know that you can enter as many as 7 keywords/phrases when you set up your book, kindle or print.
Even if you never use paid ads, having the right keywords linked to your book on Amazon can mean the difference between total obscurity or gaining sales.
How to Find the Best Keywords
There is no getting around it. Time and research are required.
It also means going incognito on your browser as you do your research so your results aren’t skewed by your personal search history. (To find out how to go incognito on your devise, Google “how to go incognito.”)
To learn how to do this research, I recommend author Dave Chesson’s excellent AMS Ads Course, made more excellent because it’s free! (He writes only under various pen names, so you won’t find his name on Amazon.)
Yes, it’s a course about running AMS ads, but it shows you how to do that all-important keyword research. You can skip straight to the unit on research and watch only as much as you need.
As I write this, I am still working my way through the course. I just started 2 ads for Unshakable Faith, my newest release. In the coming days, I’ll watch the videos on Optimizing and Managing AMS Campaigns and then tweak my ads as needed.
However, there are tools available to help the process and cut down on the time you spend doing this research. Face it, we only have 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and most writers prefer to spend them writing.
A tool I started using back in January is Publisher Rocket (previously known as KDP Rocket), also created by Dave Chesson.
Here’s what the dashboard looks like.
It allows you to do keyword searches in a matter of minutes rather than hours. Check it out here.
Here is an example of a search I did for my ads.
It so happens that each of these phrases have less than 100 searches per month. The first 2 items have a competitive score of 100. That means unless I’m Max Lucado, I have no chance of ranking on page 1 with that keyword phrase. The lower the competitive score, the better your chances to rank on page 1 of Amazon results.
It also allows you to check out the actual book competition. With the Competition Analyzer, you’ll see
- The #1 book for a given keyword
- A book’s daily and monthly sales
- A book’s Amazon Best Seller Rank
- How long the book has been on the market
- And a link to the book’s page on Amazon.
Armed with this information, you’ll know exactly how many books you need to sell to be #1 and whether you can compete against the popular authors in your genre.
My business partner and I have been using Rocket to pick both keyword phrases and categories for our CrossRiver books. We noticed immediate results.
Publisher Rocket is a one-time purchase of $97 with lifetime access (it may go on subscription). But Dave offers a 30-day free trial. If you’re ready to publish or start advertising, it would be worth trying.
Whether you choose to buy Publisher Rocket or not, don’t miss out on Dave’s free AMS ads course. You’ll learn a lot about how Amazon works and how you can position your book to sell better.
Other resources from Kindlepreneur
Book description generator tool, helps you create the code needed for your book description on your Amazon sales page.
Social Media for Writers, an excellent guide on how to use various social media platforms.
What tools do you use when it comes to marketing? Leave your comments below.