Amazon A+ Content - The comprehensive overview

1. What is Amazon A+ Content?
   1. A+ Content strengthens customer loyalty
   2. Flexible design through modular structure
   3. Differences between Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Vendor Central
2. Types of A+ Content
   1. Amazon A+ Standard Content
   2. Amazon A+ Premium Content
3. Requirements for the creation of A+ Content: Trademark registration in the Amazon Brand Registry
4. Advantages of A+ Content
   1. Highlight unique selling points of the item through A+ Content
   2. Use A+ content to help customers make informed purchasing decisions
   3. Reduce complexity of the product description
   4. Proactively answer any customer questions with A+ Content
   5. Stand out from the competition with A+ Content
   6. Emotionalization of the product through own brand history
   7. A+ content is indexed by Google
   8. Prioritized playout in the Amazon app and the mobile view
5. Create Amazon A+ Content
   1. Create in Seller Central and Vendor Central
   2. Which A+ content is not approved by Amazon?
6. A+ Content Best Practice Example
7. A+ Content Worst Practice Example
8. Success control of the published A+ content
   1. How do I know that my A+ Content is well received?
   2. Amazon feature "Manage your Experiments"
9. Amazon content monitoring by AMALYTIX

You are an Amazon Seller or Amazon Vendor and would like to present your products in an even better light? Then read on! Amazon A+ Content enables you to present your products on Amazon with higher quality and generate more sales. In this article you will learn how to use A+ Content successfully and what you should consider. Enjoy reading!

What is Amazon A+ Content?

A normal product description, which you can add to your product listing as a seller on Amazon, may not exceed 2,000 characters. For many products this length is sufficient to display all important information. Some sellers do not even use a description at all, and only work with the bullet points at the top of the product detail page.

There are, however, some products that require a more comprehensive explanation. Particularly in the case of technical devices, you will often need more words and more pictures so that potential customers know exactly what the product is about. In these cases, the symbols that a product description may contain are not sufficient. For this reason, Amazon has created A+ Content, a way for Amazon sellers to add more text and image elements to the product listing. A product can therefore generally be presented in much more detail and special functions can be explained in more detail as well.

In the following example (Figure 2), the standard product description has been replaced by A+ Content. This makes the product detail page look much more attractive in the bottom area. The images of people doing DIY, gardening and the close-up of the item in this example make the product appear more lively and emotionally appealing than a conventional product description. Beyond that in short texts further details are obtained to the product.

Additional images, illustrations and graphics can be added using ready-made modules. This leads to a better user experience and significantly enhances a product description. According to Amazon, A+ Content helps to increase the conversion rate of a product by an average of 3-10%. This illustrates that by enhancing the visual and content value of the product detail page, a sales advantage is created that can have a positive effect on the sales rate.

A+ Content strengthens customer loyalty

As an Amazon seller, the additional space also gives you the opportunity to present a meaningful image of your own brand. Expressive image elements as well as texts, which are tailored to the respective target group, can create a bond between brand and customer.

Flexible design through modular structure

In detail, A+ Content consists of a selection of 17 modules. You can decide for yourself which modules are best suited for the respective product and in which order they should be presented. Afterwards, the modules only need to be filled with suitable text and image material and submitted to Amazon for approval.

Differences between Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Vendor Central

If you are an Amazon Seller, you should note that when using A+ Content, the "regular" product description in Seller Central is completely replaced by the A+ Content. For Amazon Vendors, however, the product description is supplemented by the Amazon A+ Content in Vendor Central. Both have their advantages:

• In Seller Central you can use the 2000 characters entirely for freely strung together keywords, which has a strong, positive influence on visibility. Although the product description is no longer displayed in the product listing, the contents are still indexed by the Amazon algorithm.
• In Vendor Central, on the other hand, you have additional space for additional content such as text and images, which are displayed to potential customers.

Types of A+ Content

Two types of A+ Content can be identified: A+ Standard Content and A+ Premium Content.

Amazon A+ Standard Content

Amazon A+ Standard Content was formerly known as Amazon Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) for sellers and Enhanced Marketing Content (EMC) for vendors. Currently, there are no Amazon A+ Content costs for the A+ Standard Content, which means that it can be used freely by both sellers and vendors.

Amazon A+ Premium Content

Vendors also have another variant available: Amazon A+ Premium Content. Although this is associated with additional costs, it does have some advantages. A+ Premium Content enables vendors to visually enhance their product listing. For example, large webpage-filling graphics, mouse-over effects and additional content such as videos or a FAQ section can be added.

Amazon A+ Premium Content (or A++ Content) is one step ahead of the basic A+ Content and is a great way to create an impressive shopping experience. This feature is used primarily by larger providers and manufacturers. For an overview of the brands that use A+ Premium Content, please see the following article: Amazon A+ Premium Content.

Requirements for the creation of A+ Content: Trademark registration in the Amazon Brand Registry

Amazon vendors automatically qualify for A+ content. As an Amazon Seller, however, you will only be able to take advantage of the additional A+ Content if you have registered your brand with Amazon. In addition, you automatically have access to A+ Content if you are a participant in an Amazon managed sales program such as “Launchpad” or “Amazon Exclusives”. To get the most value out of adding A+ Content, you should first focus on the products that sell best. Authorized vendors can only add Amazon A+ Content to items that are part of the approved Global Catalog Identifier (GCID). Amazon A+ Content can be added to both parent and child ASINS.

The requirements at a glance:

1. According to the Global Catalog Identifier (GCID) you have the ASIN of the product and can edit the product detail page
2. Your trademark is registered on Amazon through the Amazon Brand Registry.

Advantages of A+ Content

Amazon A+ Content offers a lot of potential in different areas. According to Amazon this can lead to

• a higher conversion rate
• increasing number of visitors
• higher turnover
• better reviews and
• a lower return rate.

This is because the additional text, graphics and images lead to a better product understanding among potential customers. If customers have made their purchase decision on a good information basis, it is less likely that their expectations regarding the product will not be met and they will return it. This leads to more satisfied customers in the final step and increases the probability that they will leave positive reviews on the product detail page.

Highlight unique selling points of the item through A+ Content

Ultimately, the creation of marketing content is always about putting the unique selling points of the product in the foreground. Your goal should be to make the customer clearly understand the benefits the product offers.

The example in Figure 4 clearly shows how A+ Content leads to the product's features and functions being highlighted.

Use A+ content to help customers make informed purchasing decisions

In addition, it is important to present as much relevant information as possible in order to influence the purchasing decisions of fluctuating customers and to create realistic ideas about what functions the product has.

The example in Figure 5 shows how A+ Content can be used to explain to customers what function the yoga pillow fulfills, what height it is, and in what colors it is available. This shows that the A+ Content is exactly tailored to the target group of the product. Especially the information about the use of organic textiles and the compliance with high ecological and social standards will most likely have a positive effect on the purchase decision of yoga-savvy customers.

Reduce complexity of the product description

Through pictures, graphics and precise texts it is possible to reduce the complexity of the product description and make the contents easier to understand. This is especially relevant when it comes to products that combine many functions and features.

In addition, by adding images and videos, customers can be introduced to the product as closely as possible to the digital world. In this way, the physical interaction between customer and product that is missing in online shopping is replaced as much as possible.

Proactively answer any customer questions with A+ Content

A+ Content makes it faster and easier for you to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) from your customers before they have even asked them. By carefully going through the questions, reviews and comments section of the product detail page, you can find out what your customers' concerns are. The goal is to make potential customers feel that they have understood their concerns before they even express them.

If A+ Premium Content is used, you, as an Amazon Vendor, can go one step further and by adding a FAQ section you can answer the customers' questions even more explicitly and proactively.

Stand out from the competition with A+ Content

Basically, all efforts are always aimed at setting yourself apart from the competition. Using A+ Content can help prevent potential customers from being distracted by the ads under your product and looking around at other Amazon sellers.

Here, the insertion of a comparison table can be especially helpful. If the displayed product listing does not yet fully match what the customer is looking for, other products of your own brand can be offered via this module. This type of extra content is an excellent way to cross- and up-sell. Usually Amazon automatically decides which other products are suggested to the customer on the product detail page.

With A+ Content, however, you as a salesperson can use the opportunity to present your own product range to the customer in a targeted manner and at the same time avoid potential customers looking around at the competition. Furthermore, this is the only possibility for you to place your own product links in the entire product listing. The prerequisite for this is that these links also lead to your products on Amazon. Links that lead to your own website or to other online stores are not permitted by Amazon.

Emotionalization of the product through own brand history

The trust potential customers place in your brand can have a huge impact on the buying decision. There are many different factors involved:

• Has your brand existed for a longer period of time?
• Is it a traditional product?
• Does your company support social projects?
• Is it a very sustainable product?

You should communicate these points to the outside world, because a good, emotional brand history underlines the values that your brand embodies. This emotionalization is especially important if your products are comparatively expensive. Once a customer has established an emotional relationship with your brand and your product, this strengthens customer loyalty immensely. Such a customer will most likely recommend your product to friends and family.

A good example of a successfully established and communicated brand image is the children and baby food manufacturer Hipp. This company not only advertises with its long family tradition and even gives customers a face to the brand ("That's what my name stands for"), but the particularly gentle, sustainable organic production of the products is also increasingly being pointed out. This significantly increases confidence in the quality of the product. Parents in particular want to offer their children only the best food and are prepared to pay a little more money for a high-quality product.

A+ content is indexed by Google

Unlike the product description, A+ Content is not indexed by Amazon. The A+ content therefore does not play a direct role in the algorithm's decision how high the product page is ranked for a keyword. Amazon SEO therefore still plays an important role, which is why you should constantly optimize your product listing independently of the A+ content.

However, the images and texts of A+ content are indexed by Google and can therefore help you to achieve a better ranking in the search results on Google.

Prioritized playout in the Amazon app and the mobile view

In the Amazon app and in the mobile version for smartphones and tablets, the A+ content is displayed as the first information below the product price and the Amazon Sponsored Products on the product detail page - before the highlights. As more and more customers are buying products via the mobile Amazon app, it is particularly advantageous for you to enter A+ Content here, as your product listing becomes much more meaningful.

Create Amazon A+ Content

If you choose to add A+ content to your product detail page, it is not enough to simply add a few images and sentences. The overall impression and content should be appealing and coherent.

To achieve this, it helps if you imagine that you are creating a landing page. Just like A+ Content, the goal is to convince your customers of your product. You should also plan the A+ Content like a story. What do you want to tell your customers? Make sure that the writing style you choose matches the images and mood of the A+ Content.

It is also important to focus on the essential content. Each section of the A+ content should have a specific purpose. Usually, it is to explain the functions and features of the product that you want to convey to the customer. Concise content that is easy to understand is the focus of your A+ section.

For inspiration, you should look at the A+ Content of other well-known brands. This will quickly give you a good feeling for which modules are particularly suitable for which type of product and which arrangements work best on the screen.

Create in Seller Central and Vendor Central

1. Log in to Seller Central or Vendor Central with the appropriate credentials Make sure your brand is registered in the Amazon Brand Registry before you proceed.
2. As an Amazon Seller: Go to the "Advertising" section and click on "A+ Content Manager". If content has already been created, it will be listed in the Content Manager. To check if A+ content has already been created for a specific product, enter this product in the search bar.

As an Amazon Vendor: Creating A+ Content in Vendor Central differs from creating it in Seller Central only in this step. In Vendor Central, existing A+ Content can be edited and new A+ Content can be created under the menu item "Marketing > A+ Content Manager".

To create new A+ Content, click the "Create Content for A+" button in the upper right corner of the A+ Content Manager page. Once you click on it, you will find a template that needs to be filled in as part of your A+ content (see Figure 11). First you have to give the content a name so that it can be found again. Usually the SKUs of the products you find in the inventory are used here. Then you select the language in which your content should be written.

Another way to create new A+ content is to duplicate existing content. This can then be adapted for a new product.

4. The A+ Content itself consists of different modules that can be arranged as desired, like in a modular system. Regarding optimization for mobile devices, you don't have to worry about adapting your content, as Amazon automatically adjusts the size of the texts and images. Only with graphics that contain text should you make sure that they remain readable on the mobile device.
5. To select additional modules, click on "Add module". Select any template. Note that Amazon offers a total of 17 types of modules. Amazon sellers have a small advantage over Amazon vendors, because they can use a total of 7 modules, while vendors can only combine a total of 5 modules freely (as of May 2020) and use them on their product detail page. Most modules provide a combination of images and text.

You can use the same modules multiple times or mix the modules as often as you like. When you have finished your selection, upload the image and content. Click on the preview option to see how your page will look like. Check not only the desktop view, but also the mobile device view.

6. Click on the selected module to make it available for editing. At first glance, depending on the complexity of the selected module, there are quite a few fields to fill in. However, you should not be put off by this, because Amazon specifies exactly where images, texts, headlines or keywords must be used. Furthermore, you are not forced to fill in every field. Amazon will automatically reformat the template to fill in the empty space and create a coherent overall image.

You should decide which modules you use individually for each product. Of course, it also depends on how many images and information you have available. Somewhat simpler modules are usually easier to fill. If you have a large amount of appealing text and images available, more complex modules are definitely a good choice.

7. If you want to remove one of the modules afterwards, you can do so by clicking the X at the upper right edge of the module. You can change the order of the modules with the arrows.
8. If you are satisfied with the created content, you can save the design and in the next step include the ASINs by clicking on "Next: Apply ASINs". Here you can now search for the ASIN of a specific product or, if the A+ content was kept rather general, you can insert several ASINs.

After you have selected the product, you may need to select which variants of the product the A+ content should apply to. To apply the marked ASINs, you have to click on "Use Content". Now you will find the product under applied ASINs.

9. Click on "Next: Check and submit" to proceed to the last step. Here you will see a preview of the extended product description. At this point, you should check everything thoroughly once again and check for spelling mistakes etc. before the content can be submitted for approval.

In the overview of the A+ content you can see the current status of the content on the far right. Drafts have not yet been submitted. Approved content has already been published. Here you can also sort the contents, for example by the date of the last change or by name.

Which A+ content is not approved by Amazon?

The Amazon Guidelines specify which content will result in the rejection of A+ content. This includes among others:

• The provision of contact details of the company
• Criminal activities
• Prices and advertising information
• Time critical information
• Quotations from external sources (e.g. television broadcasts)
• Links to external websites
• Abusive, blurred or low quality images
• Strikingly bad spelling, many grammar errors, etc.
• Violations of the sales guidelines or the code of conduct for sellers on Amazon

The maximum waiting time for approving or rejecting an A+ content is seven days, but in most cases you will receive a response within two business days. In the event that your content is rejected, Amazon will notify you which policies you have violated. After you have ensured that the criticized violations have been resolved, you can resubmit your A+ content. You may have a maximum of 20 A+ Content requests pending at any one time.

A+ Content Best Practice Example

A+ Content Worst Practice Example

Success control of the published A+ content

Basically, A+ Content can of course be added to all your qualified product listings. However, you should ask yourself if this is really worthwhile considering the effort required to create A+ Content. It is better to proceed strategically when creating A+ Content and initially limit yourself to products that meet the following criteria:

• You have a good return on investment (ROI).
• You need a thorough explanation and illustration.
• You are among the best sellers.
• You need A+ Content, since many competing products already have it.
• You need A+ Content because Amazon uses a product comparison widget on the product details page to drive traffic from your product page.

How do I know that my A+ Content is well received?

As an Amazon Vendor you unfortunately have no possibility to directly check how your A+ Content influences your product listing. As an Amazon Seller, however, you should monitor your conversion rate. If it improves after the introduction of A+ content without changing other parameters at the same time, you can assume that the increase is due to the A+ content. More meaningful, however, is the Amazon tool "Manage your Experiments".

Amazon feature "Manage your Experiments"

To help its sellers, Amazon has released a feature called "Manage Your Experiments". This allows sellers and vendors to test their A+ content. This gives you the opportunity to conduct experiments, build a set of best practices, and develop a deeper understanding of the needs of your target audience. This will allow you to find out what kind of images, videos and text really appeals to your target audience.

How does "Manage your Experiments" work?

The experiments conducted by Amazon work according to a simple principle: visitors to your product listing are divided into two groups, with each group displaying a different version of your A+ content. Amazon makes sure that the content displayed to a customer on their different devices does not differ. Based on the conversion rate, you will have an indication at the end of the process as to which of the two versions is better received by your customers.

In order to use the new feature, you have to select an ASIN for which A+ content has already been entered and which is considered highly frequented. We are talking about 40-50 orders per week. You can see all approved ASINs in your A+ Manager.

Which content elements can I test with it?

With the feature "Manage Your Experiments" you can basically test everything that has to do with your A+ content: Images, text, structure, language etc. However, we recommend that you always test elements only. Otherwise it is difficult to find out why the conversion rate differs between the two versions of your A+ content: Which change in the A+ content was ultimately decisive?

How long does an A+ content experiment take?

For the duration of the A+ Content Experiment, you can choose a time span between 4 and 10 weeks. You can change this time span at any time or even stop the experiment completely. However, the longer you run the experiment, the more reliable your results will ultimately be. Do not abort the experiment too soon if you have the impression that there is a clear favorite right at the beginning. This may be misleading and may change several times in the course of the experiment.

Throughout the entire period of the experiment, Amazon collects information about the percentage change of units sold after the variation of the A+ content. This means: If the change of sold units is positive, version A works well, if it is negative, version B works better. Amazon thus provides you with a clear indicator of which A+ Content variant generates higher sales figures and thus higher turnover.

You can access the new feature in your A+ Content Manager in Seller Central or Vendor Central.

There you will have to take the following steps:

• Decide which product / which content you would like to test
• Setting up the experiment with the feature
• Provide two versions of the A+ content
• Start the experiment

At the end of the experiment you can filter out the contents that perform better.

Amazon content monitoring by AMALYTIX

For your success on Amazon, it is essential that your product listings and their contents are continuously monitored. With our Amazon Seller Tool and Amazon Vendor Tool AMALYTIX this is possible.

AMALYTIX monitors all elements of your content. From title to A+ content, our tool analyzes your product listing in detail and provides valuable recommendations for optimization. In addition, we not only look at the ACTUAL state, but also compare it with the previous day or the target state defined by you. We check daily if anything has changed in your product listing. If so, you will automatically receive a note and thus maintain a complete overview every day.