How To Create Engaging Images for A+ Content

When shopping on Amazon, you are first greeted with a series of product images, the price, product name and a brief description. This is the standard content formatting that applies to all products that are listed on the site. But scroll further down the page, and you are likely to see a lot more information, often stylised to match the brand, and showcasing the products in more images, diagrams and detailed descriptions. This is A+ Content, which allows you to create a clear brand, making the lisings look like they would on your own eCommerce site. It allows you to provide more information not only about the product, but also your brand, which can build trust from potential customers in your product and can lead to a high conversion rate. To be able to use A+ content, you will need to register for Amazon brand registry, which will allow you to unlock these features, and use A+ content across your product listings.

Why use A+ content?

Use your product listing real estate to your advantage

If you are not using A+ content, you are very limited in the amount of information you can provide to potential customers, so by expanding your product listing real estate, you can greatly improve how your customers view your product and brand.

On each page there are carousels of similar products and recommended products, that can easily allow potential customers to leave your product and move to a competitor. If you dont use A+ content, these will be even more prominent, so you want to add as much as your own content to the page to increase your conversion rate.

Stand out from your competitors

Selling on Amazon is extremely competitive, and there is a good chance your products are being displayed amongst hundreds of similar products. So, to ensure that your products stand out more, you want to be using A+ content to its fullest potential to convince customers that they should be buying from you.

Increase your conversion rates

Once you have a potential customer on your product page, the next important step is to convert them into a paying customer. With customers not physically able to see a product, they want to know as much about the product as they can before adding it to their cart. This can not only help sell your product, but can have a lasting impact on your brand, increasing repeat customers.

By increasing your conversion rate, you will complete more sales and in turn will improve your Best Seller Rank thus translating to a better organic position too.

Why are images important?

Attention grabbing

When scrolling through your product listing, images will stand out to the customer much more than words. So a good start is a wide image highlighting your product, preferably using lifestyle photography and showing how it is used. Once you have their attention, they are then more likely to read the rest of the description.

Provide credibility

When purchasing products online, customers are putting trust in the information that you provide about your product. That is why by not only providing more information, but making it easier to read and understand, will increase the chance they will purchase from you. If you can showcase your product in a range of images, providing more information about its features, as well as how it is used, it will make you appear a more credible seller.

Showcase your product

The images that all Amazon products can use are fairly limited, with them being small square images, so by using images in your A+ content, you can not only use more images (standard listings are limited to 9), but much larger images. These images can also be styled to reflect your brand, so customers start to recognise your brand and the products you sell, which can lead to future sales as well.

What size images to use?

Depending on the A+ content plan you use, will determine the maximum size of images you can use. While both offer larger images than not using A+ content, the premium plan will give you the best options. When using the basic plan, you are limited to a max image size of 970 x 300 pixels, whereas using the premium plan allows you to create images up to 1464 x 600 pixels.

While these are the maximum image sizes, there are a few different image dimensions that you can use in your premium content, each having their own benefits.

Full width images

These are the types of images to use to grab the attention of people viewing your products. While the basic images arent full width, the premium ones work especially well for lifestyle images. One thing to bear in mind when creating these images is the aspect ratio, as they are much wider than they are high, so the photo will need to be taken fairly wide to make sure that the parts you want to show dont end up getting cut off.

Single Small Image

When you want to combine an image with other forms of information, then a smaller image will be the best option. These usually combine either paragraphs of text or specification/feature lists that highlight what the image represents. This could be things like the specifications of an electrical product, or the features of a cleaning product.

Multiple Small Images

You can also choose to use a series of smaller images, either in groups of 3 or 4. These work well to highlight certain features of products or to show a step by step guide on how the product works. These images can also be used with text to help explain what is being shown.

How to create your images

In-house photographer

If you have a large number of products or have a regular supply of new products to list, then hiring an in-house photographer may be the most cost effective method. An external photographer's day rate will be much higher than a salaried photographers, so if you know that you will be needing a constant supply of images, this will be the way to go. However, a salaried staff member will not bring their own equipment like a freelancer would, so there would be an upfront cost associated with this. With having the same person working on your photography, you will gain a lot more consistency and have someone who understands your brand and how to make sure the images reflect this.

Freelance photographers

The most common method to gather product photography is by hiring a freelance photographer. They will not only bring their own equipment such as lenses and lights, but they will also bring their experience that they have gained on working on a variety of projects. This works perfectly if you only need photos occasionally, as you can hire them for the days that you need. While their rates will be higher than hiring someone on a daily basis, it will be the most effective over a longer period of time if you only need product photos taken on occasion.

Utilisng stock photography

If you are limited on funds or do not have the time to be able to take you own lifestyle images, you can utiliste stock photography to help with your A+ content. This will work best for photos that dont show your product, but focus more on the situations where it can be used or the types of people who will be using it. You can edit your product into stock photography, but this will require some photoshop skills, as it can be fairly obvious if not done correctly. Using stock photography is a good stop gap, that helps before you can take your own photos, as you can run into a number of issues such as customers recognising that your product is not being used in the photos, or that competitors could end up using the same stock photos to sell their products.

Image Renders

There are some occasions when photography is not practical to help sell your products, such as with smaller electrical products like cables or adaptors. Due to their size and lack of visible features, they sdtruggle to show the product positively or highlight their features. This is where image renders can be used, which are digitally created versions of your products, that allow you to create photo realistic images which wouldn’t be possible with standard photography. The benefits of using this method is that it allows you to frame and create the shots how you choose, giving you a lot more flexibility and ability to create more images in the future.

Repurposing manufacturers imagery

If you are reselling a product that is made by someone else, then they likely already have their own images which they use to sell their products. This means that you can usually get permission to use these images to help sell your products, saving you the time and money of hiring a photographer. However, you run into the issue of relying on the quality of the images, as well as the high possibility that anyone else who is stocking these products are also using these images. This means that it becomes harder for your products to stand out from the other competitors, so it is a good idea to work towards taking your own images at some point in the future

Types of images

Product Images

The most important images for your product listings are the product images themselves. These appear at the top of the listings, giving you the first opportunity to try and capture the shoppers interest. The main image on this listing will also be the image that is used when shoppers are browsing listings on amazon, so you want it to stand out, whilst also accurately depicting your product.

The images used in this section are square and fairly small, but will zoom in when hovered over, or open in a light box if clicked. Product images can also be used throughout your A+ content, and give you plenty of options to show your product from various angles, all the parts that it comes with as well as highlighting the features.

The most common setting for product photos is a studio, often with a white backdrop and flat lighting. This allows you to get a clean shot of your product and the option to easily cut out your product to use across your other assets.

These can also be taken on location, especially if it is the location where your product is usually used, such as a kettle in the kitchen, however these will be more difficult to repurpose later on, and may be rejected by Amazon is you do not have an image of your product on a white background for their listings page.

Lifestyle images

People put a lot of trust into the information provided by sellers when shopping online, so you want to make your products as credible as possible. The best way to do this, as well as positive reviews, is by showing your product in action, in the form of lifestyle photography. This helps show that your product is genuine and gives the customer a clear understanding of what it will look like and how it will work, as they can not physically judge it for themselves like they could in a brick and mortar store.

Creating lifestyle photography can take a lot of planning and can be quite costly, as it can involve not only hiring a photographer, but models to be in the photos as well as a location for the shoot. It is important to plan out the shoot efficiently before the day, to make sure that you get the photos you want, as having to arrange further shoots, and keep the same talent and style can be difficult.

Lifestyle images can be used not only on Amazon, but across a variety of platforms, such as your own eCommerce site, social media or paid ads. Whilst this can be the most expensive type of photos to use for your A+ content, it will be the most effective at converting potential customers, increasing the trust in your products and the recognition of your brand.

Renders

Renders are a great way to showcase your product and can be useful for a broad range of industries. With your products being created using 3D digital software, you can then use these assets in many ways, from replicating standard photography to animating in videos, they will expand your options further than regular photography.

To create these types of images, you will need to hire a 3d designer, who has the skills to be able to recreate your product digitally. These can vary in price and will usually depend on the number of products you are looking to get created. Sites like Fiverr are an affordable way to get a small number of products created, but if you require a large number, you will be better off finding a company that you can work with to make sure they can design what you are after.