Elevating Your PDP with Premium A+: Why You Should Use It & How To Unlock It

In the competitive world of Amazon, brands are often looking for every opportunity to get a leg up. To our surprise, we rarely see brands using Premium A+ Pages despite it being a feature Amazon has been offering for free to both Vendors and Sellers since November of 2022.

We totally understand implementing Premium A+ Pages across your catalog can be a daunting task so we created this overview to help brands better understand the topic and take the necessary next steps. In this blog, we’ll cover:

• What is Premium A+ 

• Reasons why a brand should consider using Premium A+

• Factors when considering Premium A+

• And lastly, how to unlock Premium A+ 

What is Premium A+ Content? And Why Brands Should Consider Upgrading.

Premium A+ Content, formerly exclusive to Amazon Vendors, became available to eligible brands on Seller Central in 2022. Previously, it was only accessible to brands using Vendor Central, and it often came with a hefty price tag upwards of $200,000.

It empowers brands to craft rich and engaging product descriptions that go beyond basic text and images. By incorporating multimedia elements like high-quality visuals, videos, interactive hotspots, and comparison charts, Premium A+ Content creates a more immersive and informative shopping experience.

According to Amazon, implementing Premium A+ Content can lead to a 20% increase in sales.

Here are some of the key features and benefits of Premium A+ Content:

1. Video Integration: Premium A+ allows brands to add videos to product pages, showcasing products in action, highlighting key features, and engaging customers with dynamic visual content.

2. Full-Screen-Width Imagery: Brands are able to use the entire screen width to display high-resolution, eye-catching images that create a more modern-looking experience.

3. Interactive Hover Hotspot Modules: Brands can add interactive elements to product images, allowing customers to hover over specific areas for more information, zoom in on details, or discover hidden features.

4. Enhanced Comparison Charts: Premium A+ provides upgraded comparison charts, enabling brands to present product specifications, features, and benefits in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand format.

5. Carousel Modules: Amazon’s carousel modules offer a flexible and space-efficient way to showcase multiple images, videos, or product variations within a single module, allowing brands to convey more information and engage customers without overwhelming the page.

6. Premium Q&A: This module includes additional functionalities, such as featuring frequently asked questions and providing detailed answers, aiding customers in their decision-making process.

7. Mobile and Voice-Friendly Design: Premium A+ Content ensures that product pages are optimized for mobile devices and voice-assisted searches, offering a seamless and user-friendly experience across various platforms and devices.

Is Premium A+ Content Worth It? Here Are Some Considerations.

Having larger, more prominent, more dynamic visuals at no extra cost seems like a no-brainer. But, like most tactics on Amazon, it takes time and specific skills to implement Premium A+ effectively. Before investing in Premium A+, here are some considerations brands should review:

1. Do you have the necessary assets?

   The effectiveness of your Premium A+ content heavily depends on the quality of your assets. Do you have strong image and video content for your products? Brands that effectively take advantage of Premium A+ typically have a higher quantity of product-in-use and lifestyle assets to work with. If you are limited in these resources, basic A+ may be your best choice for now. 

   For comparison, review the Premium A+ Pages of other brands in your category to understand who is doing it well and what types of assets they are working with.

2. Is your product a good fit for Premium A+?

   A+ Premium was originally created specifically for certain categories like consumer electronics and beauty. More commodity or basic items like t-shirts or chips might not benefit as much from upgrading the Premium. Again, check out what your competitors are doing and assess if your products would benefit from the additional story-telling opportunity that Premium presents.

3. Do you have the creative chops?

   While Premium A+ seems simple enough when you see it live on a listing, the additional interactive and dynamic features it presents add to the complexity of the creative process. The creator of the Premium A+ is presented with considerably more options and freedom compared to that of basic A+ Content. Consider: does your creative team have the strategic and technical skills to accomplish your Premium A+ Page vision?

Free A+ Premium might not last forever, so weigh the time and resources needed to update your pages. And lastly, make sure you are measuring the results of your upgrade to Premium via A/B testing and comparing pre/post sales and advertising metrics. Always test!

Unlocking Premium A+ Content

Lastly, how do you unlock Premium A+ Content? It’s pretty simple but you'll need to meet Amazon's eligibility criteria. Here are the requirements:

1. Set up a Brand Story across your entire catalog: The Brand Story, a carousel-style banner, sits on your product listing just above the A+ Page. Brand Stories allow Sellers and Vendors to highlight their brand's story and values, showcase more of their catalog, and provide links to their brand Store. To quickly check off this requirement, a brand can make one Brand Story and scale it across all the ASINs in their assortment.

2. Demonstrate usage of A+ Content: The second requirement is the brand must have had at least 5 project submissions of A+ Content that have been approved and published within the past 12 months. You can confirm this by accessing the A+ Content Manager and checking the status of your submitted projects and the last published date.

   If you don’t have basic A+ Pages currently live in your catalog, it’s simple to create a very simple A+ Page that speaks to your brand with your logo and story. Then, you could create a separate A+ Page Project for each ASIN in your catalog until you reach 5 project submissions.

   In the instance that you have less than 5 ASINs in your catalog, here is a hack to creating more projects: go to an already-approved project, click on “Actions” in the upper right corner, choose “Duplicate” and toggle on “Copy ASINs to duplicate content”. After that, you’ll have to go to that new Project, “Edit”, “Apply ASINs”, and then “Review & Submit”.

While it can be a more intimidating tactic to leverage, we believe Premium A+ is a no-brainer to put some thoughtful consideration into. Does your brand and product benefit from the improved capabilities of Premium A+? Do you have the assets necessary to complete your vision? And do you have the resources to execute?

If you need any guidance in deciding if Premium A+ Content is right for your brand, unlocking Premium A+, or executing on your vision, we are here to help!