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Publisher Rocket is a powerful software used to help demystify Amazon keywords, categories, and book sales based on real data from Amazon. It is a vital marketing tool for authors looking to save time on marketing research and ultimately boost their earnings on Amazon.
Overall Features
- Keyword Analysis
- Competition Analyser
- Category Search
- AMS Keyword Search
Keyword Analysis—How it Works
For a more extensive explanation, Kindlepreneur has an very useful and in depth article that explains how to find profitable keywords.
Your first step is to type in a keyword idea that you think users might use to search for your book. If your book is a romance novel that takes place in Paris you may try something like, “Travel Romance”. Note that keywords can be made up of more than one word (this is called a “string”). You will be given the choice to review results for either ebook data or printed book data. The search results are based on known phrases users have typed into Amazon and google search results. You will need to hit “analyse” for any (or all) of the keywords that interest you. Here is an example of the results you can expect to see:
Ideally, you’re looking for keyword strings that have:
- An achievable competition score (~0-60)
- High # of searches
- High earnings $$
- Low # of competitors
Repeat this process with as many keywords as you can think of and narrow down your chosen keywords based on evidence that users are actually searching these terms.
If you’re still feeling a little overwhelmed, Publisher Rocket also has a video tutorial to help explain how to use the keyword analysis feature.
Competition Analyser—How it Works
This is a very fun feature of Publisher Rocket. With it you are able to search and find the daily and monthly sales of books on Amazon. The benefit here for you, of course, is that you can find out what is selling well in your genre. This information goes beyond useful metadata—you can also use it to identify successful authors and follow their social presence, websites, newsletters and more to determine what marketing methods seem to be working best for them.
Category Search—How it Works
Categories can be a pain point for many authors. Before we dive into Publisher Rocket categories, did you know that you can request to have your book placed in up to ten categories? There are many more categories than originally offered in the dropdown menu when you go to publish on KDP. All you need to do is send an email to KDP support (you can contact them here) and request for your book to be added to the categories of your choice. You can send something along the lines of:
Hello,
I’d like my book, ______ ISBN number _____to be added to the following categories if it isn’t too much trouble:
Books > Parenting & Relationships > Parenting
Books > Parenting & Relationships > Parenting > Early Childhood
Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women’s Studies > Motherhood
Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Fatherhood
Thank you in advance!
In order to make this request, however, you will need to identify potentially successful categories in which to place your book. Ah-ha! This is where Publisher Rocket comes in.
Searching Categories
Below is an example of a simple category search for “romance”. As you can see, to discover new categories all you need to do is a quick search. A recent update to Publisher Rocket has also included the ability to see what categories other books are listed under. This is HUGE. While you’re checking out your competition in the Competition Analyser, be sure to note the categories listed for books by successful competitors in your genre.
Amazon Ads Keyword Search—How it Works
For those with experience, setting up advertising on Amazon can be a fairly daunting process. This tool is absolutely indispensable if you’re looking to run ads; this function alone makes the software worth investing in. It’s basic function is to effectively and efficiently come up with a very large list of profitable keywords for your campaigns.
If you’re interested in learning more about advertising on Amazon, Dave Chesson, creator of Publisher Rocket, has a free course on AMS ads.
Pricing
Publisher Rocket costs $97, once and then you’ve got it for life—including future updates.
Our Conclusion
This is a software that pays for itself. It is crucial for self-publishers to acknowledge that successful marketing campaigns are data driven. It can be a daunting task but Publisher Rocket is able to do so much of the heavy lifting for you. It’s a product we are happy to recommend.
Your Turn
Have you use Publisher Rocket? If so, please take a minute to leave a quick review below to help others with their decision.
Dalia Maynard - April 14, 2021 @ 16:52
Love this product. Highly recommend to authors serious about getting their meta data set up properly on Amazon. Huge time saver and endlessly useful.