bro you’re so articulate and helpful. Some takeaways: 1) education is key. you can’t outsource yourself. 2) price is a number. pick one you like. 3) make sure your product is good. we are trying to solve people’s problems, not scam them! thank you for sharing & mixing facts and story so cleanly!
Thanks! And let me tell you, the dashboard obsession is still a struggle for me some days. I find for me it's often just a form of procrastination from the important work. You can do it!!
Thanks for the terrific video :) Not just inspiritional, but also excellent specifics. A couple questions if you have the time: 1) Who was your coach? Or if you don't want to share your coach, maybe can say whether he was a KDP specific coach, or a general business coach? 2) Perhaps I'm wrong but the impression that I got was that the main thing that helped you get $30K sales in December instead of your expected $10K, was influencer reviews. I guess from grandee. Did you have to pay for that? Did you making a listing and the influencer picked you, or did you make an offer to an influencer? Best of luck :)
Hey there! Sure, 1. I don't want to use their exact name, but yes they are a KDP coach who has themselves built and sold 5 KDP businesses for over 1 million I believe, so I knew he had credibility. I found him through Sean Dollwet's Royalty Hero course. 2. Influencer reviews helped, but I would not say it was the *main* thing. We'd still have had big success without them. That was one piece of the puzzle. Bigger factors were the relentless ads optimization I did, plus the fact the book was in high demand (great KWs and niche for Christmas gifts). As for Grandee, I did not pay for any influencers. I found all of them on Grandee though. Technically I am pretty sure you're not allowed to pay them. Influencer reviews earn the influencer money when people watch their video and then buy the product. So that is their incentive. They only make a small amount, so it can be hard to convince them to make videos. In my case, I was able to find 3 who were down, and all I did was pay for their book (I bought it via Amazon directly shipped to them). Hope that helps!
I enjoyed your video a lot. One question - did you get confidence to run the ads at very high bids? I struggle with this, so I leave my bids way lower than what Amazon recommends. I do get sales but then I tell myself that I could get many more impressions, but still scared to up the bid because of past experience where I lost a lot of money. Have you experienced this?
Hey! For me the confidence came when I started to see the sales come in. The sales came in when I read a few marketing books and took time to really improve my books/covers/listings. And my first 14 books were pretty poor performers, so really I didn't see the ads pay off until I published 15/16/17. So in all, go with what you're comfortable with! Don't spend money on things that aren't working, unless it is the launch phase. Barry KDP has some good videos on launch ads. And keep publishing more high quality books in niches that you've done deep research on and are confident you can both MAKE the books, HELP the customer, and EARN a living that works for you. That's my gut response!
Thanks for your inspirational video. I really appreciate your helpful advice.... I would really love it if you could do a video on how to run ads on mid-content books that usually have a very high CPC. I've been struggling to achieve a balance between getting enough impressions to my books AND maintaining a good ACOS. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.
Great suggestion! If I don't make a video, I'll at least leave you with this: 1. CPC suggestions from Amazon are not be all end all. You can sometimes get a lot of clicks at a lower bid than you think. Try it and see what happens (ads is a TON of trial and error) 2. I typically have great success on product targets. If you don't target products, you should try. I will typically think like a consumer and then target those books. Here's what I mean: if the consumer looks up "coloring book for adults," you should consider targeting the top 5 books on that search. Why do those work so well? If your book is niched down to a narrower topic (say, "animal coloring book for adults" just as an example) then you'll find a lot of people who actually WANT more niche topics but don't know what to search. Therefore they search "coloring book for adults", find the best sellers, and click. You'll show up in the also bought section and suprise them - "Hey, I didn't know I wanted an animal coloring book, but I kinda do!" So bottom line: take the top 2-3 keywords where your customers congregate and run product targeting on the top books on each of those keywords. CPC is usually lower on product targets anyway. Hope that makes sense. 3. If you can't get a good ACOS no matter what, it might be time to stop fiddling with nickels and dimes and start making a better book. Hard to abandon a baby, but I've published 20 books and only currently run ads on 2 of them. Only 2 of them make significant money. The other 18 all bring in a combined $300/mo or so organically, but I found when I run ads on those books it brings in a very small return, and in some cases, I lose money. Stick with your biggest winners - and if you don't have any big winners, it may be time to quit playing small ball and throw your efforts into making one. Hope this helps! Thanks for the great question :)
I have to check out that book and I love the don’t check sellers central but once a day. I don’t even get that many sales but I check like 10 times a day 😂
I need to stop checking my eBay store so often and actually work on writing the 4,5,6 of the eBay store. Your story is much more influential than just for Amazon KDP. Also, Next time play Wii Mario Baseball cause I know Timmy can’t just win that every time for free.
You're a legend bro. Glad to hear my story was useful for your line of work too. And yeah, I'll whip Tim for you. You can pick the worst team for me, I'll find a way.
Hi Toby, I wonder if you manage Amazons Ads by yourself or if you use a professional agency for this? In case you managed the ads yourself, how often do you need to adjust them when spending that much within a single month? Great video , thanks 🙂
Hi there! I tried hiring an agency for about 2 months and it was not a good fit. I'd need to be making more like 7-10k/mo profit consistently to justify it. I typically optimize them once every week for 1-2 hours. Some people tweak them a lot more, but for my health issues I try to keep it as simple as possible. Hope that helps!
great video and i think your a great man but, there is a big but...so you are pomping the ads to your books and make sales, this is exactly what other kdp specialists are doing...they pump the ads and have sales...if you have enough ads you can sell anything with unlimited money...With 10k in ads in december you can sell a blank piece of paper with sucker on it 😂
Thanks for the feedback - you're right, it's tough to make passive income without utilizing ads, but some have found a way. Best of luck in whatever you do!
Proud of you man. You inspire all of us
Thanks Sean 🤙
bro you’re so articulate and helpful. Some takeaways:
1) education is key. you can’t outsource yourself.
2) price is a number. pick one you like.
3) make sure your product is good. we are trying to solve people’s problems, not scam them!
thank you for sharing & mixing facts and story so cleanly!
Thanks Tim, you rock! Great summary.
Amazing information! Thank you so much, I’m just at the beginning of this process so all this info is very valuable and much appreciated 😊
Dude, you are super pleasant to listen to, and you seem to be coming from a place of authenticity. Perfect for youtube.
Thanks my friend, I really appreciate it :)
Wow thats so inspirational
I’m wondering when you said 12k bsr, how many copies are that per month approximately?
A pleasure to listen. Thanks for sharing these valuable insights of your journey, so generous.
Wow, thanks Tom! It really is my pleasure :)
Thanks, Toby! This is super helpful and encouraging. Appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge on publishing on KDP.
Hey Taylor, stoked it was useful for you in some way! Let's chat soon.
Thanks, Toby. Very informative video.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much for this video!!! 🎉😊 Hope you are better now
Thanks my friend!
Thanks for sharing! These are wonderful. Your success with one book is inspiring.
I need to work on not checking the dashboard too often omg 😅😅
Thanks! And let me tell you, the dashboard obsession is still a struggle for me some days. I find for me it's often just a form of procrastination from the important work. You can do it!!
Amazing journey man! Thanks for sharing - see you on Royalty Hero!
What up Dave, thanks for the love man. Means a lot coming from you! And yeah dude, see you there 🤙🏽
Very useful. Thanks for sharing
You're very welcome!
Nice video! Keep them coming!
Thanks Susan!
hello Toby ! I loved the content! I would really like it if you made a video on how to work with ads, it would help a lot!
Hi Marta! Good to know - do you mind explaining what about ads you want to know? It is a very deep topic.
Thanks for the terrific video :) Not just inspiritional, but also excellent specifics.
A couple questions if you have the time:
1) Who was your coach? Or if you don't want to share your coach, maybe can say whether he was a KDP specific coach, or a general business coach?
2) Perhaps I'm wrong but the impression that I got was that the main thing that helped you get $30K sales in December instead of your expected $10K, was influencer reviews. I guess from grandee.
Did you have to pay for that? Did you making a listing and the influencer picked you, or did you make an offer to an influencer?
Best of luck :)
Hey there! Sure,
1. I don't want to use their exact name, but yes they are a KDP coach who has themselves built and sold 5 KDP businesses for over 1 million I believe, so I knew he had credibility. I found him through Sean Dollwet's Royalty Hero course.
2. Influencer reviews helped, but I would not say it was the *main* thing. We'd still have had big success without them. That was one piece of the puzzle. Bigger factors were the relentless ads optimization I did, plus the fact the book was in high demand (great KWs and niche for Christmas gifts).
As for Grandee, I did not pay for any influencers. I found all of them on Grandee though. Technically I am pretty sure you're not allowed to pay them. Influencer reviews earn the influencer money when people watch their video and then buy the product. So that is their incentive. They only make a small amount, so it can be hard to convince them to make videos. In my case, I was able to find 3 who were down, and all I did was pay for their book (I bought it via Amazon directly shipped to them). Hope that helps!
Nice video! That book you talk about, is it high content?
Hey hey. All the books I have published are medium content books, not high content. Good question!
I enjoyed your video a lot. One question - did you get confidence to run the ads at very high bids? I struggle with this, so I leave my bids way lower than what Amazon recommends. I do get sales but then I tell myself that I could get many more impressions, but still scared to up the bid because of past experience where I lost a lot of money. Have you experienced this?
Hey! For me the confidence came when I started to see the sales come in. The sales came in when I read a few marketing books and took time to really improve my books/covers/listings. And my first 14 books were pretty poor performers, so really I didn't see the ads pay off until I published 15/16/17. So in all, go with what you're comfortable with! Don't spend money on things that aren't working, unless it is the launch phase. Barry KDP has some good videos on launch ads. And keep publishing more high quality books in niches that you've done deep research on and are confident you can both MAKE the books, HELP the customer, and EARN a living that works for you. That's my gut response!
Good information 😊
Thanks my friend!
Thanks for your inspirational video. I really appreciate your helpful advice.... I would really love it if you could do a video on how to run ads on mid-content books that usually have a very high CPC. I've been struggling to achieve a balance between getting enough impressions to my books AND maintaining a good ACOS. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.
Great suggestion! If I don't make a video, I'll at least leave you with this:
1. CPC suggestions from Amazon are not be all end all. You can sometimes get a lot of clicks at a lower bid than you think. Try it and see what happens (ads is a TON of trial and error)
2. I typically have great success on product targets. If you don't target products, you should try. I will typically think like a consumer and then target those books. Here's what I mean: if the consumer looks up "coloring book for adults," you should consider targeting the top 5 books on that search. Why do those work so well? If your book is niched down to a narrower topic (say, "animal coloring book for adults" just as an example) then you'll find a lot of people who actually WANT more niche topics but don't know what to search. Therefore they search "coloring book for adults", find the best sellers, and click. You'll show up in the also bought section and suprise them - "Hey, I didn't know I wanted an animal coloring book, but I kinda do!" So bottom line: take the top 2-3 keywords where your customers congregate and run product targeting on the top books on each of those keywords. CPC is usually lower on product targets anyway. Hope that makes sense.
3. If you can't get a good ACOS no matter what, it might be time to stop fiddling with nickels and dimes and start making a better book. Hard to abandon a baby, but I've published 20 books and only currently run ads on 2 of them. Only 2 of them make significant money. The other 18 all bring in a combined $300/mo or so organically, but I found when I run ads on those books it brings in a very small return, and in some cases, I lose money. Stick with your biggest winners - and if you don't have any big winners, it may be time to quit playing small ball and throw your efforts into making one.
Hope this helps! Thanks for the great question :)
@@toby.demoss Thanks a million for your pieces of advice: I'll definitely put them into practice.
I have to check out that book and I love the don’t check sellers central but once a day. I don’t even get that many sales but I check like 10 times a day 😂
Haha the addiction is real! Funny thing is it kills the progress we're checking for...
Damn bro! Good job mate!
Thanks dawg!!
I need to stop checking my eBay store so often and actually work on writing the 4,5,6 of the eBay store. Your story is much more influential than just for Amazon KDP. Also, Next time play Wii Mario Baseball cause I know Timmy can’t just win that every time for free.
You're a legend bro. Glad to hear my story was useful for your line of work too. And yeah, I'll whip Tim for you. You can pick the worst team for me, I'll find a way.
Hi Toby, I wonder if you manage Amazons Ads by yourself or if you use a professional agency for this? In case you managed the ads yourself, how often do you need to adjust them when spending that much within a single month? Great video , thanks 🙂
Hi there!
I tried hiring an agency for about 2 months and it was not a good fit. I'd need to be making more like 7-10k/mo profit consistently to justify it. I typically optimize them once every week for 1-2 hours. Some people tweak them a lot more, but for my health issues I try to keep it as simple as possible. Hope that helps!
@@toby.demoss Thanks so much! Will watch your new videos now 😀
great video and i think your a great man but, there is a big but...so you are pomping the ads to your books and make sales, this is exactly what other kdp specialists are doing...they pump the ads and have sales...if you have enough ads you can sell anything with unlimited money...With 10k in ads in december you can sell a blank piece of paper with sucker on it 😂
Thanks for the feedback - you're right, it's tough to make passive income without utilizing ads, but some have found a way. Best of luck in whatever you do!