2020 Platform Updates

Here’s a list of major updates across the three ad platforms (Facebook/BookBub/Amazon) in 2020:

FACEBOOK

  • MAY: brought back ad set budgeting (looks like this is here to stay)
  • OCTOBER: Facebook no longer penalizes you CPC-wise for running images with more than 20% text.
  • NOVEMBER: ads manager user interface (UI) overhaul; most people already using this interface, so no change for vast majority

AMAZON ADS

  • JANUARY: Amazon Ads are now available in Spain, France, and Italy
  • FEBRUARY: Search term reporting now available on Amazon dash
  • JULY: Sponsored Brand Videos now available (Amazon Advantage only)
  • JULY: As of July 1, Sponsored Product Ads only include sales for the advertised ASIN format only (instead of eBooks and Books in the same campaign)
  • AUGUST: KENP Read Metric added to Amazon Ads
  • SEPTEMBER: can now negative target ASINs
  • SEPTEMBER: Amazon Ads now available in Australia
  • DECEMBER: estimated KENP royalties metric added
  • DECEMBER: Sponsored Brands ads now available

BOOKBUB

  • FEBRUARY: Chirp (BookBub’s audiobook promotion platform) now open for submissions (if your audiobook is published via Findaway Voices)
  • JUNE: can now advertise audiobooks

GENERAL

  • APRIL: Amazon Author rank has been discontinued
  • APRIL: authors no longer get paid for ACX promo codes
  • MAY: Barnes & Noble having financial trouble due to the pandemic
  • JUNE: can now publish direct to Apple via Windows PCs
  • JULY: minimum prices dropped to 1.77 (70%) and 0.77 (35%) due to UK VAT rules changing—check your prices, they may have changed now that the VAT isn’t applied
  • SEPTEMBER: Kobo Plus is now available in Canada
  • NOVEMBER: can now generate promo codes to give away books on Google Play
  • DECEMBER: can split royalties between co-authors right from Draft2Digital
  • DECEMBER: can now create series pages direct from the KDP dashboard
  • DECEMBER: new version of Author Central now available w/ all regions centrally accessible from a single location
  • DECEMBER: can nominate your book for Prime Reading direct from KDP Dashboard