Who Is Adverley? A Book Advertising Partner Built for Indie Authors
Our roots, our leadership, and the operating principles behind a specialist team that connects paid advertising, creative, listings, and reader-acquisition economics.
The best way to explain who we are is not with a list of certificates or a promise that every campaign will look the same. It is to explain where we came from, how the company evolved, and what authors can expect when they place their advertising accounts in our hands.
Adverley exists for authors who would rather spend their working hours building books and relationships with readers than managing another advertising dashboard. We do the technical and creative work, but our real responsibility is larger: help each client make informed decisions with limited budgets, imperfect attribution, and a catalog whose value often extends well beyond the first advertised sale.
Our story begins with an author’s visibility problem
In 2017, Michael Beverly moved to Guadalajara to focus on becoming a novelist. Like many authors, he encountered a difficult reality: publishing a good book and helping the right readers discover it are two different jobs.
That problem led to hands-on work with Amazon advertising. By 2018, an early team was managing campaigns for authors through a predecessor agency. Gerardo Escalona joined that team, became its manager, and later became a co-owner of Adverley.
Adverley itself was founded in spring 2020 by Michael and Gerardo. That distinction matters. Our practical campaign experience began in 2018; the company authors know today began in 2020.
Michael Beverly’s experience as a novelist in Guadalajara exposed the difficulty of earning reliable visibility for a book.
The early team began managing Amazon Ads for authors. Gerardo joined, then moved into campaign and team leadership.
Michael and Gerardo formed Adverley as a separate company focused on independent authors and publishers.
Michael retired from Adverley in September. Gerardo and the existing team continued the company’s client work and development.
Amazon Ads remains central, supported by Meta advertising, creative, organic video, listings, and catalog-level measurement.
Over those years, platforms changed, attribution changed, Kindle Unlimited reporting became more useful, and the number of tools available to authors multiplied. The team changed too. We completed more than 20 professional courses, earned multiple platform certifications, and—more importantly—kept learning from live accounts across changing markets and genres.
In September 2025, Michael retired from Adverley. Gerardo and the team continued the work. We are grateful for the chapter Michael helped create, and we are equally clear about the company authors work with now: a Gerardo-led team with its own operating standards, services, and direction.
Who leads Adverley today?
Gerardo Escalona
Gerardo joined the early advertising team in 2018, became manager, and later co-founded and co-owned Adverley. His earlier career in finance, consumer analytics, technology, and data management shaped a practical approach: understand the objective, protect the client’s resources, test deliberately, and let evidence—not emotion—guide the next decision.
Gerardo now leads a small team that includes campaign, copy, and creative support. Being small is not a claim that every task is simple. It means client context stays close to the people doing the work, and a question about a blurb, a cover, an audience, or an unusual result can be considered as part of the same reader journey.
What we do today
Our work has expanded beyond building and optimizing pay-per-click campaigns. Depending on the author’s catalog, stage, and goals, an engagement may include several connected disciplines.
Amazon Ads management
Account audits, campaign structure, keyword and product targeting, testing, optimization, and reporting across relevant marketplaces.
Facebook and Instagram advertising
Audience strategy, campaign management, image and video creative, testing, and traffic or reader-acquisition programs outside Amazon.
Creative and organic content
Advertising images, short-form video, trailers, and social content designed to create interest before a reader reaches a retail page.
Book-page and listing support
Blurbs, keywords, categories, A+ Content, and conversion-focused recommendations that help paid traffic encounter a stronger offer.
Catalog and reader economics
ACoS, estimated KENP royalties, read-through, acquisition cost, payback, and broader account signals considered in the context of the campaign’s actual job.
Why we connect the pieces
A campaign does not operate in isolation. Advertising can bring attention to a book, but the cover, blurb, reviews, price, sample, series depth, and reader experience influence what happens next. Organic video can create demand without producing many trackable link clicks. A Book 1 campaign can look expensive inside the advertising dashboard while a valuable series relationship develops outside its attribution window.
Create discovery
- Amazon Ads
- Facebook and Instagram Ads
- Organic short-form video
Convert interest
- Cover and blurb fit
- Keywords and categories
- A+ Content and book-page experience
Build reader value
- Retail and KU royalties
- Series read-through
- Acquisition cost and payback
This connected model is the foundation of what we have called our A10 Program and, more plainly, our integrated author-growth approach.
How we think about results
We are data-driven, but we do not believe one dashboard metric can answer every business question.
For example, ACoS is useful because it shows ad spend relative to Amazon-attributed retail sales. For Kindle Unlimited authors, we also calculate an Adjusted ACoS that adds Amazon’s estimated attributed KENP royalties to the front-end value. Neither figure, on its own, proves total catalog profitability.
If advertising concentrates on Book 1 of a long series, the campaign may be acquiring readers whose value arrives through Books 2, 3, and beyond. That does not make a high ACoS automatically profitable. It does mean the correct decision requires more evidence: net royalties, verified read-through, acquisition cost, cash flow, and the time the author can allow for payback.
That is also why we do not publish a “good ACoS” that every client must reach. Two authors can see the same percentage and face very different business decisions because their royalties, series depth, read-through, budgets, and goals are different.
The principles clients should expect from us
You own the accounts
Campaigns are managed in client-owned accounts whenever the platform allows it. Your data and history remain yours.
Our fee is not a percentage of spend
Flat management pricing reduces the incentive to recommend a larger media budget simply because it would increase an agency fee.
Context comes before benchmarks
We compare performance with the author’s objective, catalog, economics, and prior evidence—not an isolated industry slogan.
Testing is part of the work
Audiences, creative, targets, and listings change. Campaign management requires continued testing and adaptation.
Communication matters
Reporting should help an author understand the decision being made, the evidence behind it, and what remains uncertain.
No responsible guarantees
We can control research, execution, monitoring, and care. We cannot guarantee sales, rank, platform behavior, or reader response.
What our clients tend to value most
The theme that appears most often in our client feedback is not a magic metric. Authors talk about getting time back to write, having a responsive team, receiving clear updates, and working with people who pay attention to budgets and the wider publishing business. Several relationships began years ago; other authors returned when their catalogs or priorities changed. You can read their comments in full on our client reviews page.
“Trusting my ad management to Adverley was the best decision I’ve made in my marketing efforts this past year.”
— Gary McAvoy, bestselling thriller author
We appreciate that trust, but we do not treat a testimonial as a universal promise. Each author brings a different catalog, budget, product, audience, and timeline. Our job is to make the work thoughtful, transparent, and appropriate for that situation.
Who is the best fit for Adverley?
Advertising management tends to create the most leverage after an author has built the foundations that advertising cannot replace.
Usually a strong fit
- An author or small publisher with multiple professionally packaged books
- A series with measurable read-through or a catalog with clear cross-selling potential
- A willingness to test creative, targets, positioning, and sometimes the listing itself
- A realistic advertising budget and enough time for campaigns to gather evidence
- A preference for a collaborative partner working inside accounts the client owns
Possibly not ready yet
- A first book with no clear next step for the reader
- A cover, blurb, or product page that still needs fundamental work
- A budget that cannot safely support a learning period
- A need for guaranteed sales, rank, or immediate profit
- An expectation that advertising alone can solve weak reader response
“Not ready yet” is not a judgment on the author or the book. It often means the next dollar will work harder when invested in the product, catalog, positioning, or measurement foundation first.
Why we are publishing more of what we learn
Newer authors encounter confident advice built around universal numbers: the ACoS every campaign should hit, the platform every author must use, or the tactic that supposedly works for every genre. Real accounts are less tidy.
Our educational goal is to publish practical explanations, worked examples, and carefully qualified case studies. We will identify what the data shows, what it does not show, and which client-reported outcomes add context without pretending to prove causation.
Low ACoS or better readers?
Why front-end efficiency and series-level reader acquisition are related—but not interchangeable.
Read the ACoS and reader-acquisition study →What can short-form video really do?
A case study separating views, interactions, followers, clicks, and observed sales movement.
Read the video reader-acquisition case study →What can you afford to pay for a reader?
A practical framework for connecting acquisition cost, royalties, read-through, and payback.
Use the reader-value guide and workbook →More author marketing guidance
Explore Adverley’s growing library of Amazon Ads, Meta advertising, and book-marketing resources.
Visit Indie Author News →Frequently asked questions
Did Adverley begin in 2018 or 2020?
Both dates describe different parts of the history. The team’s operating roots in Amazon advertising for authors go back to a predecessor agency in 2018. Adverley was founded as a separate company by Michael Beverly and Gerardo Escalona in spring 2020.
Who leads Adverley today?
Gerardo Escalona leads Adverley. Michael Beverly retired from the company in September 2025, and Gerardo and the existing team continued its client work and development.
Is Adverley only an Amazon Ads agency?
No. Amazon Ads remains a core service, but Adverley also works with Facebook and Instagram advertising, creative and organic content, listing optimization, and catalog-level reader-acquisition analysis.
Do clients retain ownership of their advertising accounts?
Yes. Adverley’s operating model is to manage campaigns in client-owned accounts whenever the platform allows it, so the client retains the account, campaign history, and data.
Does Adverley guarantee a particular ACoS or sales result?
No responsible agency can guarantee sales, rank, platform behavior, or reader response. Adverley controls the quality of its research, setup, creative work, monitoring, communication, and optimization. Targets are set from the author’s objective and economics rather than a universal ACoS promise.
What does “A10-aligned” mean at Adverley?
It is Adverley’s internal shorthand for an integrated strategy connecting discovery, conversion, content, and catalog value. It is not an official Amazon product, certification, or claim of private algorithm access.
Tell us about the catalog you are building
If you have multiple professionally packaged books, a clear reader journey, and want a thoughtful partner to manage and connect the advertising pieces, we would be glad to learn more about your goals.
Start a conversation Read client reviewsTransparency note: The company timeline and current leadership details in this article are also published on Adverley’s homepage. Client comments are available in full on the reviews page. Services, platform features, and fit are evaluated case by case and may change over time.
