Images and videos in marketing are increasingly important in how companies represent their brands. Online marketing relies on capturing the consumer’s attention and engagement. Visual content, like images and videos, has been shown to increase engagement online significantly. For example, Facebook posts with images are 2.3 times more likely to have engagement than posts without images.
This applies to Amazon as well. Sponsored Display campaigns with an image see a 29% increase in customer views of the product detail page than ads that do not utilize images. Amazon Advertising has even partnered with Shutterstock to make it easier to use stock photos in ads, further indicating the usefulness of images in advertising on Amazon. Ads with images have a higher retention rate in general.
Shutterstock Images
An issue with using stock photos for advertising is that on most sites, like Shutterstock, access to many of the images requires a paid subscription. Another issue is that royalty-free images are available to use for everyone. A competitor can create an ad or other content with the same images you used, or similar. Many of the royalty-free images on Shutterstock are very similar to each other with little variance. Stock photos will not feature your brand, are unlikely to contain any of your products, and may not meet Amazon’s photo requirements.
Brand-Generated Images
Using your own branded images online gives your brand and products more credibility and looks more professional and unique. You can use these images to tell your brand story or product benefit in the time it takes for a customer to take a quick glance at your ad. In fact, 65% of marketing executives state that branded creative assets are key to communicating their brand story.
It’s important to use branded images to stand out against the over two million third-party sellers on Amazon. According to Sean Ogino, “creating a lasting and impressive brand impression on the minds of customers is as hard as imagining a new color. Besides, Amazon has never been seller-focused. It lays great importance to products. And in that quest, it puts details about your products first – and merchant information second. […] The consequence of all these not-so-charming factors is the idea that Amazon cannot foster loyalty to your brand.”
Brand images, understandably, help express your brand image or the consumer’s perception of your brand. A great brand image makes a good impression on consumers, establishes credibility, and can help foster loyalty on a platform, like Amazon, where sellers are constantly competing with pricing. If you can earn your consumer’s trust and they repurchase your products on Amazon, it increases the Lifetime Value (LTV) of your Amazon shoppers. A branded image that contains your product is 67% more likely to result in a conversion. This is something that would be very difficult to find in stock photos.
Most online advertisements are only looked at for 0.7 seconds, so make that moment count with a unique, branded image that stands out among the crowd!
