What follows is a brief overview of the six "Click Tests" that have changed lives and careers.

One crucial outcome of our click testing process is a handful of high-performing book advertisements to grow your readership profitably.

We create these ads piece by piece.

First, we break down the ad structure into small parts, which we call "elements."

Then we generate a dozen-ish ideas for each of these elements.

But we do it in a methodical way to make sure we get the necessary info to allow our ads to work profitably.

Next, we run a special kind of ad that performs the function of market-testing each of these candidate ideas.

This test runs for 1-2 days at a budget of $30 per day.

We then evaluate the results to see if any of our ideas are good enough to include in our book ad(s).

I'll introduce you to each of the six tests in our click testing protocol in just a sec.

But first, we need to answer a question:

You'll need to learn slightly different things about your market, depending on what kind of books you write.

If your books help people solve problems or make improvements in your readers' lives...

Such as helping people get in better shape, save and invest more money (like Britt and Laurie-Anne), grow their business faster, begin a fitness routine, become better parents, etc...

Then you'll want to follow the Problem Solver testing track. 

On the other hand, if you write fiction, children's stories, memoirs, or story-based nonfiction (along the lines of Michael Lewis's books, such as Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, Flash Boys, etc)...

Then you'll want to follow the Storyteller testing track.

Othniel Dory (over 250,000 books sold last year -- watch his interview here) and AJ Vanderhorst (115,728 books sold last year) are both storytellers.

So let's talk about the tests themselves.

If you're a storyteller,

it's helpful to use a branding element called a "tagline" for your book or series.

Test 1 for storytellers is the Tagline Test.

A tagline is a memorable (and often pithy) summary sentence that gives insight into the reading experience, and generates excitement for your story.

Here are some movie taglines to use as a reference point:

• "The hills are alive with the sound of music." (The Sound of Music)

• "On every street in every city in this country, there is a nobody who dreams of being a somebody." (Taxi Driver)

• "The true story of a real fake." (Catch Me If You Can)

• "Even a hitman deserves a second shot." (Grosse Pointe Blank)

Taglines can apply to a single book, to a series, and/or to your author brand as a whole.

If you're a Problem Solver,

Then you'll first need to understand what's really motivating the people in your market to take action toward solving their problem.

This is referred to as the "motivation," or the "pain point."

Test 1 for problem solvers is the Motivation Test.

(This test is what unlocked Britt and Laurie-Anne's rocket ride from $0 per month to $400K per month).

Understanding the REAL pain that's bothering the people in your market is the key to a long and lucrative career.

If you're a storyteller,

you'll need to figure out which advertisement headline gets people most excited to buy your book(s).

The headline needs to communicate that something awesome is for sale, and that the awesomeness is in book form.

It also needs to make very clear which FORMAT is for sale.

We test some headline ideas that contain reader testimonials; some that talk about the vibe, atmosphere, or aesthetic of your story; and some headline ideas that talk about your story's plot or premise.

(I'll give you a list of examples inside of Author Marketing Mastery through Optimization (AMMO) V4 to help you get the creative juices flowing).

If you're a Problem Solver,

You'll need to know exactly what your customers' ideal end state looks like.

This is called the "transformation."

Your book will only feel relevant to them if it helps them achieve the change they want to achieve.

A transformation statement describes a path out of the pain.

It makes obvious what the pain is right now, and points to a future state where that pain is gone.

For example, if you've written a book for mortgage brokers, maybe a transformation statement might say:

"Brokers: how to attract qualified applicants."

Our testing shows over and over again that both the IDEA and the SPECIFIC WORDS matter.

From here on in, all of the tests are the same, whether you're a storyteller or a problem solver.

The third test is the "Testimonial Test" (because my daughter Ally alleges I'm all about alliteration :).

"Testimonials" are just another way of saying "customer reviews."

But not all reviews are compelling for our prospective readers.

And not all compelling reviews are suitable for advertisements.

So we have specific criteria for the reviews we test for use in our book ads, which I cover in detail in Phase 1 of the AMMO V4 curriculum.

Our brains have massive amounts of real estate devoted to processing and understanding visual information.

Our brains understand pictures 60,000 times faster than we understand text.

(source: ifvp.org)

So there's art and science around creating images that get readers excited to buy from us.

Images are so important that I'll have you test 15 unique ones in Test 4 if you decide to join us inside of AMMO.

And there's a very lucrative bonus that comes from testing our images:

We can use winning images on our book pages, on our website, in our emails, in our sales pages, and anywhere we're putting marketing materials in front of our prospective customers.

So our image testing makes our whole business run more profitably.

Many Meta ad placements (and as I mentioned in our article introducing "Click Testing," Meta is by far the best place to advertise for book sales) allow us to post a solid chunk of text to get readers excited about our books.

And funny enough: readers like reading about reading.

Only the first 125 characters are visible when the ad is shown to a potential reader, and not everyone will choose to expand the text area and read everything you've written...

But the people who take the time to read the "primary text" in your ad will often buy your book(s).

So this is a key piece of advertising real estate that produces powerful results, and I'll show you what we've found to be most effective over our 6,000+ tests.

Another unique aspect of this test is that for the first time, you'll be placing complete book ads in front of potential customers!

And the test variants that emerge victorious from Test 5 will move forward to the final test in our six-part ad construction process.

As I've mentioned before, our testing process is designed to gather high-fidelity information with relatively small sample sizes.

It uses a nerdy concept called the "cumulative binomial probability distribution function."

The math allows us to gain very high quality information quickly and inexpensively.

The tradeoff is that the information isn't perfect, and sometimes there are "false positives." This is normal and predicted in the mathematics, so we account for it in our process.

In our final test, we weed out the false positives. "Stress testing" exposes ads that aren't quite good enough, but snuck through our prior tests.

The ads that survive our final "stress test" are ready to go forth and sell books for you!

We use "Click Testing" in Phase 1 of our direct-to-reader bookselling system setup.

It's absolutely essential, because it teaches us those elements that must be included in our bookselling advertisements and sales system in order to actually sell books. :)

It's also essential to disabuse us of our mistaken notions about our market's needs and desires.

It's shocking, but 90% of the time, we're wrong about what our readers REALLY want.

And this happens to everyone.

Indie icon Joanna Penn lamented on our recent podcast episode together that she wished she had known about click testing BEFORE she wrote one of her fiction series.

The series has never sold well, and Jo recently discovered  the problem through click testing: 

Her audience hates a central aspect of her protagonist's character.

If she had done this testing in advance, she wouldn't have wasted an ENTIRE YEAR writing the series.

So Click Testing is a powerful component of our book marketing...

But it's also an indispensable component of our product creation and character ideation.

And it's the rock-solid foundation that supports our entire direct-to-reader bookselling system. 

Here's a brief article that outlines the six key elements of this system for you.

Right now, you can save a ton of money on a lifetime AMMO membership.

AMMO is the author marketing and business development program responsible for the highest per-capita author earnings in the English-speaking world.

Or you can choose the lowest monthly payments we've ever offered on our full and updated program, Author Marketing Mastery through Optimization Version 4.

Click the big blue button to see all the details:

You can also watch unedited and unabridged interviews with AMMO authors.

We've asked them to offer their advice for you as you consider whether becoming an AMMO author is in your best interest.