72% of small, medium businesses are currently investing in advertising to fuel growth in domestic and global markets, according to a new study conducted by market-research agency Opinium for Amazon Ads.
The study, which surveyed 300 Indian SMBs along with businesses across several countries, found several notable trends across the advertising and marketing spheres.
Reportedly, nearly 9 in 10 (85%) of people said that their current advertising strategy has been successful in acquiring new customers, while more than three quarters (78%) of people asserted that it has helped them expand their India business. More than two-thirds of those surveyed (69%) claimed that advertising helped them grow their business internationally within the past 12 months.
This confidence in advertising has inspired more than half (56%) of Indian SMBs to increase their spend on advertising during the past year. The most common motivations for this increase in spend include: the desire to drive awareness of a new product or service (42%) or to improve customer awareness of their brand (50%).
Looking into the future, more than a third (36%) of those sampled claimed that they plan on spending on streaming TV advertising during the upcoming 12 months.
The new study also highlighted the role of advanced technologies in enhancing advertising efficiency. Over two-thirds of SMBs were optimistic that artificial intelligence (AI) could bring improvements to their campaigns. Around 30% have already begun equipping their teams with AI abilities.
However, despite the exuberant success enjoyed by many, not all SMBs felt the need to invest in advertising to grow their business.
Reportedly, around 28% of Indian SMBs do not spend on any kind of advertising. When asked why, the most common response was that it was too expensive (26%), while a similar percentage (20%) said that advertising has yielded unsatisfactory results and that they haven’t seen a return on previous investments (ROI).
Even among SMBs that are currently spending on advertising, some challenges remain. Three in 10 (30%) claimed that their biggest challenge with advertising is knowing where to focus their advertising budgets to achieve their goals. A third (36%) said that creating compelling and dynamic content was the biggest hurdle their business faced when it came to advertising successfully.
