Four Book Buying Decision Factors – Are You Using Them?
Are you using the four book buying decision factors in your online book advertising and promotion? Appealing to them will make your promotional message more compelling to the potential reader. Let me ask you a question. When making a decision, does the decision have to: look right, feel right, sound right, or seem right? This is your internal representation system. It is how you internally represent information that comes to you, and your experiences. You either internally represent it as pictures, sounds, feelings, smells, taste, or self-talk. Do you talk to yourself? Of course you do! Everyone does. This is how we are hardwired, our neurology and we use it to make EVERY DECISION, even buying a book to read. There are four primary decision factors: Visual – look right. Kinesthetic – feel right. Auditory – sound right. Auditory Digital – seem right. Visual Decision Factor For book buyers that are predominantly visual, the book must LOOK like the right book to read. In general, 40% of people in the US are visual. This is why the book cover is the #1 consideration when creating a book. They judge a book by its cover! It needs to look like the type of book they want to read. Why do you think Amazon does not just list only book titles in search results? Create word picture in your ads and book descriptions and use image ads and images where possible. Video too! “The Exorcist meets Law and Order” “Novel of a Woman Who Lived as a Man in the Old West.” “Escape in to a Stunning Sci Fi Fantasy World!” “Looking for a Thriller with a Twist?” Kinesthetic Decision Factor For book buyers that are predominantly visual, the book must FEEL like the right book to read. In general, 40% of people in the US are kinesthetic. This is why it is important to let a reader know how a book will make them feel. Create an emotion in your ads and book descriptions. “Smart, Gripping, & One Heck of a Ride!” “Funny & Touching Family Fiction” “Hauntingly Provocative, Relentlessly Intimate! “Will Break Your Heart & Mend It.” “Captivating Read” Auditory Decision Factor For book buyers that are predominantly auditory, the book must SOUND like the right book to read. In general, 10% of people in the US are auditory. This is why it is important to make the book sound enticing and the right book for them to read. Heavily influenced by what others are saying about the book. Use quotes in your ads and book description. “…one of the most surprising novels…the past decade.” – BookReporter “This is the best how-to manual anywhere for managers…” – Fortune “..author’s story of survival will surprise the reader..” – IndieReader Auditory Digital Decision Factor For book buyers that are predominantly auditory digital, the book must SEEM like the right book to read. It needs to make sense for them to buy. In general, 10% of people in the US are auditory digital. They react to words that cannot be perceived by the senses. Use words in your ads and book description that cannot be perceived by the senses. “Intriguing” “Smart” “Ingenious” “Clever” “Top-rated” “Award-winning” In Summary Everyone has a dominant perceptual mode and a dominant mental process for making a decision. You will need to appeal to all four dominant perceptual modes in your ads and description for your message to have the greatest impact on the book...
Read MoreKind Words from a Client
“After struggling to implement my own disastrous Google Ads campaign with my second novel, The In-Between Hour, I hired J.P. As promised, he managed to get the book onto various ‘best of ‘ Amazon lists, and I was thrilled to see a bump in my Amazon rankings and sales. Also, J.P. was very accommodating when I had to scale back my budget. He’s a joy to work with, and I can’t recommend him enough.” – Award-Winning Author of the In-Between Hour & The Unfinished...
Read MoreAmazon’s New Online Book Advertising
Online book advertising just got a boost with Amazon’s “Run an ad campaign.” This is an enhancement to the KDP Select’s book promotion tools: “Kindle Countdown Deal” and “Free Book Promotion.” Yes, it is another benefit for KDP Select authors and only available to KDP Select members. As you may or may not know, in the past Amazon did not allow advertising of a book on Amazon that went directly to a book page on Amazon. You would have to advertise using AdWords and drive traffic from the ad to your own book landing page (see “The Secret to Advertising on Amazon”). Now you can advertise your book and drive traffic direct to your Amazon book page. What’s really cool is that you can target specific books where you want to have your ads show. How would you like your book to show on the Divergent or Hunger Games Amazon book page? You can target where you want your book’s ad to show by either selecting specific products (books) or by selecting shopper interest. The minimum ad spend is $100 and it is pay-per-click advertising. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, not how many times it is shown. Stay tuned! Next week I will have a video podcast showing you how I set up an Amazon book advertising campaign in KDP Select. By J.P. Thompson...
Read MoreThree Ad Extensions You Need to Use In Your Online Book Advertising
To optimize your online book advertising campaign and improve ad performance, you need to use sitelink extensions, review extensions, and the new callout extensions. Why you need to use them: Google gives preference to ads that use ad extensions. It is a great way to add additional information about your book to potential readers beyond the ads three lines of text. Sitelink Extensions Ad sitelink extensions are links that searchers can click on that take them to a specific page on a website. See the image below. Review Extension An ad review extension is a way to incorporate a third party review in your ad. However, the third party review must be from a third party review site or website. No individual reviews, it must be from the site itself (e.g., Kirkus, NY Journal of Books, Foreward Reviews, etc.). See the image below. Callout Extensions Ad callout extensions are a way to include additional information about your book. They are short; 50 characters including spaces. Typically two to three will show at any one time. See the image below. How to Set Up the Ad Extensions On the main AdWords account page, “All Online Campaigns,” click on the “Ad extensions” tab. Then the “View” drop down box (see image) in the second row, far left. There you can select the type of ad extension you want to add to your ad. Summary When doing online book advertising, use ad extensions to enhance and optimize your ads to improve their...
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