We Spoke with Canadian SMBs About Their Experience with Advertising: Here’s What They Said

Written By: Ludovic de Valon, Director, Global SMB Marketing at Amazon Ads

New research from Amazon Ads delves into how Canadian small and medium businesses (SMBs) view advertising. The study, which is based on responses from 300 Canadian SMBs, looked at how many small and medium businesses are using advertising, what they want to achieve and the challenges they face. Here’s the top three findings:

1. SMBs are looking to advertising to fuel future growth at home and internationally: The research shows that the vast majority (84%) of SMBs that advertise report success in using advertising to acquire new customers, while 45% said that advertising had helped them grow their business internationally. This success is fuelling further investment in advertising, as 42% of those sampled increased their advertising budget during the last year. The most popular channels for this spend include social media advertising (78%), online search (63%) and then online display (42%).
2. SMBs are eager to embrace emerging technologies and formats to achieve their goals: Almost a third (29%) of those sampled indicated that creating compelling content was their primary challenge. Meanwhile, 51% said they believe AI will improve their ability to effectively advertise online and 17% have already started to provide employees with training on AI technology for advertising, such as using AI to develop new creative for advertising campaigns. Looking ahead, almost a quarter (23%) of those sampled said they planned to spend on streaming TV/online video advertising during the next 12 months.
3. Not all SMBs feel they need advertising to grow their business: Despite the success enjoyed by some, a quarter of those surveyed do not invest in any kind of advertising at all. High costs (28%) and a perceived lack of return on previous investments (36%) were cited as the primary reasons why, with ‘evolving consumer behaviours making it hard to reach relevant audiences’ (12%) another factor.Among those who advertise, 30% said that their biggest challenge is knowing where to focus their advertising budgets to achieve their goals, while 28% said they were unsure how to measure the performance of campaigns.

Survey Methodology

Amazon Ads worked with market research agency, Opinium, to survey 4,138 B2C marketing decision makers at SMBs in the UK, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, MENA, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, USA, Canada, and Australia. The sample is nationally representative, not a sample of Amazon sellers. The data was collected between February 29, 2024 - March 20, 2024.