Amazon FBA Case Study: Crowdsource Ideas for Perfect Product Images

In the last episode, we finished up a two-part series on how to create and optimize your listing text.

(If you missed it, click HERE)

In this episode, we are still tackling optimization, but doing it from the perspective of:

• Imagery
• Photographs
• Digital assets

We’ll talk about what is important for product photography, as well as how to make a gameplan to get the best images for your listing.

The Method

Due to the importance of photography and imagery, we’ll show you our exact process for creating our imagery. We’ll also show you our process of analyzing competitors to find out what works best in a niche.

The How…

First, let’s go over the types of images:

• Main image – your primary image that takes up 80% of the space and has a white background
• Infographic – image with text information that conveys product details graphically
• Lifestyle image – a picture of the product inserted in its application (showing it in use)

The reason the main image has a white background is because that is a firm Amazon TOS. Amazon has strict guidelines on what type of imagery is allowed, but the focus of these rules is primarily on the main image.

(You can read those terms HERE)

When crafting your imagery, remember to use as many as you can. Most categories have seven spaces (some have more). Fill every one of them with images.

Just like in the last episode, we’ll be looking at competitors to take notes on the niche theme. 

A quick look at the first search page for the term “egg holder” reveals that many listings for similar products in our niche depict brown eggs in the holders. This is an imagery niche theme we may consider following.

Another theme we see is they are all at a similar angle (as opposed to an overhead shot). These themes will be considered and then potentially included in the gameplan we give to our photographer.

It is important to be as specific as possible with photographers and designers so you ensure you receive optimized imagery.

While building our gameplan, we’ll include three alternative options for our main image (for the egg tray):

1. Egg tray without eggs
2. Egg tray with brown eggs
3. Egg tray with white eggs

This will allow us to choose the best one (or have a backup if Amazon decides they want to enforce a TOS more strictly).

We will also include one or two infographics including bullet points or selling features.

We will also include at least three lifestyle images.

When you send your image gameplan to a photographer (or doing it all yourself) be sure to get a few more images than just the seven. That way you have options to choose from.

A quick note on lifestyle imagery…

Using models in your images is not a requirement, but it definitely increases conversion rates. Just keep in mind that working with models will likely be more expensive and more challenging. Model photography is often not an option offered by VAs or other outsource resources.

Model photography is powerful though, so definitely worth considering. It helps your potential buyer to picture themselves using your product because it essentially conveys the idea that “this could be you.”

You don’t have to stay on Amazon to get ideas for great imagery though. Even going back to Pinterest, you can see what types of imagery attract people’s attention.

For example, for our coffin shelf, we can see props and other themes on Pinterest that we can’t find on Amazon (since no one else sells this product) that will attract members of our niche.

The next step is to take notes on all the niche themes we wish to consider, take some screenshots, take some angle photos with our phones, and present all the information to our photographer.

The message we will send with this information is “this is what is working for our competition…so let’s go in this direction, but make it better.”

Just remember to get multiple options for every image because you never know what people will gravitate toward.

Then you can ask friends and family, co-workers, or even poll people on Pickfu.com which images they like most.

(Visit Pickfu.com to run a survey poll for your images)

Our Results

After reviewing the feedback from people in the Helium 10 office, we decided to also run a couple of Pickfu campaigns to get a wider set of data.

We assessed the results and made our final decisions. Here are the images we chose (in order from main image down) for our egg tray and coffin shelf.

Egg Tray

Coffin Shelf

In the next episode, we’ll go into product launches.

We’ll discuss the psychology behind types of launches and how to set up PPC.

Until then, what is your biggest question about product photography for Amazon listings?