Using Comp Titles as Amazon Ads Keywords

Updated 2026-07-15

Targeting comp titles — books similar to yours — is the highest-intent strategy available to authors on Amazon Ads. A reader searching for a specific book in your subgenre has already told you exactly what they want to read next.

What makes a good comp title

Same subgenre and tone, not just the same broad genre
Similar reader promises: heat level, violence level, pacing, tropes
Actively selling (a sales rank roughly under 100k is a common filter)
Not so famous that ad competition prices you out (mega-bestsellers are crowded)

Where to find comps

Start from your own also-boughts and also-reads if your book is live. Otherwise, browse the top 100 of your niche categories, look at what BookBub features in your genre, and note which books your target readers discuss in genre communities.

Mid-list books in your exact niche often outperform famous titles as keywords: fewer advertisers bid on them, and the audience match is tighter.

Title keywords vs ASIN targeting

There are two ways to target a comp: as a keyword (you show in search results when someone types the title) and as a product target (your ad shows on that book's product page, targeted by ASIN). They reach the same reader at different moments, and both are worth testing.

Keyword targeting catches readers mid-search; product targeting catches them mid-browse. Bids and performance differ, so keep them in separate campaigns or ad groups for clean data.

Scale the list

One comp title becomes several keywords: the title alone, title + "book"/"novel"/"kindle"/"series", and the author's name — each in broad, phrase, and exact. Twenty comps can easily become 300+ keyword variants. Our free tool does that expansion for you and exports it as a bulksheet-ready CSV.