A Guide to Organic Marketing vs Paid Marketing for Amazon Sellers

Here’s a big mistake that Amazon sellers make: placing insufficient importance on organic marketing, with over-reliance on paid marketing tactics, like PPC. This is a shame; organic marketing efforts, while they may take a little longer to penetrate the hearts and minds of your target audience, is pretty impactful. Successful organic efforts can reduce the cost of your marketing campaigns, and create a lasting impression with your target market.

Read on to learn what organic marketing can do for you, especially as you expand your Amazon business to other countries, and understand the balance between organic marketing and paid marketing. Understanding both methods, and where the balance between them lies, can really help boost your business and impact the bottom line.

Let’s see how you can increase your reach with the best practices in organic marketing, and how to balance paid and organic marketing.

While we’re on the topic of marketing, don’t forget to localize your external marketing; we’ve got the tips to help you do this successfully.

What is Organic Marketing?

So, what exactly is organic marketing? Essentially, it’s a marketing strategy that will drive organic traffic and build brand awareness without paying for advertisements. The idea is to create content that attracts customers in a natural way over time. Paid methods usually rely on advertisements; organic marketing builds a foundation of customer trust through consistent engagement, relevant content, and authentic customer interactions.

Here are 5 organic marketing examples:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization):

• Optimizing product listings, blog posts, and website content to rank higher in search engine results.
• Using relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and high-quality backlinks to increase visibility.
• On Amazon, SEO can significantly improve the visibility of your products, making it easier for customers to find them without paid ads.

2. Social Media Engagement:

• Posting regularly on social media platforms to build a community around your brand.
• Encouraging followers to engage with your content, share reviews, and recommend your products.
• Social media interaction helps build relationships with potential customers and enhances the credibility of your brand.

3. Blog Content:

• Creating informative and engaging blog content that provides value to your audience.
• Blogging helps establish authority in your niche and can drive organic traffic to your Amazon listings through keyword-rich content.
• Blogs also provide the opportunity to answer customer questions, showcase product features, and build trust.

4. Product Listing Optimization:

• Optimizing product listings on Amazon with detailed descriptions, relevant keywords, and high-quality images.
• Properly optimized listings improve organic search rankings, making your products easier to discover without relying on paid ads.
• Clear, informative, and keyword-rich product listings build trust and credibility with potential buyers.

5. Email Marketing:

• Producing regular emails or newsletters with highly relevant, engaging content
• Encourage engagement through action, like discounts, promotions, or giveaways if they reply to the email
• Provide educational content on how to better maximize product use

How can organic marketing build brand trust, credibility, and a loyal audience?

Organic marketing aims to build a genuine connection with customers. By consistently providing valuable content, engaging with your audience, and focusing on user experience, you create an environment where that trust can flourish. Over time, this trust grows into brand credibility, as customers associate your brand with reliability and knowledge.

So, unlike paid marketing that’s heavily reliant on ads, organic marketing emphasizes authentic engagement and problem-solving. Customers generally know when they’re being sold to, which is why inorganic – or paid – marketing isn’t always successful. Organic marketing aims to attract customers by building a relationship with them, ensuring they stay connected to your brand’s values and products.

What’s the relevance of organic marketing for Amazon sellers?

So many Amazon sellers become overly reliant on PPC. That’s not to say that ads are unimportant; in fact, later on this blog we’ll discuss paid marketing and how it can help you. But pouring too much of your budget into your ad spend, and neglecting organic marketing, can negatively impact your bottom line.

Here’s how you can push organic marketing in your Amazon business:

• Product Reviews: Positive organic reviews improve credibility and influence new customers. Encouraging honest reviews from satisfied buyers can lead to more conversions and higher rankings.
• Search Ranking: Amazon’s A9 algorithm heavily favors well-optimized listings and products with good customer feedback. SEO-focused listing optimization can improve your search ranking, making it easier for customers to find your products.
• Customer Loyalty: Organic marketing builds a community of loyal customers who trust your brand. Engaging through emails, social media, and follow-up messages helps foster ongoing relationships, leading to repeat purchases and long-term business growth.

By leveraging organic marketing, Amazon sellers can improve their visibility, earn customer trust, and build a sustainable business for global expansion.

So, how exactly can one launch and rank a product on Amazon in 2024? IntelliRank has the answers for you!

What is Inorganic Marketing?

Now, we’re not here to pull you away from paid marketing; it definitely has its time and place. (We just don’t want you to over-spend!) Paid marketing refers to the use of paid advertising strategies to promote products and services, driving traffic, boosting visibility, and increasing sales. Unlike organic marketing, paid marketing requires financial investment to reach specific audiences through platforms like search engines, social media, and e-Commerce sites like Amazon and Walmart. These campaigns are designed to generate immediate visibility and results by placing ads in front of potential customers.

Examples of Paid Marketing:

• Google Ads (Pay-Per-Click)
• Amazon Advertising (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands)
• Facebook and Instagram Ads
• Influencer partnerships with sponsored posts

What are the key components of paid marketing?

Sponsored Ads (PPC):

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a popular paid marketing model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked.
• PPC ads appear at the top of search engine results, on social media platforms, or within e-commerce marketplaces, giving brands immediate visibility.
• Effective for quickly driving traffic to product pages or websites by targeting specific keywords and demographics.

2. Amazon Advertising:

• Amazon offers a variety of advertising solutions for sellers, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads.
• These ads appear directly on Amazon’s platform, often in search results or on product pages, boosting product visibility and driving conversions.
• Amazon Advertising allows sellers to target specific keywords, products, or customer interests to maximize exposure.

3. Social Media Ads:

• Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok allow businesses to create targeted ad campaigns to reach their ideal audience.
• These ads can include images, videos, and product offers, appearing directly in users’ feeds, stories, or sponsored sections.
• By leveraging the advanced targeting options of social media, businesses can reach audiences based on location, interests, and behaviors.

4. Influencer Marketing:

• Paid collaborations with influencers or content creators allow brands to tap into their followers’ networks.
• Influencers promote products or services to their audience in exchange for payment, often using sponsored posts, reviews, or content featuring the brand.
• This approach helps businesses build credibility while reaching new potential customers through trusted voices.

How can paid marketing deliver fast results?

Organic marketing results can take time, which is why many sellers opt for paid methods to target audiences quickly. Paid marketing is effective for businesses looking to scale quickly and achieve immediate visibility. By paying for ad placements on high-traffic platforms, you’ll reach your target audience pretty quickly, while you wait for organic results to roll in.

Successful organic marketing can take a pretty long time to gestate, which is when sellers can use paid traffic to drive conversions and generate leads. This speed and precision are crucial for sellers looking to scale rapidly, especially during peak sales periods or when launching new products.

Organic Marketing for Amazon Sellers: Pros & Cons

Organic marketing requires patience and consistency. Let’s face it; while it’s highly effective, organic marketing takes time. Paid social media ads, Amazon ads, Google ads, etc., can generate you leads lickety-split, but may not have the long-lasting effect that organic marketing offers.

Check out the pros and cons of organic marketing:

• Pros:
  • Builds long-term customer relationships.
  • Cost-effective in the long run.
  • Supports Amazon SEO efforts.
  • Encourages organic product reviews and higher search rankings.
• Cons:
  • Slow to show results.
  • Requires consistent content creation and time investment.
  • Limited reach without paid amplification.

In short, although customers trust organic marketing efforts, it takes a while for that trust to build – like any relationship, really.

Paid Marketing for Amazon Sellers: Pros & Cons

Paid search ads, PPC, influencer marketing, and other types of paid marketing can be highly valuable to Amazon sellers – especially if you need results quick.

Here are the pros and cons:

• Pros:
  • Delivers faster visibility and conversions.
  • Highly targeted campaigns, including Amazon-specific PPC strategies.
  • Ideal for launching new products or entering new markets.
• Cons:
  • Costs can escalate quickly.
  • Results stop when the budget runs out.
  • Risk of poor ROI if not executed strategically.

In other words, focusing only on an inorganic approach to marketing will be quite costly in the long run. Using paid methods may generate immediate results, but it’s probably not something you want to depend on excessively. Balance is key.

When to Use Organic Marketing for Global Expansion

So, when’s the best time to use organic marketing in your digital marketing strategy?

When it’s time to build a solid foundation in new markets

Valuable organic content allows businesses to build brand awareness and trust over time without relying solely on paid ads. By focusing on relevant, localized content that speaks directly to the new market, sellers can create a lasting impact that resonates with local customers.

When you need to increase brand trust

Good organic marketing content emphasizes transparency and authenticity. By encouraging user-generated content such as reviews and ratings, businesses can showcase genuine consumer experiences. UGC convinces other like-minded customers to purchase from you, too. This transparency not only improves credibility, but also fosters stronger relationships. This approach cultivates a loyal customer base that values a brand’s authenticity.

Optimizing Product Listings

More on this a little later, but the best place to start with an effective organic marketing strategy is through a localized product listing, with relevant keywords, written in copy that resonates with your target market. As with all marketing activities, careful localization is the key to success.

When to Use Paid Marketing for Global Expansion

Inorganic marketing strategies are great for Amazon sellers looking to quickly penetrate new international markets or successfully launch a product. By leveraging targeted advertising, businesses can reach new customers with precision, driving immediate traffic and boosting visibility in competitive spaces. Paid marketing allows sellers to make an impact fast, providing the exposure needed to generate sales from the moment of entry.

When’s the best time to use paid marketing?

Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands as Key Amazon Advertising Tools for Driving Global Visibility

Two of Amazon’s most effective paid marketing tools are Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. Sponsored Products help promote individual listings in search results and on product detail pages, while Sponsored Brands feature a logo or custom headline and showcase a selection of products. Both tools are invaluable for increasing global visibility, helping sellers reach customers in new markets by placing their products at the forefront of search results. These ads help build brand recognition and drive sales, especially when entering unfamiliar international markets.

How to Allocate Budget for International Markets and Adjust Campaigns for Regional Differences

When expanding into international markets, it’s essential to carefully allocate your advertising budget. Each region will have its own competition levels, customer behaviors, and costs per click (CPC). Sellers should adjust their campaigns accordingly, starting with thorough market research to understand regional nuances. For example, higher CPCs may require a greater portion of the budget for highly competitive markets, while lower-cost regions may allow for a more aggressive ad spend. Additionally, adapting ad copy to reflect local language and culture ensures relevance and improves click-through rates.

So, let’s put all of this into context. During a product launch in a European market, for instance, you can allocate a larger portion of your budget to Sponsored Products for specific local search terms, while using Sponsored Brands to build brand awareness. This dual approach allows for both immediate sales and long-term brand recognition, resulting in a quick boost in sales while establishing a strong market presence.

Combining Organic and Paid Marketing for Maximum Impact

So, the bottom line we want to push is that it’s not a question of organic vs paid marketing; it’s more of a question of when to use organic strategies and when to use paid strategies. They both have their place in the sun. Paid ads can provide the immediate visibility you need to penetrate new markets quickly, while organic marketing involves the creation of long-term growth through trust and credibility with customers. Using organic marketing and paid marketing efforts wisely will drive both short-term sales and long-term brand loyalty, ensuring sustained success as you scale internationally.

Paid advertising delivers fast results by placing products in front of new audiences immediately, helping you achieve quick sales growth in competitive markets. Meanwhile, organic marketing—through SEO, social media engagement, and customer reviews—fosters long-term customer relationships by building trust and offering ongoing value. While paid ads generate the initial traffic and sales, organic efforts keep customers engaged and loyal, ensuring consistent growth and repeat purchases over time.

It’s probably wise to do both at the same time. Set up your organic marketing through social media posts, word-of-mouth marketing, content marketing, and more, and support these with paid ads, influencer marketing, and so forth. A healthy balance of both paid and organic traffic, with wise allocation of your marketing budget, is the best way to win at the marketing game.

Localization to Boost Organic Marketing: The Key to Success in Global Markets

Now for the good part – why localization is crucial for both paid and organic marketing strategies.

Localization makes sure that your message resonates with local customers. Tailoring content, keywords, and messaging to the specific language, cultural nuances, and preferences of each target market will enhance the efficacy of organic marketing efforts, such as SEO and product listings. Simultaneously, localized paid ads are more likely to attract clicks and convert, as they speak directly to the needs and behaviors of regional audiences. Bottom line, without localization, even the best strategies may fail to connect with international customers.

Luckily, YLT Translations specializes in helping Amazon sellers break into new markets by providing expert localization services. We optimize product listings to ensure your brand speaks the language of each market—both literally and figuratively. By carefully translating and adapting your content to reflect regional dialects, search terms, and cultural nuances, we enhance your organic search rankings, which will then increase the effectiveness of paid ads. Whether you’re expanding into Europe, Asia, or beyond, YLT Translations ensures your marketing efforts are not only accurate but also impactful across all international platforms.

Conclusion: Which Marketing Strategy is Right for Your Amazon Business?

So, what are the differences between organic and paid traffic? Organic marketing is a strategy that builds relationships with your customer base across many different marketing platforms. Organic marketing encourages customers to develop trust and boost recall. Organic marketing is different from paid marketing because it plays the long game.

Paid traffic meanwhile involves anything you have to dip into your marketing budget for. Influencer marketing, sponsored ads, PPC campaigns, and so on, will drive immediate traffic, which is great if you’re looking for fast results, but it can get expensive in the long run.

Incorporating both types in your marketing goals can improve success, especially when you’re planning to scale on a global arena. Make sure you allocate your marketing budget wisely – invest in paid marketing for quick results, but ensure you’re also building a solid foundation with organic strategies for long-term gains. Also, make sure your product listings are always optimized; this is the best way to (1) get found on Amazon, (2) build relationships with local audiences, and (3) encourage brand recall – organically.

Looking to scale your Amazon business globally? YLT Translations offers expert localization and tailored marketing strategies that optimize both organic and paid efforts. Let us help you connect with international customers and boost your growth with seamless translations and data-driven strategies designed for success in any market. Reach out to YLT Translations today!

You might also be interested in these articles:

• Use localization for an omnichannel marketing strategy
• The tell-all guide on backend keywords for your listing
• Keyword localization: why it matters and how to do it
• How to price a product for Amazon
• When international expansion is not for you
• How to get an Amazon product review – the right way!