Amazon's 2025 algorithm changes: Part 3
Self-publishing masterclass for indie authors
Earlier in this series we’ve seen that rank is no longer what it was. Other factors are involved besides actual sales.
Rank is used as a reward or a punishment. It provides visibility. Effectively, it’s a free promo that Amazon gives authors.
But only those authors who please them. If you’re in the good books, your rank will improve. Annoy them, and it will deteriorate.
A good way to annoy them is to use spaghetti-against-the-wall advertising methods. It annoys Amazon because it annoys their customers.
This is the key to everything. Amazon don’t let their algorithms run riot. Everything they do has an overarching principle: Promote what customers organically like and suppress what annoys them.
Take this to heart. Make it your new motto. When making any decision at all about publishing, look at it though this lens and you won’t go too far wrong. Even if you don’t understand all the details or they leave you confused.
There’s an exception to all this. External traffic.
For once Amazon aren’t thinking about customer satisfaction here. They’re thinking about growing their own business.
External traffic does that. It gets new users onto their site. Some will become new buyers. It helps Amazon grow, and if you do it for them they’ll reward you.
They reward you with better rank. To be sure, all the factors that go into rank calculation are weighted, and some are worth more than others. External traffic is probably on the outer perimeter of these. But it’s so foreign to the way indie authors think, so infrequently discussed, that it gives you a big edge over your competitors if you understand and utilize it.
If you’ve been keeping your ear very close to the ground you may have seen some discussion of this. If so, you’ve probably read that for this reason Amazon ads don’t work well anymore because Amazon are favoring external traffic.
This is dead wrong.
Amazon ads are blunted. But only for new books. And only as far as rank is concerned. Actual sales work just as they always have or better.
As discussed in earlier posts, Amazon suppress spikes. It doesn’t matter where those spikes come from - including Amazon ads. But that’s rank spike not sales.
So keep using Amazon ads if they’ve always worked for you. Just add an external flow of traffic, such as Meta ads. And push for consistent sales over time rather than a spike of a few days or even a week. Rank won’t respond at first, and that’s okay. But your also-boughts will populate regardless. When Amazon are satisfied you’re resonating with customers and sales aren’t solely ad driven, rank will start to catch up. And the external traffic will give you an algorithm boost. It’s not huge. But it’s another lever to pull on the way to success.
Stay tuned! More to come in part 4.