A B2B campaign that moved SMBs — and the bottom line
- ClientAmazon Ads
- IndustryAdvertising & Marketing
- ServicesMarketing · Customer Experience
- CapabilitiesCampaign Development · Customer Experience
How Amazon Ads changed minds among service-based small businesses
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.
Key Takeaways
Reframing Amazon Ads from “only for sellers” to “built for any SMB” unlocked a large, previously untapped audience of service-based local businesses.
Grounding the strategy in “ready” customers, helped connect online behavior to real-world storefront visits.
An emotionally resonant creative platform made the value proposition feel intuitive, turning a functional message into a story business owners could relate to.
Meeting owners across the channels where they actually spend limited attention trengthened both performance and brand trust, proving the approach could drive measurable growth and awareness.
Impact
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 was brought 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 small and medium businesses and building lasting trust with Amazon Ads.”
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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newbiz@codeandtheory.comCode and Theory is a proud member of Stagwell Group. Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com
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