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Digital Ads: Leveling the Playing Field for Small Businesses

Maximum Impact: How Digital Ads Level the Playing Field for U.S. Small Businesses documents how digital ads help level the playing field and empower small business advertisers to compete with the biggest brands with billion-dollar marketing budgets by providing affordable, highly effective ways to reach target audiences, drive sales, and instantly understand the ROI with free high-quality analytics. For example, small business publishers that monetize digital real estate on websites, blogs, YouTube, and apps, advertising provides quick revenue streams that help businesses start and increase revenue long term.

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Background

Small businesses have been advertising for centuries, always looking for less expensive and more efficient ways to market and grow their businesses. The survey of more than 2,400 small businesses shows that the digital advertising marketplace is affordable, extremely competitive, and highly beneficial for small advertisers and publishers. Small businesses use numerous digital ad platforms to purchase ads to connect with customers and publish audience-relevant ads on their digital properties. 

As policymakers consider new laws and regulations to change how the digital ads marketplace works, they must realize the value digital advertising provides small businesses. Poorly thought-out changes will have serious consequences, not on the leading digital ad providers but on the bottom lines of millions of American small businesses.

Lead Findings:

SMBs Buying Digital Ads Drive Substantial Revenue and Growth

In the last two years, SMB Advertisers estimate their businesses have grown 39% because of digital advertising.
78% of SMB Advertisers agree that digital ads contribute more revenue to their business than traditional offline ads, and 82% of SMB Advertisers say digital ads allow them to more efficiently reach their target customers than traditional offline ads.
30% of SMB Advertisers earn revenue attributable to digital ads of more than $650,000 a year, while 57% overall earn more than $50,000 a year attributable to digital ads.
80% of SMB Advertisers agree that digital ads help their company compete with much larger competitors.

SMBs Selling Digital Ads Drive Substantial Revenue and Growth

57% of SMB Publishers earn more than $50,000 a year in revenue from selling digital ads.
40% of SMB Publishers say selling digital ads drives over half of their overall revenue.
71% of SMB Publishers say they would not have been able to launch and sustain their business without revenue from digital advertising.
79% of SMB Publishers say digital ads help their company compete with much larger competitors.
63% of SMB Publishers predict that revenue from selling digital ads will be higher in 2023 than 2022 – an estimated 35% higher, on average.

Black and Hispanic SMB Publishers Use Ads for Seed Money

Because minority small business owners still lack sufficient access to capital, ad publishing has become an easy way for bloggers, YouTube personalities, app publishers, and startups to generate revenue quickly, often replacing the investment capital needed to start and grow a business.

72% of Black and 65% of Hispanic-led SMB publishers agree they would not have been able to launch and sustain their business without revenue from digital advertising.

SMB Advertisers Have Plenty of Options for Buying Ads

Despite some lawmakers’ claims that small businesses only have one or two options in the digital advertising marketplace, small advertisers buy ads on numerous platforms and get the most bang for their buck.

SMB Advertisers use an average of four digital advertising platforms (e.g., YouTube, Instagram).
64% of SMB Advertisers use more than two digital ad platforms.

Grogg’s Home Services

“I think it’s very important, for us to make it in our service areas, to not be 100% digital driven. That’s why we use digital ads in combination with traditional advertising like local billboards.”

Adam McDowell, Director of Marketing, Grogg’s Home Services

Grogg’s Home Services — 80 full time employees
groggs.com
Parkersburg, WV
Grogg’s Home Services has served their local area and parts of rural West Virginia, for AC and heater repairs as well as plumbing services for over 50 years.

Nguyen Coffee Supply

“I wouldn’t rely on any one platform. It just depends on how the market is evolving like how other challenger tech brands pop up and what kind of value they could offer.”

Sahra Nguyen, Nguyen Coffee Supply

Nguyen Coffee Supply — 7 full time employees
nguyencoffeesupply.com
New York, NY
Founded by 1st generation entrepreneur-activist Sahra Nguyen in 2018, Nguyen Coffee Supply is America’s first specialty Vietnamese coffee company and proud champion of the resilient robusta bean.

Lalo

“We employ multiple targeting approaches. Some are broad targeting to reach as many people as possible, and others are a bit more targeted based on personas to deliver as personalized a message as possible.”

Michael Wieder, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Lalo

Lalo — 17 full time employees
meetlalo.com
New York, NY
Founded in 2018, Lalo is a digitally-native, modern baby and toddler brand built for today’s families.

ENSPIRE Magazine

“I know people that make six figures from digital advertising, and if I know I can do it too, I want to.”

Ese Ofurhie, Owner, Founder, & Editor of ENSPIRE Magazine

ENSPIRE Magazine — 1 full time employee
enspiremag.com
New York, NY
Founded in 2003, ENSPIRE Magazine is a Black-owned, woman-led magazine that brings attention to influential, positive, and hardworking people that uplift their community.

Conclusion:

The bottom line is that digital ads are central to contemporary SMB Advertisers’ and Publishers’ overall business strategies at every stage: launching, sustaining, growing, and competing. Ultimately, digital ads create a free, fair marketplace for tens of millions of small businesses to diversify their revenue streams and compete for customers’ attention – and dollars.

As policymakers consider new laws and regulations to change how the digital ads marketplace works, they must realize the value digital advertising provides small businesses. Poorly thought-out changes will have serious consequences, not on the leading digital ad providers but on the bottom lines of millions of American small businesses.