You'd be amazed at how many junior people at an SMB or publishing imprint who are thrown into the deep end and told to spin up an Amazon ad campaign with zero k

You'd be amazed at how many junior people at an SMB or publishing imprint who are thrown into the deep end and told to spin up an Amazon ad campaign with zero knowledge of the platform. It's not their money, and their bosses don't get it either, so they accept the defaults and the suggested bids, and blow through a pile of cash. Some realize the mistakes and quickly optimize, and learn how to set up future campaigns the right way. The other group getting burned are desperate passive income newbies sitting on a pile of junk from Alibaba and grasping at anything which might move the needle on sales. To pay for campaigns, they'll even take out loans from Amazon Lending or predatory finance partners like Parafin Cash Advance, which take a percentage of your gross sales every other week. Self published authors are also getting tricked by Amazon suggested bids, high default budgets, and ridiculous default levels for custom bids. Amazon is laughing all the way to the bank.