Use promo codes to offer free or discounted ebooks & audiobooks

Important:

• Google Play partners can sell ebooks and audiobooks in certain countries/regions. The features described here aren't available in every country/region.
  • Due to regulatory requirements, Google can't offer pre-orders in India. Your book will be available in the Google Play Store in India on the release date.
• Pre-orders allow customers to order, but not read, your book before its release date. On the release date, customers who pre-ordered your book are charged for the purchase and they gain access to the book.
• Before you upload any files, make sure your content meets Google's guidelines. If you plan to sell your books on Google Play, review our publisher content policies for books on Google Play.
• Analytics charts and sales transaction reports use the date the customer placed the pre-order, so that you can measure customer anticipation level. Revenue shown in such orders isn't paid to you until the book is released. For a financial report that matches your payment, go to Google Play earnings reports.

Partners can create a promo code for a free or discounted ebook or audiobook.

• Partners can create up to 3 promo campaigns per month. Each campaign can create up to 5,000 codes.

Where promo codes are available

• Promo codes are available in select countries.
• Promo codes can be offered in any eligible country where your books are for sale and have the same revenue split percentage.

Learn where promo codes are available.

Partner instructions for promo codes

Important: To manage promotions, you must have Book Catalog or Admin access. To accept the Terms of Service, you must have Admin access. Learn more about account types.

1. In the Partner Center, click Promotions.
2. If you get a pop-up window, accept the Terms of Service.

Create a new promo code campaign

1. In the Partner Center, click Promotions.
2. Click Select promo type.
3. Select Promo code.
4. Enter this information:
   • Promotion name: Only shown to you.
   • Start date: Any date from today to a year from today.
   • End date: Up to 3 years from the start date. The promotion ends at 11:59 PM or 23:59 on the end date, based on the country you choose.
   • Discount type:
     • Free: Customers can redeem the offer to receive the book at no cost to them.
     • Percentage off (ebooks only): Customers get a percentage discount on the list price of the book. You can choose the percentage.
     • Fixed price: Customers can get the book at a new fixed price.
       • You must select the currency and amount.
       • For fixed price promo codes, you must turn on currency conversion. Learn more about currency conversion.
   • Book details:
     • Identifier: Add one or more ISBNs or GGKEYs.
       • If you include multiple books in a promotion: Customers can only use the promotion on one book.
     • Countries available: To find the current list price of the book in a country, select the country.
   • Countries: Select one or more countries to run your promotion in.
     • Customers from the selected countries can redeem this promo code.
     • All books included in your promotion must be available in every country you select and have the same revenue split percentage.
   • Code type: Choose the code type.
     • One code: The same code is used for all customers. Individual customers can only redeem the code once.
       • Enter the number of uses per code.
     • Multiple codes: A unique code is automatically generated for each customer. Individual customers can only redeem their code once.
       • Enter the number of codes to be generated.
5. Click Create.

Important: You can pause or resume a campaign you’ve created but you can’t edit the details. 

Share your promo codes

For a promotion that uses one code (the same code for all customers):

1. In the Partner Center, click Promotions.
2. At the top, click the Promo Codes tab.
3. Select the promotion you want to share. You can copy the "Play Store redemption URL" that takes the customer to the Play Store with the code already filled out. You can also share the code and the URL play.google.com/redeem for the user to enter the code.
4. Inform the customer of the terms of the promotion:
   • Eligibility requirements
   • Discount percentage or price
   • Start date
   • End date
   • Books included
   • Whether codes can be shared

For a promotion that uses multiple codes (a unique code for each customer):

1. In the Partner Center, click Promotions.
2. At the top, click the Promo Codes tab.
3. Select the promotion you want to share.
4. To show the codes and corresponding URLs, next to "Codes," click Download codes (.csv).
5. Inform the customer of the terms of the promotion:
   • Eligibility requirements
   • Discount percentage or price
   • Start date
   • End date
   • Books included
   • Whether codes can be shared

Tips:

• You can also give the code to the customer, which they can redeem from the Google Play redemption page.
• To test your promo codes:
  1. Create one extra code.
  2. Redeem the code as a customer.

Review your promo code campaigns

1. In the Partner Center, click Promotions.
2. At the top, click the Promo Codes tab.
3. Select the promotion you want to review.
   • For a promotion that uses one code (the same code for all customers), review the:
     • Code
     • URL, which is a direct link to the Play Store with the code automatically filled
     • Number of redemptions
   • For a promotion that uses multiple codes (a unique code for each customer), review the:
     • Link to a downloadable .csv file with the codes and corresponding URLs
     • Number of redemptions

Tip: You can also find out your redemptions in the Partner Center in the “Analytics & Reports” tab, under “Transaction report."

Pause or resume your promo code campaigns

To pause a campaign:

1. In the Partner Center, click Promotions.
2. At the top, click the Promo Codes tab.
3. Select the promotion you want to pause.
4. Click Edit promotion Pause.

To resume a campaign:

1. In the Partner Center, click Promotions.
2. At the top, click the Promo Codes tab.
3. Select the promotion you want to resume.
4. Click Edit promotion Resume.

Tip: When you pause a promotion, customers can't redeem codes. However, customers who already redeemed codes can still open their ebooks or audiobooks.