Nine in 10 (86%) small and medium businesses (SMBs) have claimed that their current advertising strategy has successfully allowed them to acquire new customers in the past year, new data has revealed.

According to research by Amazon Ads, 76% of respondents said that advertising had contributed to expanding their business in the UK, in the last year.

Meanwhile, over half (54%) cited advertising to international business growth in the past year.

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As a result, 44% UK SMBs said they had increased their spend on advertising during the past year, while 35% kept their budget the same year-on-year.

Out of the 300 SMBs surveyed, nearly 71% reported currently investing in advertising, while 29% said they do not allocate any budget to advertising efforts.

When asked why they are not currently advertising, the most common response was that it is too expensive (42%) while a similar number (38%) said they haven’t seen a return on previous investments (ROI).

Amazon Ads, Director of Global SMB Marketing, Ludovic de Valon, said: “We see many SMBs testing the impact of advertising as part of their overall growth strategy and deciding if advertising provides the right return on investment to help them meet their business goals.

“Our aim is to make advertising as simple as possible for any SMB by removing the barriers, through a low cost of entry, closed-loop measurement and the ability to surface their products to customers at scale.”

READ MORE: Q&A: Amazon Ads MD Phil Christer on navigating the ‘complex’ modern customer purchase journey