1. Forget Ads — Use Brand Advocacy to Build Markets
In the Nielsen global Trust in Advertising Study of 2021, 40,000 people across 56 countries were surveyed – and 88% of them said that they trusted recommendations from people they know above any other type of marketing messaging (Buyapowa). That includes paid ads or influencer marketing. Now, given you probably don’t rub elbows with all the friends and family of your customer base, you’ll need to replicate this level of conversion and engagement through a brand advocate.
A brand advocate is a customer themselves. They leave positive reviews, they refer potential customers, and create content on your behalf. They use word of mouth marketing in the most authentic and natural way: they spread the word about your product not because they’re paid or get an affiliate commission out of it, but because they’ve had a personal experience with your product and service, and want to spread the word about how awesome you are.
The brand advocate is different from a brand ambassador, who’s often selected or hired based on audience, image, or reach; the latter promotes your brand in a more structured, strategic way, through guidelines set by your brand, and may even be an influencer. The former spreads brand awareness totally on their own – informally, organically – because they love you.
Now, when you’re expanding to new countries, you’ll meet new customers that don’t know your brand. This is precisely when you build brand advocacy programs to create brand advocates out of new customers. Although brand advocacy campaigns are amazing marketing strategies, brand advocates are born out of excellent customer service – and may become some of your longest customers, ever.
Let’s see how you can build an effective brand advocacy program to help you scale to other countries.
If you’re interested in this post, read all about the customer engagement strategy, and how it can help you deepen your relationship with customers all over the globe.
2. What Exactly Is a Brand Advocate?
When people hear “brand advocate,” they often picture influencers, but in reality your most powerful advocates might already be under your nose. There are the loyal customers that leave rave reviews without even being asked, resellers and business partners that believe in what you offer, or employee advocates who proudly share company wins and insights.
Successful brand advocacy isn’t just about exposure; it’s active promotion powered by real experience. They’re not reading from a script. They’re not following guidelines. You’re not paying them to share these insights – no, not even when your employees act as brand advocates, because they’re spreading the word simply because they love working with you. Brand advocates share stories that are powered by real experience.
So, what’s the difference between brand advocates and ambassadors – and affiliate partnerships? Here’s a quick glimpse:
| Role | Motivation | Relationship | Common Channels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand Advocate | Genuine love for the brand | Organic, informal | Reviews, word-of-mouth, UGC |
| Brand Ambassador | Paid or formal collaboration | Contracted/ongoing | Sponsored content, events, appearances |
| Affiliate | Monetary commission per conversion | Transactional, tracked | Custom links, coupon codes, referrals |
They all have different roles to play at every stage of the funnel. Take a look:
| Funnel Stage | Goal | Best Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness | Get in front of new audiences | Brand Ambassador | They’re visible, curated, and on-brand—great for storytelling + reach |
| Consideration | Build trust + social proof | Brand Advocate | Genuine reviews, organic posts, and UGC are most persuasive here |
| Conversion | Drive action or purchase | Affiliate | Affiliates incentivize clicks and sales with urgency and reward |
| Loyalty & Retention | Keep customers coming back | Brand Advocate | Loyal fans reinforce others’ decisions and keep buzz alive |
| Referral | Encourage word-of-mouth | Advocate + Affiliate | Advocates refer because they love you; affiliates because they’re paid |
All three have the ability to make your brand stand out in the competitive global eCommerce market. Ambassadors and advocates get the word out, while affiliates can drive conversion. When you use these strategies all together, you amplify your brand reach in a massive way.
3. Why is Brand Advocacy Important for Global Success?
One of the biggest benefits of brand advocacy is through the creation of local trust. When you’re entering a new marketplace, you’re starting from scratch. That’s why social proof is very important each and every time you expand. In international markets, consumers often rely more heavily on peer validation before making a purchase. Reviews, testimonials, and UGC aren’t just nice-to-haves – they’re absolutely vital when building trust with new consumers.
Advocacy marketing is a shortcut through language, culture, and algorithms. As you all know, expanding globally means so much more than just translating listings. It means speaking the language of your audience’s values, habits, and expectations.
When you turn customers into brand advocates, you won’t have to worry about language barriers, because they’ll explain your product in their own native terms. Cultural nuances aren’t an issue either, because they’re natives themselves; they know what resonates and what doesn’t. Algorithm hurdles don’t matter as much either, because algorithms across platforms love user generated content (UGC), boosting visibility in the most natural, organic way.
Whether you’re trying to reach Gen Z in Germany or moms in Mexico, a local advocate can open doors algorithms can’t. They’re already inside the community, speaking the language—both literally and emotionally.
Firm advocates of your brand will likely already use regional language and slang, and showcase the product in familiar local settings. Plus, their content gets better engagement thanks to cultural relevance. It’s authentic, it’s relevant, and it drives conversions – and algorithms boost this kind of content, so you don’t have to worry about visibility.
In other words, in addition to your brand ambassadors and brand affiliates, you want to develop relationships with advocates so they recommend your brand and increase brand awareness among their friends and family.
4. Who Are Your Potential Brand Advocates Abroad?
You don’t need A-list celebrities or six-figure influencer deals to grow globally. You just need to find the people that already love your brand.
Identifying potential brand advocates in each country you sell in isn’t actually that hard; they’re already in your orbit.
Loyal international customers: These are the ones leaving glowing reviews, referring friends, and who are already loyal to your brand. They keep coming back for more. They’re already doing the work of building your brand in their own unique way each time they recommend your brand to others. Give them a spotlight and a reason to keep sharing.
Local influencers & micro-creators: A step above the brand advocate, these people have trust. They may not have millions of followers, but they engage with their market regularly. They feel like that celebrity that you admire but whom you also speak to regularly – a friend that also happens to be famous. Their audiences are tight-knit and highly engaged, making their endorsements feel authentic and personal.
Customer service reps: Your customer support team often becomes the face of your brand in new regions. They understand pain points and delights better than anyone—and they genuinely want customers to succeed. When customers engage with your customer service team from any country, and your team is truly happy to work with you, they offer better service, and your customer feels it. This is employee advocacy at its peak.
Your existing community: Implement a customer advocacy program so you turn engaged followers into brand advocates. Think early access, exclusive perks, a loyalty program, or a referral program with rewards, you can turn casual fans into passionate, vocal advocates. They’ve already got the brand loyalty; you just need to encourage them to spread the word.
5. Turning Customers Into Advocates All Over the World
Expansion itself is already expensive, so save money wherever you can. That’s why a brand advocacy strategy is golden when you’re scaling abroad – you don’t need a massive influencer budget to grow loyalty on an international scale. You just need the right voices, the right tools, and a little localization magic. Here’s how to encourage loyal customers to become brand advocates:
Step 1: Start With Your Most Vocal Buyers
These are the customers that are already affiliated with your brand. Who’s leaving 5-star reviews? Dropping DMs in your social with “I love this!”? Posting unprompted UGC on TikTok or Instagram? Use tools like Amazon review tracking, social listening, or post-purchase surveys to find out who these people are. These customers are already emotionally invested in your product or service – now it’s time to invite them in.
Step 2: Offer Incentives That Translate
Encourage brand advocacy by offering region-specific incentives. What works in the USA may fall flat in Japan or Brazil. Think about discount codes or vouchers in the local currency, gift certificates, freebies or swag that feel culturally relevant, and early access to limited-edition drops – especially powerful in high-FOMO cultures (PS – your millennial customer has the highest FOMO of all, according to Opt In Monster!). This way, you turn your community into insiders – not just shoppers.
Step 3: Gamify the Experience
Develop your advocacy program so it feels like fun, not like homework. Gamification keeps your brand advocates engaged and excited. Think about a point system for referrals, shares, and reviews, or badges for profiles, or public shoutouts, leaderboards, and monthly giveaways. Get creative! The success of your brand advocacy initiatives depend on how engaged your advocates are – so make sure your advocates know that their voices matter, and you appreciate working with them.
6. Examples of the Power of Brand Advocacy
Strong brand advocacy leads to incredible brand recognition – here are a few brands that did it well.
The Stanley Cup
Nina Bader shares the amazing rebranding story of everyone’s favorite vacuum insulated cup on her Medium blog. The Buy Guide featured Stanley Cups, espousing its virtues to its demographic of mostly moms. The advocacy content spoke about the cup’s durability, how it fits into car cup holders and is dishwasher safe, and how it keeps ice cold for 12+ hours. The Buy Guide was so shocked to find out that the brand was planning to phase out the 40 oz. Quencher, they took matters into their own hands. They bought a few thousand units on discount – these sold out in a matter of days to their mom followers. The 100+ year old brand, which had heretofore been marketed to outdoor workers, campers, hikers, and the like, suddenly had a complete brand overhaul – thanks to the voice of a few moms. Now, you’ll find that the Stanley Cup’s major demographic is, indeed, women, and all over the world, moms are incentivized to buy cups on their own – after being spurred on by other fellow moms.
Starbucks
The coffee giant has a robust employee advocacy program – because happy employees naturally become brand advocates. Initiatives like Starbucks Stories and the hashtag #ToBeAPartner give space for employees to share their experiences and content. Starbucks even has creative contests like the White Cup Contest, which both staff and customers can participate in, increasing the brand’s visibility through UGC. Some baristas even gained social media followings, becoming organic micro-influencers. Starbucks supports and collaborates with them. In other words, Starbucks proves that with the right culture, tools, and strategy, employee advocacy becomes a powerful growth engine, to boost brand loyalty, reach, and internal morale all in one.
Apple
Apple is renowned for embracing UGC – and its brand advocacy marketing strategy reflects that perfectly. The “Shot on iPhone” campaign invited iPhone users from all over the globe to share their favorite photos using a designated hashtag. In other words, Apple crowdsourced real customer photos and selected their favorites to feature in billboard ads and public transit campaigns worldwide. No staged shoots, no celebrity models, no expensive productions, just authentic user content with a clean “Shot on iPhone” tagline. The brand received thousands of submissions. Among those, 77 images from users across 24 countries appeared in Apple’s ads – appearing almost entirely unedited. The result was a campaign rooted in authenticity, diversity, and creative expression.
Incentivize brand advocates to create content around your brand. Reward them for it. Help them build their personal brand and also promote your brand, all at the same time. You’ll find that you’ll be well on the way to creating a strong brand advocacy program of your own.
7. How to Measure Your Brand Advocacy Program
So, now that you know how to do it, and how big brands have done it, it’s time to get down to the wire – how do you measure brand advocacy efforts? How in the world will you know if your brand advocates really do increase brand visibility and improve your brand image?
Here are some key metrics to watch:
-
Referrals by Region
Track how many new customers are coming in through referrals—segmented by country or language market. This shows where your advocacy efforts are truly resonating. -
Organic Review Growth
A spike in authentic, unsolicited reviews often signals a healthy advocate base. Monitor increases on Amazon, Google, and localized marketplaces. -
UGC Volume & Engagement
Measure how much user-generated content is being created—and how well it performs. High engagement means people aren’t just seeing your brand, they’re connecting with it. -
Branded Search Lift
If more people are Googling your brand by name (or searching it on Amazon), advocacy is doing its job. This indicates rising awareness and trust. -
Customer Lifetime Value in New Markets
Monitor CLV across regions to see where advocacy is translating to loyalty and repeat business—not just one-off purchases. -
NPS & Satisfaction Scores by Language
Break down Net Promoter Scores or CSAT by region or language to spot which markets are becoming your strongest brand believers.
Time to Build Your Own Successful Brand Advocacy Program!
In global eCommerce, the rules of engagement are shifting. Shoppers don’t just want great products—they want trust, relatability, and proof that you deliver what you promise. That’s exactly where brand advocacy thrives.
By turning customers, employees, and everyday users into passionate promoters, you’re not just expanding reach—you’re building credibility across borders. From viral mom-led movements to employee-powered storytelling and UGC-driven campaigns, the most iconic brands are already proving that advocacy outperforms ads, cuts through cultural noise, and scales naturally.
As you grow into new markets, invest in the voices already cheering you on. Create space for them. Reward them. Let them lead the way—and you’ll find your brand reaching places your ad budget never could!
If you enjoyed this blog, you might find wisdom in our snippet on paid vs. organic marketing. Do you have any questions about localization, branding, marketing, or eCommerce? Let us know – we’d be happy to help, and your question might be the focus of a blog in the near future!