Most Amazon sellers spend hours optimizing keywords. Meanwhile, Amazon's AI is reading their images — and silently penalizing them for what it finds. Here's everything you need to know about COSMO and why it's changing how Amazon ranks products.
In 2023, Amazon quietly deployed a new AI system called COSMO — Contextual and Multimodal Signals Optimization. While most sellers were focused on keywords and PPC campaigns, COSMO was learning to read product listings the same way a human shopper would — visually.
COSMO is not a single feature you can see in Seller Central. It's an underlying AI model that processes everything Amazon knows about your product — your title, bullets, A+ content, customer reviews, and critically, your images and videos — to build a rich understanding of what your product actually is, who it's for, and what problems it solves.
This matters because Amazon uses COSMO's understanding of your product to decide:
If COSMO doesn't understand your product correctly from your images, it won't show your listing to the right buyers — regardless of how well-optimized your keywords are. You can have perfect keyword density and still lose to a competitor with better images because COSMO understands their product better.
COSMO uses a combination of computer vision and natural language AI to interpret your listing images. Here's what it's actually doing when it processes each image:
COSMO identifies every object in your image. If you sell a blender, COSMO recognises the blender itself, the lid, the blade, any ingredients shown, the surface it's sitting on, and any other objects in the frame. This tells COSMO what your product is and what context it exists in.
When your images show people using your product, COSMO understands the activity. A person making a smoothie tells COSMO: fitness product, kitchen use, health-conscious buyer. A person meal prepping tells COSMO: productivity, cooking, working professional demographic.
If your lifestyle images include people, COSMO identifies their approximate age, gender, and activity to understand your target demographic. This helps Amazon match your product to the right buyers in recommendations and sponsored placements.
COSMO reads every piece of text visible in your images. Callouts, badges, feature labels, certification stamps — all of it is read and incorporated into COSMO's product understanding. This is why your Visual Keyword Engine matters: the text you put on your images is literally read by Amazon's AI.
COSMO also assesses image quality. Blurry images, poor lighting, cluttered compositions — all of these result in lower confidence scores from COSMO, which can affect where your listing appears.
Based on analysis of thousands of listings across hundreds of categories, the Letnexus Visual Authority Score (VAS) measures the 10 dimensions that COSMO is known to evaluate:
| Dimension | What COSMO Measures | Max Score |
|---|---|---|
| Hero Image | Clarity, compliance, composition, zoom quality | 15 |
| Infographics | Feature communication, callout quality, text clarity | 15 |
| Benefit Images | Problem-solution communication, emotional triggers | 15 |
| A+ Content | Brand storytelling, comparison modules, visual richness | 15 |
| Lifestyle Images | Use-case context, demographic alignment, authenticity | 15 |
| Mobile Optimization | Readability at small size, key info visible at thumbnail | 15 |
| Trust Signals | Certifications, badges, testimonials, guarantees visible | 15 |
| Size & Scale | Dimension clarity, comparison objects, measurement labels | 15 |
| Video / SBV | Product demonstration, hook strength, storytelling | 15 |
| Branding | Visual consistency, logo placement, brand identity | 15 |
This is the question every Amazon seller is asking. The honest answer: both matter, but COSMO is the newer and more underserved opportunity.
Keywords are table stakes. Every serious seller has keyword-optimized listings. The playing field is level on keywords because everyone is doing it. Where listings genuinely differ — and where sellers are leaving massive opportunity — is visual optimization.
📊 An analysis of top-10 listings across 50 categories found that visual score difference between #1 and #10 ranked listings averaged 18 points. The keyword difference was minimal — all top listings had similar keyword density. The images were where the gap lived.
This doesn't mean keywords don't matter. It means that in competitive categories where everyone has good keywords, your images become your competitive advantage.
The single biggest COSMO improvement you can make. Show your product being used by a real person in a real environment. This tells COSMO exactly who your customer is and what problems your product solves. Every listing should have at least 2 lifestyle images.
Think about the top 5 questions a buyer would have about your product before purchasing. Create images that answer each one visually — without the buyer having to read your bullets. COSMO and RUFUS both reward this directly.
COSMO reads the text in your images. Use this to your advantage by placing high-intent keywords — converted into human-readable phrases — in your infographic and callout images. Instead of "BPA free airtight containers" write "BPA-Free & Airtight Guaranteed." Same intent, better visual communication, same COSMO signal.
One of the most commonly missing images and one of the highest-impact adds. Show your product next to a common reference object. Label dimensions clearly. COSMO understands scale and uses it to correctly categorize your product for buyers who are searching by size.
Amazon video content is processed by COSMO just like images — but with even more context signals. A 15-second product demonstration gives COSMO more information about your product than any static image can. Listings with SBV consistently score 8-12 points higher on VAS than equivalent listings without video.
Letnexus analyses your listing images against COSMO and RUFUS signals and gives you a Visual Authority Score (VAS) across all 10 dimensions in 30 seconds — for free, no login required.
You'll see exactly where your listing stands, what's missing, and what to fix first for the highest impact on your sales.
Paste your ASIN below. Free scan — no account, no credit card needed.
→ Scan My Listing Free