Paid Advertising for Authors: Amazon Ads, Facebook Ads, and BookBub Ads

Paid advertising is the only book marketing tactic that scales. Every other strategy — social media, email, podcast appearances, community building — grows your audience through effort and time. Advertising grows it through budget. When it works, you can increase spend and increase sales proportionally. When it doesn't, you can stop immediately and lose only what you've already spent.

The challenge is that advertising is also the easiest way to spend money without results. Most authors who "tried ads and they didn't work" made one of two mistakes: they advertised before their listing was ready to convert, or they set up campaigns without understanding how to read and improve them.

This guide gives you a working understanding of the three advertising platforms most valuable for authors — Amazon Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) Ads, and BookBub Ads — including how each works, how to start, what to measure, and how to know whether it's working.

Before You Advertise: Prerequisites

Advertising sends traffic to your book listing. If your listing isn't ready to convert that traffic into sales, you're paying for clicks that go nowhere. Before spending a dollar on ads, confirm all of the following:

  • At least 10–15 Amazon reviews with an average rating of 4.0 or higher. Below this threshold, many readers who click will hesitate and leave without buying. You're paying for their visit and getting nothing in return
  • A strong book cover. Your cover is the first thing a potential reader sees in an ad. A cover that looks self-published or dated will underperform regardless of how well the ad itself is targeted
  • An optimized book description. The click is the beginning, not the sale. Your description needs to close the deal. Review the Amazon listing optimization guide before advertising
  • A competitive price. Know what comparable books in your category sell for. Being significantly higher-priced than your competition is a conversion killer, especially for new-to-you readers coming in cold through an ad
  • A complete Amazon Author Central page. Readers who click your author name should find a complete, professional profile

If any of these aren't in place, fix them before starting ads. A month spent improving your listing will outperform a month of advertising to a weak one.

Key Terms You'll Encounter

Advertising platforms use specific language that can be confusing at first. Here are the terms you'll see most often:

  • Impression: One instance of your ad being shown to someone. A campaign with 10,000 impressions means your ad was displayed 10,000 times
  • Click: Someone clicked on your ad. Not every impression produces a click
  • CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of impressions that result in a click. Calculated as clicks ÷ impressions. A CTR of 0.3–0.5% is typical for book ads; above 0.5% is strong
  • CPC (Cost Per Click): How much you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Amazon books typically run $0.20–$0.60 per click; Facebook varies more widely
  • Spend: The total amount you've paid to run an ad or campaign
  • Sales: Revenue generated from your advertising (on Amazon, this is tracked directly; on Facebook, it's estimated)
  • ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale): Amazon's primary ad metric. Calculated as spend ÷ sales revenue. An ACoS of 30% means you spent $30 to generate $100 in sales. Lower is better, but what counts as "good" depends on your royalty rate
  • ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): The inverse of ACoS, used more commonly on Facebook. Calculated as sales ÷ spend. A ROAS of 3x means you generated $3 in sales for every $1 spent
  • Break-even ACoS: The ACoS at which your ad spend exactly equals your royalty. If your book earns a 35% royalty on a $14.99 sale ($5.25), and you spend $5.25 to generate that sale, your ACoS is 35% and you've broken even. Below break-even ACoS means profit; above means loss
  • Bid: The maximum amount you're willing to pay per click. Platforms run auctions — your bid competes against other advertisers for placement
  • Budget: The maximum you're willing to spend per day on a campaign
  • Campaign: The top-level container for your advertising. Each campaign has a budget and goal
  • Ad Group: A subset within a campaign, used to organize different targeting approaches
  • Targeting: Who or what your ad is shown against — keywords, comparable books, specific audiences

Amazon Ads

Amazon Ads (also called AMS — Amazon Marketing Services) are the highest-priority advertising platform for most authors. They show your book to readers who are already on Amazon, already searching for books, and already in buying mode. The intent level of an Amazon shopper is far higher than someone scrolling Facebook.

Types of Amazon Ads Available to Authors

  • Sponsored Products: Your book appears in search results and on product detail pages. This is the primary ad type for authors and where you should start. When a reader searches "LDS historical fiction" and your ad is running on that keyword, your book appears in their results with a small "Sponsored" label
  • Sponsored Brands: A banner ad showing your author logo and multiple books. Useful once you have a catalog of three or more titles. Not the starting point for most authors
  • Lockscreen Ads (Kindle): Ads shown on Kindle device lock screens, targeted by genre. These reach Kindle readers directly on their device — a high-intent audience. Worth testing once you have basic Sponsored Products campaigns running

Setting Up Your First Amazon Sponsored Products Campaign

Amazon Ads are managed through the KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) dashboard or through the Amazon Advertising console. As a Cedar Fort author, you may not have direct KDP access — check with your publisher about whether you can run ads through their account, or whether you need to set up your own Amazon Advertising account linked to your Author Central.

When building your first campaign:

  1. Choose "Sponsored Products" as your campaign type
  2. Set a daily budget of $5–$10 to start. This gives you enough data without significant risk while you learn
  3. Choose "Manual targeting" rather than automatic. Automatic targeting is easier to set up but gives you less control and less data. Manual targeting requires more setup but teaches you what's actually working
  4. Choose your targeting type: keyword targeting or product targeting (see below)
  5. Set your bids conservatively to start — $0.30–$0.50 per click for most book categories. You can raise bids on keywords that convert and lower or remove those that don't

Keyword Targeting

Keyword targeting shows your ad when readers search for specific terms. This is the most direct way to reach readers actively looking for your type of book.

Amazon offers three keyword match types:

  • Broad match: Your ad shows for searches containing your keyword in any order, plus related terms. Widest reach, least precise
  • Phrase match: Your ad shows for searches containing your keyword phrase in order, with other words before or after. Middle ground between reach and precision
  • Exact match: Your ad shows only when someone searches your exact keyword phrase. Most precise, smallest reach, typically highest conversion rate

Start with phrase and exact match. Broad match can drain budget quickly on irrelevant searches.

For your initial keyword list, use:

  • Your genre terms ("LDS historical fiction," "inspirational women's fiction," "Christian self-help")
  • Comparable book titles (the titles themselves, not the authors' names — Amazon allows title keywords)
  • Theme and topic keywords ("pioneer women books," "faith based marriage book," "latter-day saint fiction")
  • The keyword research you did for your listing optimization — those same phrases work for ads

Product Targeting

Product targeting shows your ad on the detail pages of specific books — appearing in the "Customers Also Bought" or "Sponsored Products" section when a reader is looking at a comparable title. This is powerful because you're reaching readers at the exact moment they've demonstrated interest in your type of book.

Target the three to ten books most comparable to yours, plus books by authors in your genre with strong sales ranks. If a reader is looking at a book like yours and sees your ad, the conversion rate is high.

Reading Your Amazon Ad Results

Give a new campaign at least two weeks and $30–$50 in spend before drawing conclusions. Amazon's data reporting has a 48–72 hour delay, and patterns only become visible over time.

What to look for:

  • Keywords or products with clicks but no sales: These are costing you money without return. Lower their bids or pause them
  • Keywords with sales and low ACoS: These are working. Increase their bids slightly to get more placement
  • Keywords with zero impressions: Your bid is likely too low for these to compete. Raise the bid or remove them
  • Your overall ACoS vs. your break-even ACoS: If you're above break-even, the campaign is losing money. If you're below, it's profitable. If it's close to break-even, consider whether the secondary benefits (also-bought associations, review accumulation, visibility) justify the spend

The Amazon Ads Flywheel

One underappreciated benefit of Amazon advertising is its effect on organic ranking. Sales generated by ads count toward your book's overall sales history, which improves its organic rank in search results. Ads that appear to break even on their face may actually be profitable when you account for the organic lift they produce. This is why many authors run Amazon ads at a slight loss during launch, then reduce spend as organic ranking improves.

Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram)

Meta Ads operate very differently from Amazon Ads. Instead of reaching readers who are actively searching for a book, you're interrupting people who are scrolling their feed and showing them something they weren't looking for. This requires a different approach — your ad needs to stop the scroll and create desire from scratch, rather than simply appearing in front of someone who's already looking.

Meta Ads are more complex to set up and manage than Amazon Ads, and their results are harder to measure directly (Facebook's attribution has become less accurate since iOS privacy changes in 2021). However, they reach a much larger audience and can be targeted by interest, behavior, life stage, and demographic in ways Amazon cannot match.

For Cedar Fort authors, Facebook's targeting is particularly valuable: you can reach readers who follow specific faith-based pages, who have expressed interest in LDS or Christian content, who are in specific age and life-stage brackets, or who have bought books in adjacent categories. This specificity is not available on Amazon.

How Meta Ad Targeting Works

  • Interest targeting: Target people who have liked or engaged with pages related to your topic — specific authors, book retailers, religious organizations, hobby communities. For faith-based authors, interests like "Deseret Book," "LDS Living," specific comparable authors, or "Christian fiction" are all targetable
  • Lookalike audiences: Upload your email list to Meta, and it will find other users who share similar characteristics. This is one of the highest-performing targeting options available once your email list reaches 500+ contacts
  • Retargeting: Show ads specifically to people who have already visited your website or your book's page. These "warm" audiences convert at much higher rates than cold traffic
  • Demographic targeting: Age, gender, location, language. Useful for narrowing a broad interest audience to the specific demographic your book is written for

Ad Types on Meta

  • Single image ads: One image with a caption and call to action. The most common format and a good starting point. Your book cover is rarely enough on its own — a lifestyle image, a quote graphic, or a designed ad image typically performs better
  • Video ads: Short (15–60 second) videos perform well on Facebook and Instagram. A brief author introduction, a book trailer, or a "who this book is for" video can stop scrollers more effectively than a static image. Video ads also tend to be cheaper per impression
  • Carousel ads: Multiple images or panels in a single ad. Useful for showcasing a series, multiple reader testimonials, or the key themes of your book

The Author Ad Funnel on Meta

Meta advertising works best as a multi-stage funnel rather than a single ad pointing cold traffic directly to Amazon.

  • Top of funnel (cold audiences): Introduce yourself and your book to people who have never heard of you. The goal here is awareness and interest, not immediate sales. A video of you talking about your book, a compelling quote from the book, or a "who this is for" post works well here. Send this traffic to your website or your email signup page rather than directly to Amazon
  • Middle of funnel (warm audiences): People who have engaged with your top-of-funnel content, visited your website, or are on your email list. They know who you are. Now show them something more direct — social proof (reviews, reader quotes), a book trailer, a time-sensitive offer. A direct Amazon link is appropriate here
  • Bottom of funnel (retargeting): People who have visited your Amazon listing or website but didn't buy. A retargeting ad showing your book again, possibly with a review quote or a different angle, can recover sales from readers who were close but didn't convert

Running all three levels simultaneously, with different ad creative for each, is what a mature Meta advertising strategy looks like. Start with the middle of funnel (warm audiences — your lookalike list) if you're new to Meta ads. It's lower risk and faster to see results than cold audience targeting.

Budget and Expectations for Meta Ads

Meta Ads require more budget than Amazon Ads to generate meaningful data because the audience is broader and less purchase-ready. A starting budget of $10–$20 per day for at least two to four weeks is necessary to learn what's working. Expect a learning period of two to four weeks before campaigns stabilize and deliver consistent results.

Meta ads are most effective for authors who:

  • Have a back catalog of two or more books (more titles to convert readers into)
  • Have a strong email list to use as a lookalike audience source
  • Are comfortable with more complex campaign management or willing to learn it
  • Are advertising a book that isn't easily findable on Amazon through keyword search (niche topics, unusual genre combinations)

If you're advertising your first book and have a modest budget, start with Amazon Ads. Add Meta Ads when you have more titles, more reviews, and more data to work with.

BookBub Ads

BookBub's self-serve ad platform (separate from Featured Deals, which are covered in the Goodreads and BookBub guide) lets you run image ads displayed in BookBub's daily deal emails and on the BookBub website. The audience is highly book-specific — these are readers who signed up explicitly to receive book recommendations — which makes it a more targeted audience than Facebook's general social media users.

How BookBub Ads Work

  • You create an image ad (typically 300x250 pixels) and set targeting by genre and comparable author
  • You bid on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis — you pay for impressions, not clicks
  • Ads appear in the daily deal email and on the BookBub website for members who match your targeting
  • BookBub's audience is opt-in and email-based, which means higher engagement than social media display ads

What Works on BookBub Ads

  • Discounted books convert better than full-price books. BookBub's audience is trained to expect deals. Full-price ads can work but require stronger creative and more testing
  • Author targeting is the most effective targeting option. Target readers of specific authors comparable to you — people who follow those authors on BookBub have demonstrated their genre preferences with precision
  • Your ad image matters enormously. Your cover alone is rarely enough. A well-designed ad image that includes a compelling headline or reader quote consistently outperforms cover-only images. If you're not comfortable designing your own, services like Canva offer templates, or you can hire a BookBub ad designer for $30–$75
  • Test multiple images before scaling. Run three to five different ad images with identical targeting at a small budget ($5–$10 each) and see which CTR performs best. Then scale the winner

BookBub Ads vs. BookBub Featured Deals

These are easy to confuse but completely different products. A Featured Deal is a curated editorial email placement — BookBub's team selects which books appear, and the reach is enormous but the barrier to entry is high. BookBub Ads are self-serve, available to any author with a budget, and shown alongside (not as) BookBub's editorial content. Start with ads if you can't yet qualify for a Featured Deal.

Which Platform to Start With

For most Cedar Fort authors advertising for the first time:

  1. Start with Amazon Ads — specifically Sponsored Products with manual keyword and product targeting. The intent-based audience, direct attribution, and lower complexity make it the right first platform for almost every author
  2. Add BookBub Ads once you've tested a few Amazon campaigns and are comfortable with basic ad concepts. BookBub's audience quality is high and the platform is less complex than Meta
  3. Add Meta Ads once you have at least two books, a solid email list (500+ subscribers to use as a lookalike source), and the budget and time to manage a more complex platform

Budget Planning

Advertising budgets for authors are highly variable, but here are realistic starting points:

  • Amazon Ads: $5–$10 per day per campaign. A starting monthly budget of $150–$300 gives you enough data to make meaningful decisions. Many authors profitably maintain $300–$600 per month once campaigns are optimized
  • BookBub Ads: $5–$15 per day to test. Budget $100–$200 for initial testing across multiple ad images
  • Meta Ads: $10–$20 per day minimum to generate data. Budget at least $400–$600 for a proper initial test period

Treat your initial advertising budget as a learning investment, not a sales guarantee. The data you gather in the first month — which keywords convert, which audiences respond, which creative performs — is worth as much as the sales it generates. Many authors who "didn't see results" from ads in month one saw strong results in months two and three once they'd used that data to improve their campaigns.

Tracking and Iteration

Advertising without tracking is guessing. Set up a simple tracking routine from the start:

  • Weekly review: Check spend, clicks, and sales for each campaign. Pause keywords or ad sets with clicks but no sales. Increase bids on what's working
  • Monthly review: Look at overall ACoS or ROAS across all campaigns. Is advertising profitable overall? Which campaigns are pulling their weight and which aren't? Make structural changes (new campaigns, new targeting, new creative) based on the month's data
  • A/B testing: Change one variable at a time — one new keyword set, one new ad image, one new audience — and run the test for at least two weeks before concluding anything. Changing multiple things simultaneously makes it impossible to know what caused a change in results

When to Pause or Stop Ads

Advertising that isn't working should be paused, not waited out. Signs it's time to stop or restructure:

  • ACoS consistently above 100% (you're spending more than you're making in royalties) with no improving trend after four to six weeks
  • Clicks with zero sales across a campaign after $50+ in spend
  • CTR below 0.1% (your ad isn't compelling people to click — a creative or targeting problem, not a budget problem)
  • Your review count or rating has dropped — advertising into a listing that's lost credibility will worsen the problem

Pausing isn't failing — it's data. A paused campaign tells you something didn't work, which is information you can use to build something that does.

Common Mistakes

  • Advertising before the listing is ready. The most common and most expensive mistake. Fix reviews, cover, and description first
  • Setting budgets too low to generate data. A $1/day Amazon campaign produces almost no impressions and tells you nothing. You need meaningful data to make decisions
  • Judging campaigns too quickly. Two days of data is not enough to evaluate a campaign. Give new campaigns at least two weeks before drawing conclusions
  • Never touching campaigns after setup. "Set it and forget it" advertising bleeds budget on underperforming keywords indefinitely. Weekly reviews are not optional
  • Using automatic targeting on Amazon without reviewing the search term report. Automatic campaigns can spend heavily on irrelevant search terms. If you use automatic targeting, check the search term report weekly and add irrelevant terms as negative keywords
  • Targeting too broadly on Meta. An audience of 50 million people on Facebook is too large to optimize efficiently. Narrow your audience by layering interests (LDS + book buyers + specific age range) until you have a more targeted group
  • Expecting ads to rescue a book with problems. Advertising amplifies what's already there — good listings sell more, weak listings waste budget faster

Checklist

  • ☐ Prerequisites confirmed: 10+ reviews, strong cover, optimized description
  • ☐ Break-even ACoS calculated for your book (royalty ÷ retail price)
  • ☐ Amazon Advertising account set up (confirm access with Cedar Fort)
  • ☐ First Sponsored Products campaign created with manual targeting
  • ☐ Keyword list built (genre terms, comparable titles, topic keywords)
  • ☐ Product targeting list built (comparable book ASINs)
  • ☐ Starting daily budget set ($5–$10)
  • ☐ Weekly campaign review scheduled (same day each week)
  • ☐ BookBub author targeting list built (comparable authors on BookBub)
  • ☐ First BookBub ad image designed (cover + headline + review quote)
  • ☐ Email list uploaded to Meta as custom audience (500+ contacts)
  • ☐ Meta lookalike audience created from email list
  • ☐ First Meta campaign built targeting warm audience
  • ☐ Ad creative tested (minimum 3 variations before scaling)
  • ☐ Monthly advertising budget set and tracked
  • ☐ Monthly review of overall ad profitability scheduled

Next step: Advertising reaches readers who don't know you yet. Media coverage, podcast appearances, and press outreach reach them in a context of credibility — someone they already trust is telling them about your book.

Media, PR & Podcast Outreach →

← Back to the Author Marketing Guide

P.S. to those who have stumbled across this article and haven't yet found a publisher, we invite you to learn more about our team. You can also submit your book or find out about our self-publishing service.