When you’ve got a published series, your Amazon campaigns present you with two main advertising options:
Advertise only book one in the series
Advertise all the books in your series
But which one should you choose? Let’s break it down with examples, pros, and cons for both approaches.
Advertising just book one in a series
When you advertise just the first book in a series, Amazon records sales and reads for only that book in your Amazon Ads dashboard. This will make it easier to estimate the expected revenue earned from each sale.
In the campaign shown below, we are only advertising ebook one in a series. We can see how, if we divide sales between orders, we get $2.99—the price of book one. This proves that only sales associated to the advertised book are being collected:
Based on how information is collected when advertising all books in a series, you should aim to break even on your expected revenue after read-through.
Pros and cons of advertising book one
Pros:
Simpler setup. You only need to add one book to be advertised in your campaigns.
Logical entry point. All ad traffic flows directly to the first book, the natural start of the series.
Clear revenue estimation. Every sale and/or pages read is only associated to book one, making it easier to estimate lifetime series revenue.
Competitive bidding potential. By focusing on read-through revenue, you can afford higher bids, especially if your series is long and has strong read-through. This can help you dominate impressions for book one.
Cons:
Incomplete data. Sales or reads from the rest of the series won’t appear on your dashboard, so you are optimizing based on estimates of future revenue.
Variable read-through. Read-through rates can fluctuate across marketing channels and through time, so there is a risk of overspending without knowing if the expected results will materialize. Always monitor your sales, profit, and read-through to ensure your ad spend isn't eroding your returns.
Scaling challenges. It can be harder to scale campaigns up, since having only book 1 in the campaigns will mean less sales/reads data associated with your ads.
Advertising all books in a series
When you advertise all the books in your series, Amazon records cross-sales and reads between the advertised books. If a reader clicks on an ad for book one and purchases book five, that sale gets recorded and associated to book one. Even if you pause all ads but for book one.
For example, take the campaign below, where multiple books in a series are advertised:
Here, book four ($4.99) is generating most of the conversions. However, dividing total sales by orders gives us $4.39, indicating some sales came from book one ($3.99). Why? Likely because book four’s cover caught attention, leading readers to start with book one and read through the series. If you analyze further, you'll see that Book one is actually getting the worst conversion, even though it's the one that is getting the most clicks and impressions.
Because of how information is collected when advertising all books in a series, you should aim to break even with your immediate revenue as seen on the dashboard.
Pros and cons of advertising all books
Pros:
More accurate short-term revenue tracking. Cross-sales and reads (within 14 days from the click that got the first purchase) are reflected in the dashboard, giving you a better sense of short-term ad performance.
Broader reach. More books in the campaign mean occupying more advertising real estate, increasing conversion potential for the series.
Re-targeting readers. Show ads for later books in the series to readers who haven’t finished it.
Faster scaling. Campaigns with more sales and read data will improve the conversion rate (orders or reads divided by clicks). The more conversions, the more likely Amazon is to deliver your ads.
Actionable insights. Over time, you can identify covers or titles with higher click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates, and apply those insights to future releases.
Cons:
Limited read-through visibility. For longer series, not all read-through occurs within 14 days, meaning there will be sales and reads coming from the ads that won’t appear in the dashboard.
Lower bids. Since you’re optimizing for immediate revenue, bids may be less competitive than when using the expected revenue approach.
Entry point confusion. Ads may show any book in the series, requiring new readers to navigate back to book one.
💡 Pro Tip: To direct all ad traffic to book one while tracking sales/reads for the whole series, pause all books in the campaign except book one.
Extra maintenance. Ongoing series require you to add new books to the campaigns as they’re published.
What methodology should you use?
The choice depends on your series:
For longer series where most likely there will be sales or reads not showing up on the dashboard (+5 books), advertise book one and optimize for expected revenue.
For shorter series, where readers are more likely to finish quickly, advertise all books and optimize for immediate revenue.
Additionally, for those of you that are in the higher ranks of Amazon's store (above 80,000), it may be good to add all books to the campaigns to try and get the campaigns to spend faster.
Factors for Success
No matter your strategy, these are the pillars of an effective campaign:
Strong read-through. At least 50% of readers should continue to book two, with minimal drop-off across the series.
Series length. Longer series allow for higher bids, while shorter ones require patience and gradual campaign growth.
Effective product pages. Make sure cover, blurb, title and pricing are aligned to the market. And as you know, nothing sells a book better than a good amount of great reviews.
Got questions or comments? Drop them in the comment section below or reach out at sara@booksflyer.com.
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