Use Google Analytics to Find Your Audience
Authors may know the audience for their book well, but that doesn't neccesarily mean they also know the audience for their online marketing. Fortunately, Google Analytics, a free tool anyone can use, has a report that makes it easy for writers to find out where their audience is hanging out so they can plan on getting in front of the right people.
The most recent incarnation of Google Analytics is called GA4. The last version was officially sunsetted by Google in July of 2023, so only GA4 is available to you now. According to the marketing gurus, it's bigger and better, but that makes it a bit more complicated for the average user. Still, you will find very useful information that can help with your marketing efforts.
There are many, many reports, but instead of getting bogged down by too many details, try just this one at first:
Log into your GA4 account. On the left side are a series of icons down the page: a house, a chart, a wiggly arrow in a circle, and a straight arrow in a circle. The chart icon is the Reports page. If you click on that, you'll find another menu with a bunch of options, but the first page it opens on is Reports Snapshot. A whole series of charts and reports are available, some of which may not be of use to you at all.
One that will be useful is New users by First user primary channel group. This is the User Acquisition Report which helps you figure out where your website visitors are coming from, both organic and paid traffic. Organic traffic may include people clicking on links from social media posts or from search engines. If you aren't seeing a lot of traffic from social media, that could mean that you need to up to your social marketing game if you want people to go to your website. You may not be actually selling books from your website, but if you blog there or keep a calendar of events there, you certainly want folks to be checking those pages.
Paid traffic to your website is also recorded so you can see if your online ads are generating interest, as long as your Call To Action is to go to your website rather than to your Amazon page. Authors who sell books from their own sites will be interested in following these stats.
In this report, "Direct" means that a User typed your URL in directly or used a saved link rather than clicking on a link from another site, while searching online, or from an ad campaign. Maybe they picked up your bookmark or card at an author event, for instance.
Many authors feel that Amazon and social media outlets are enough and that they don't need a website, but remember that those other places are owned by someone else. They make the rules on how to use the platform and decide whether or not you get to keep a presence there. You should always have your own website with your own domain. It doesn't have to be fancy and it doesn't have to cost a lot as long as it's yours. That should be the authority that informs all other platforms.
GA4 is free to add to your site and the information will be helpful to your marketing. You don't have to master all of it, so just start small by finding out how you are reaching your website visitors through the New users