7 Hidden Amazon Ad Settings That Are Secretly Killing Your Book Sales

Ever wonder why your Amazon book ads aren't performing as well as they should be? You've crafted the perfect ad copy, selected relevant keywords, and set a reasonable budget—yet the results remain disappointing. The culprit might be hiding in plain sight: your campaign settings.

As a self-published author navigating Amazon's advertising platform, overlooking certain settings can silently sabotage your marketing efforts. These seemingly minor configuration options can dramatically impact your visibility, click-through rates, and ultimately, your book sales.

In this guide, we'll uncover the most commonly misunderstood Amazon ad settings that might be undermining your campaigns. More importantly, we'll show you exactly how to optimize them for better performance.

1. The Default Bidding Strategy Trap

One of the most overlooked settings that can significantly impact your campaign performance is your bidding strategy.

What's Going Wrong

By default, Amazon sets new campaigns to "Dynamic bids - down only." This means Amazon will lower your bid when it thinks your ad is less likely to convert to a sale, but it will never increase your bid when an opportunity looks promising.

The Fix

Consider switching to "Dynamic bids - up and down" for most campaigns. This allows Amazon to increase your bid by up to 100% when your ad is more likely to convert, giving you a competitive edge in auctions for high-intent customers.

For example, if a reader has already purchased books in your genre or has viewed similar titles, Amazon can increase your bid to ensure your book appears prominently in their search results—exactly when they're most likely to buy.

However, be cautious with this setting for newer campaigns without established performance data. Start with "Fixed bids" until you gather enough data to understand your campaign's baseline performance.

2. Placement Adjustments: The Visibility Killer

Where your ad appears matters as much as what it says. Placement adjustments control how aggressively you bid for premium positions.

What's Going Wrong

Most authors leave all placement adjustments at the default 0% increase, treating all placements equally. This means you're competing the same way for high-converting top of search positions as you are for less visible product pages.

The Fix

Increase your bid percentage for "Top of search (first page)" placements by 20-50%. These positions typically have higher visibility and conversion rates.

After running your campaign for at least two weeks, check your placement report to see which placements perform best for your specific book. If "Top of search" has a significantly better ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale) than other placements, consider increasing your adjustment further.

For instance, if your base bid is $0.50 and you set a 50% increase for top of search placements, Amazon will bid up to $0.75 when competing for those premium spots—potentially giving you better visibility where it matters most.

3. The Budget Allocation Blunder

Setting your daily budget seems straightforward, but a common misunderstanding can lead to inconsistent exposure.

What's Going Wrong

Authors often set very low daily budgets across multiple campaigns, thinking this spreads their advertising dollars efficiently. In reality, this approach can lead to your ads stopping mid-day when small budgets are depleted, missing out on peak shopping hours.

The Fix

Consolidate your ad spend into fewer, more focused campaigns with higher daily budgets. This ensures consistent visibility throughout the day.

Consider this strategy: instead of running five similar campaigns with $2 daily budgets each, run one or two targeted campaigns with $5-$10 daily budgets. This approach maintains presence during high-traffic periods and gives Amazon's algorithm more consistent data to optimize your performance.

Remember that your daily budget is a maximum, not a requirement. You'll only be charged for actual clicks, so setting a slightly higher budget doesn't mean you'll necessarily spend more—it just means your ads won't shut off prematurely.

4. Targeting Expansion: Friend or Foe?

Amazon offers an option to expand your targeting beyond your selected keywords or products, but this setting is double-edged.

What's Going Wrong

Many authors enable targeting expansion without understanding its implications. This setting allows Amazon to show your ads for search terms beyond your specified keywords, potentially displaying your book to irrelevant audiences.

The Fix

For new campaigns or highly specific genres, disable targeting expansion until you have baseline performance data. This ensures your ads only appear for the exact keywords you've researched and selected.

Once your campaign has run successfully for at least 30 days, you can experiment with enabling targeting expansion at a reduced bid (50-70% of your regular bid). Monitor the search term report closely after making this change to ensure Amazon is finding relevant additional audiences.

For example, if you write thriller novels featuring female protagonists, targeting expansion might help you reach readers who search for "books like Gone Girl" even if you hadn't explicitly targeted that term—potentially discovering valuable new keywords you hadn't considered.

5. The Forgotten Negative Keywords

While most authors focus on which keywords to target, equally important is specifying which terms should NOT trigger your ads.

What's Going Wrong

Neglecting to add negative keywords means your budget is being drained by irrelevant clicks from users who have no interest in your book type. This is especially problematic for auto campaigns and campaigns with targeting expansion enabled.

The Fix

Review your search term report at least weekly to identify underperforming or irrelevant search terms. Add these as negative keywords at the campaign or ad group level.

For instance, if you write adult romance novels but notice your ads are appearing for "young adult romance," adding "young adult" as a negative keyword prevents your ads from appearing in those searches—saving your budget for your actual target audience.

Create a regular maintenance schedule where you review search terms with:

• More than 10 clicks but no sales
• CTR below 0.1%
• ACOS significantly higher than your target

These terms are prime candidates for your negative keyword list.

6. Geographic Targeting Oversights

Amazon allows you to target specific marketplaces, but many authors don't optimize this setting properly.

What's Going Wrong

Running identical campaigns across all Amazon marketplaces without adjustment for regional differences can waste your budget in regions with low conversion rates for your genre or topic.

The Fix

Start by focusing on one or two key marketplaces where your book's subject matter or genre performs best. Typically, this means beginning with Amazon.com (US) for English-language books.

After collecting performance data, expand to additional marketplaces with adjusted bids based on expected performance. For example, if your historical fiction consistently sells well in the UK market, consider creating a separate campaign specifically for Amazon.co.uk with customized bids and keywords reflecting British English terminology.

For non-fiction books tied to specific regulations or practices (like business, legal, or self-help topics), be particularly careful about geographic targeting to ensure relevance to regional audiences.

7. Campaign Start and End Date Limitations

The timing settings for your campaigns seem basic but can cause unexpected performance issues.

What's Going Wrong

Setting arbitrary end dates for campaigns or launching campaigns at suboptimal times can limit performance. Many authors also fail to take advantage of scheduling options for promotional periods.

The Fix

For evergreen book promotion, leave your end date open-ended and instead use regular performance reviews to determine when to pause or adjust campaigns.

For new book launches, start your campaigns 1-2 weeks before your launch date with a "low bid, high budget" strategy to gather initial data and build campaign maturity before your actual release date.

For seasonal books, schedule campaigns 4-6 weeks before the relevant holiday or season, as book buying decisions often happen well in advance of the actual occasion. For example, Christmas-themed books should have campaigns ramping up in early November to capture early holiday shoppers.

Conclusion: Taking Control of Your Amazon Ad Settings

The difference between a failed Amazon advertising campaign and a profitable one often comes down to these hidden settings. By understanding and properly configuring these seven critical campaign parameters, you can dramatically improve your book's visibility, attract more relevant readers, and increase your return on ad spend.

Remember that Amazon's advertising platform rewards patience and consistent optimization. Make one change at a time, allow sufficient data to accumulate (generally at least 7-10 days), then evaluate the impact before making additional adjustments.

Take time this week to audit your existing campaigns for these settings issues. You might be surprised to discover how a few strategic adjustments can transform underperforming ads into powerful sales drivers for your books.

The most successful author-advertisers aren't those with the biggest budgets—they're the ones who pay attention to these crucial details that others miss.