Leveraging Amazon Ads to Boost Your Organic Rankings - A Little-Known Secret

As a digital marketer, it’s often natural to assume that paid advertising performance has little direct impact on organic rankings and performance. This is generally true of Google Ads, where spending money on PPC has no direct correlation to organic performance. This logic is therefore often applied to running Ads on Amazon, with advertising spend and sales being seen as a separate entity to organic rankings and sales performance.

What’s often overlooked is that a well-run Amazon Ads campaign can directly influence your organic rankings too. In this post, I’ll explain how paid ads can drive sales velocity, improve conversion rates and ultimately help build a self-reinforcing cycle of organic growth. At Optix we’ve confirmed this based on real-world testing and experience.

How Paid Ads Impact Organic Rankings

Whilst simply running Ads on Amazon doesn’t guarantee improved rankings, the algorithm does account for the impact of such activity. Two vital metrics here are sales velocity (the pace of sales) and conversion rate (the percentage of clicks that turn into sales). When your ads generate a burst of quality sales and strong conversion rates, these factors send a signal to Amazon that your product is in demand. The result? A boost in organic visibility.

Sales Velocity: A spike in sales triggered by ads signals to Amazon that there’s demand. This increased velocity helps push your product up in organic search results.
Conversion Rate: When ad clicks result in purchases, it confirms that your listing is relevant to users looking for products like yours. A high conversion rate strengthens your organic performance.
The Compounding Effect: What starts as a temporary boost from ads can build momentum over time. Better organic visibility attracts more customers, which maintains sales velocity, even when you’re not advertising.

The Secret Behind Using Amazon Ads to assist Organic Growth

Most sellers use ads only as a quick way to drive sales. What they miss is that ads create a hidden benefit: they help maintain your product’s momentum in the Amazon search results. When your ads keep the sales ticking over, it builds credibility with the algorithm. The "secret" to successfully leveraging Ads to enhance your organic rankings, is to combine your organic and paid strategies, to ensure keywords and product page optimisation are well aligned.

Direct, Practical Strategies to Do More With Amazon Ads

So we know that running Ads on Amazon can provide a valuable shortcut to improving your product page’s sales velocity and conversion rates, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle. Whether you’re new to Amazon advertising or looking to refine your existing campaigns, here are some actionable tactics to leverage Amazon Ads whilst also improving your organic performance:

Keyword and Listing Optimisation

Before you spend a penny on advertising, invest in thorough keyword research. Get straight to the heart of what your potential customers are searching for.

Use reliable keyword tools to find highly relevant search terms with reasonable volume. Tools such as Helium10 and JungleScout are designed for exactly this.
Ensure your ads target these keywords, and mirror them in your product title, bullet points, description, and backend search terms.

The consistency between your ads and your listing helps Amazon see your product as relevant, boosting both paid and organic performance.

Data-Driven Listing Improvements

Your ad campaigns provide useful data. Instead of viewing insights as purely campaign performance, use them to improve your product pages.

Analyse metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and impressions by search term
Identify which keywords and images deliver better performance and adjust your listing accordingly.
Leveraging Amazon’s A/B testing tools to split test the performance of your copy or images, to see what drives the highest conversions is an important tactic to maintain performance over time. Even small improvements can lead to significant gains in organic performance.

Timing Your Campaigns – Always-on vs Campaign bursts

In the context of utilising advertising on Amazon to increase and maintain your organic rankings, setting up and optimising campaigns that are “always on” should be your first goal. You should also consider running seasonal or key-date related campaigns that take advantage of increased demand for your products.

Schedule your campaigns around peak shopping events or seasonal trends that are relevant to your products.
During these key periods, allocate a larger budget to remain competitive and to capture increased demand.
Consider adding alternative campaign types, such as Sponsored Display into your advertising mix during periods of high demand

Managing Bids on your top Keywords

Not all keywords perform equally. Your focus should be on the keywords that you’re aiming to rank for organically, which will be reflected in the optimisation of your product pages.

Create dedicated campaign groups for your top-performing keywords, to provide greater control over your bids and budgets
Regularly monitor your bids and adjust them to stay competitive. This ensures that you consistently drive quality traffic, and don’t risk under-bidding when your competitors enter the auction.

Boosting Brand Awareness

Amazon Ads are more than just a sales channel, they’re a way to build your brand on the platform, which will also help to maintain a strong Click Through Rate (CTR) on your organic listings.

Consistent ad exposure means prospective buyers see your product repeatedly, reinforcing brand recognition.
When shoppers recognise your brand, they’re more likely to click on your listing, even organically.
In practice, a familiar brand often enjoys a higher conversion rate, which in turn helps to reinforce your organic rankings

The Feedback Loop

Here’s the kicker, if you’re able to setup high performing Amazon Ad campaigns, targeting keywords that your product page is well optimised for, you’re setting up a powerful feedback loop that has compounding benefits. The aim should be to run Ad campaigns that are profitable in their own right, and also assist your organic performance.

Ads drive immediate sales → Increased sales boost your sales velocity.
Good sales velocity signals strong demand → Amazon rewards your product with a better organic ranking for the right keywords.
Improved organic ranking attracts more traffic → More traffic leads to additional sales and higher conversion rates.
Higher conversion rates lead to more positive reviews and social proof → This, in turn, further improves organic performance.

It’s a feedback loop that, once established, can help you maintain a strong presence on Amazon, without having to rely solely on either paid advertising, or on organic rankings.

Additional Advantages of Integrating Paid and Organic Strategies

Aside from the clear impact on sales velocity and conversion rates, there are extra wins to be had by integrating your Amazon Ads with your organic strategy:

Increased Social Proof: More sales mean more reviews. Positive reviews boost buyer confidence, which benefits both your paid and organic performance.
Market Insights: The data from your ad campaigns can reveal emerging trends and new keyword opportunities. Use these insights to refine your product offerings and marketing message.
Long-Term Brand Building: A consistent presence, both in paid and organic builds a strong brand over time. Customers are more ready to choose a product they recognise and trust.

Conclusion

Amazon Ads can drive sales bursts that the algorithm rewards with better organic rankings.
Consistency in keyword use and listing optimisation is key to aligning your ads with improved organic performance.
Smart campaign timing, focused bid management, and a commitment to data-driven adjustments can create a self-sustaining cycle of growth.
Increased brand awareness from ads further establishes your product’s credibility and boosts conversions over the long term.

As an agency, Optix Solutions has helped numerous businesses unlock this secret. We understand that many sellers only focus on the immediate returns from advertising clicks. The real advantage is in how those ads support ongoing organic growth, which requires a plan on how to integrate the two strategies. I’ve seen first hand how a well-integrated strategy not only drives sales today but also builds a solid foundation for sustainable success on Amazon over many years.

If you sell on Amazon and want to learn how a smart blend of paid advertising and organic optimisation can work for your business, get in touch for a no-obligation chat.