For other authors out there using Amazon ads, I’m sure you noticed the introduction of sponsored brand product collections sometime in the fall. I’ve been trying them with the three books in my Zoomarble series. Amazon creates an image with three books tiled nicely. The ads seem to be generating some clicks, so all is well.
Now there has been a notice that starting on January 31 the sponsored product ads must include custom images. There is a push to use their AI to generate an image from a description you provide. Their example was, “Show the product on a table”. So I tried this and it produced this image.
Okay, fine. It pasted the image of my book onto a picture of a table. I wouldn’t call it “intelligent” but it certainly puts the “artificial” in AI.
I decided to try, “Show a clown reading the product” because all the books have some clowns involved. The response was, “Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.” Okay, “Show a pirate reading the product.” The response, again, “Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.” I decided to go easy on the AI and said, “Show the product in space.”
Nice. It pasted the cover of the book onto a picture of space. In the same place as the table picture. I tried, “Show a robot reading the product.”
Now, that is spot on! Look at the realistic way the robot is flipping through the pages of the book! Just kidding. It pasted the book image into the same spot. “Show a dragon reading the product.”
Wow. This is so underwhelming that I can barely see the whelm. Whatever. I selected all the images and ran the ad anyway. It creates a slideshow that is comical because of the lame sadness. However, it’s generating some clicks, probably out of pity.
But since I write SciFi, which makes me like a scientist, I needed to compare and contrast results. Using Bing with GPT-4 I tried, “Generate an image of a crazy robot reading a book.”
That’s more like it! Maybe I can just use an image from Bing for my Amazon ad. “Generate an image of a crazy robot reading “Zoomarble” by Adam Swetnam.” It provided the following image and description:
“The book ‘zoomarble’ by Adam Swetnam is a science fiction novel about a world where humans can transform into animals using a mysterious device called a zoomarble. The story follows a young girl named Zoe who discovers a hidden zoomarble and embarks on a thrilling adventure with her new animal friends. The book is praised for its imaginative plot, vivid descriptions, and humorous dialogue.”
What the deep-fried fuck? That’s not my book. Actually, it sounds interesting but I can’t find it on Amazon so I don’t know who wrote it. I guess I’ll find out if I get sued for anything. In the meantime, I tried, “Generate an image of a crazy robot reading books by Adam Swetnam.” It produced the following image and a description that is more flattering than any review I’ve received:
“The image shows a robot with a metal body, a large head, and two antennas. The robot has a pair of glasses on its eyes and a smile on its mouth. The robot is holding three books by Adam Swetnam in its hands: Zoomarble, Meaner Monkeys, and Scrapes the Nadir. The robot seems to be enjoying reading the books, as it has a curious and amused expression on its face.”
There we go! The third book blew the brains out of their head! I can work with this. Time to generate a new custom image listing for sponsored products. I didn’t even try it with clowns or pirates yet.