I think the best way to approach this is to frame your work around the "seven easy image optimization hacks" that Dave talks about on The EcomCrew Ecommerce Podcast. The number itself isn't magic, but the principle is. He makes the point that for many customers, your images are the first, and sometimes only, interaction they have with your product. This single idea reframes the whole exercise. You're not just decorating a listing; you're creating the entire product experience in a potential customer's mind.
This is where the Product Opportunity Explorer becomes so powerful. As Elizabeth Greene and Keith O'Brien both break down on the Amazon Legends Podcast, the tool is brilliant at finding underserved niches. But you have to know what to look for. Instead of just looking for high search volume and low competition, you can use it to find niches where the conversion rate is low or the click-through rates are poor despite high demand. These are often markets where the existing sellers have lazy or uninspired product visuals. This is your opening. The POE data tells you where to apply a framework like Dave's seven hacks for maximum impact.
Once you have a target niche, your next step is deep competitor analysis, but not just by looking at what the best-sellers are doing. As Nafiseh Razavi argued on Seller Sessions, the goal is winning by innovating, not imitating. This is crucial. Your goal isn't to look like everyone else, it's to stand out. I'd even layer on the advice from Sean Elias on the Serious Sellers Podcast about deep Customer Feedback Analysis. He points out that combing through competitor reviews will show you exactly where their images are failing customers. Are they complaining the product was smaller than expected? Your images need to show scale better. Do they misunderstand a key feature? You need a callout or infographic image to clarify it.
So, the benchmark isn't a specific CTR number. It's a process. Use Amazon's Product Opportunity Explorer to find a hunting ground. Then, use competitor reviews and a critical eye to identify the visual gaps and customer pain points. Finally, optimize your own product visuals to solve those specific problems and tell a better story. That's how you use these tools together to find a niche and actually win it.