Books sales slump is a consistent annual trend during the summer months (June-August). In contrast, Q4 is best for sales hence there is a need to understand this slump and how to make use of trending summer in ads terms thereby avoiding excessive spending with few sales.

Factors Contributing to Summer Slump

Seasonal Distractions

Summer is the season in which outdoor activities like traveling and family get togethers begin. While sometimes these activities get replaced by reading, which is an indoor activity. But the beauty and ambiance of beaches, open air barbecues and the holidays divert the attention of readers from books. 

Vacation Habits

Most of the people’s habits get changed in the prolong holidays. They now dont like to read as much as they do in cozy winters. Some of the people bring books with them on the beach or while traveling. But the beautiful scenic views overcome the reading and people give less time to reading. 

Economic Factors

Discretionary spending often shifts during the summer months. The budget allocated for books usually gets decreased due to travel diaries, joyful activities and with families investing in travel, recreational activities, and back-to-school preparations.

   Book Sales Slump from 2021-2024

Impact on Different Genres

But important point to be noted is that summer slump is not same in effect for all genres. Children during the holidays, love to read their favourite books. While 

Academic and non-fiction books are ignored because of other activities. For instance, a survey conducted by the American Booksellers Association (ABA) in 2019 found that:

• During the summer, children’s book sales decreased by a mere 5%.
• There was only 20% sales drop in the Non-fiction book sales. 

Regional Variations

There are regions where there is extremely cold weather, and the summer period is short. In these regions, people love to enjoy the summers. While there are regions, where there is milder climates, there is no change in sales. 

For example, a report by BookScan in 2020 highlighted that:

• The Northeastern United States saw a 20% decline in summertime book sales.
• The US South experienced a mere 10% decrease.

Amazon PPC Ads Strategy for Summer Slump

By now, you may be considering what tactics to use in order to lessen the effects of this summer slump on Amazon Ads. We looked at a number of summer-specific terms and discovered that you can get good sales by using them in your custom text ads and making them fit the current trends.

Step-1: Catching the trends early for Summers

One way to identify relevant terms that are being searched for early on is by using Google Trends or Helium 10.

Google Trends Analysis for Summer Reads 2024 vs Beach Reads 2024

Step 2: Using Related Queries to FInd Search Terms Trending

The next step is to look for terms that are displaying the “Rising Trend” by viewing related queries on Google Trends.

Summer Reads 2024 related Queries on Google Trends

Step 3: Using Keywords Research Tools for Search Volume and PPC Bids Analysis 

To view search volumes and PPC bids, use the associated query terms in Amazon-specific keyword research tools like Helium 10 or Publisher Rocket.

Summer Reads 2024 Search Volume using Helium 10

Summer Reads 2024 – PPC Bids

It should be mentioned that terms related to summer begin to rise the last week of May and continue through the last week of July. The search volume for the keyword “Summer reads 2024” increased five times between May and the final week of July, at which point it began to decline. Furthermore, the PPC bid went up from 0.5$ to 1.1$. It proves that authors and publishers must jump on the trend as soon as possible in order to capitalize on summer-related terms before they become overpriced or crowded.

Setting up Ads for summer-specific Amazon Ads

 While search terms and keywords vary by genre, general terms such as summer books and beach reads are applicable to all genres. To make up for lost sales, summer-specific advertisements must be placed in addition to the current Amazon ads. To fully utilize the Ads options available, summer ads must also use Amazon’s custom text ads.

Custom text Ads Examples

“Best summer book alert! ‘Friends with Secrets’ explores friendship and hidden truths.”

“Sun, sand, and secrets! ‘Friends with Secrets’ is the perfect summer book.”

Strategy for Existing Amazon PPC Ads

Amazon considers historical data, campaigns that are already generating sales can be recalibrated with lower budgets and lower bids to give summer advertisements a better chance of gaining traction, as long as they are not producing sales at low ACOS. Although it may be tempting to pause already-running advertisements, this should be avoided because, once the summer season ends, it will take a long time for the paused ads to begin generating sales.

Conclusion

In conclusion, since the summer slump in book sales is a common occurrence, publishers and authors can plan ahead and avoid wasting money on ads in order to save money for the traditionally strong fourth quarter of the year in book sales.

Get advice from A2ZPublishing and Marketing Consultancy Call to get effective book marketing advice.

References

1. National Book Sales Association. (2021). Historical Sales Data. Retrieved from NBSA
2. American Booksellers Association. (2019). Genre Sales Survey. Retrieved from ABA
3. BookScan. (2020). Regional Book Sales Report. Retrieved from BookScan
4. Association of American Publishers. (2021). E-book Sales Report. Retrieved from AAP
5. NPD BookScan Report 2021
6. NPD BookScan Report 2022
7. NPD BookScan Report 2023
8. Publishersweekly.com