Crafting a B2B Campaign That Moved SMB's — and the Bottom Line
Half of the small business world already knew Amazon Ads, but service-based businesses that didn’t sell on Amazon assumed it wasn’t built for them at all. That misconception was a major barrier to growth — and an opportunity.
Local cafés, salons and auto shops represented Amazon Ads’ largest untapped market. Continuing our five-year partnership with Amazon Ads, Code and Theory set out to change that perception, launching a national campaign that reframed Amazon Ads as a reliable way for any small business to connect with customers ready to go from screen to storefront.
Impact
- +142% Lead form completion rate
- +118% Growth in non-endemic Sponsored TV revenue
- +16-point YoY lift in unaided awareness for Amazon Ads (17% → 33%)
- +10% Average monthly revenue per advertiser
- 6X Gold Winner across the ANA B2 Awards, The Drum Awards for Marketing and the Global ACE Awards.
Reaching 'ready' customers
The campaign was rooted in a powerful insight: online actions across the full Amazon world — inclusive of Prime, Podcasts, Whole Foods, Twitch and more — often drive offline action, turning digital intent into real-world visits.
We developed a strategy focused on “ready” customers — people primed to go from the Amazon universe to a local business' door — showing small businesses that online shopping doesn’t compete with their business, it fuels it.
Matches Are Made with Amazon Ads
Matches Are Made with Amazon Ads brought that idea to life, using Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” to capture and amplify an emotional story of mutual desire between local businesses and the customers already searching for them.
Running across video, social, OOH, and audio, the work met business owners where they spent their limited attention — from the streaming and audio properties where they turn for knowledge to the social feeds and neighborhood touchpoints where they engage and get inspired.
Code and Theory’s work has hit the sweet spot of tangibly improving the businesses of SMB’s and building lasting trust with Amazon Ads.
The campaign unlocked a new segment of small businesses for Amazon Ads by correcting a core misconception at scale. Unaided brand awareness rose +2.0pp overall (statistically significant), while understanding that businesses don’t need to sell on Amazon to advertise increased +13.9pp on Google, +26.1pp on YouTube, and +8.2pp on Instagram.
The result wasn’t just awareness — it was clearer understanding across the platforms where SMBs make decisions.
Expanding to a whole new business sector
Amazon’s reputation was rooted in online retail, and that was a hurdle with small business owners looking for the right customers. Many local entrepreneurs saw our presence as competition, not support. We had to flip that narrative and show them the real story: online shopping and offline businesses can actually fuel each other.
They’re not opposites. They’re a partnership.
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Explore five years of strategy, marketing and advertising impact between Amazon Ads and Code and Theory.