How to Grow Your Business Leads with Amazon Ads: Strategies Backed by Research and Industry Surveys

Are your advertising campaigns generating clicks but failing to turn customer interest into actual business opportunities? For many small and medium-sized businesses, reaching the right audience, managing advertising costs and converting visibility into measurable results remain major challenges.

According to a 2026 study commissioned by Amazon Ads and conducted by Opinium, 87% of surveyed Indian SMBs said AI-powered advertising tools opened up advertising opportunities that were previously out of reach. This finding highlights how technology is changing the way smaller businesses attract customers and compete in digital marketplaces.

But having access to advertising tools is only part of the equation. The real challenge is turning visibility, clicks and customer interest into meaningful business opportunities.

This is where Amazon Ads can make a difference. With a well-planned Amazon advertising strategy from a social media expert, businesses can reach relevant shoppers, build brand awareness and improve customer acquisition.

So, how can businesses use targeted campaigns, engaging creatives and AI-powered tools to attract potential customers and get more value from their advertising budgets?

Let’s explore the research-backed strategies and practical approaches that can support sustainable growth.

Understanding the Role of Amazon Ads in Business Lead Generation

Amazon Ads helps businesses reach relevant shoppers, build brand awareness and improve customer acquisition. A strong Amazon marketing strategy connects brands with audiences who are actively searching for products and comparing options.

Unlike traditional lead generation, Amazon advertising focuses on shopper searches, browsing behaviour and product interactions. For example, someone searching for ergonomic office chairs may discover a new brand through Sponsored Products or explore its offerings through Sponsored Brands.

This creates three opportunities:

• Brand Discovery: Introduce your business to new audiences.
• Customer Consideration: Encourage shoppers to explore products and compare alternatives.
• Conversion: Turn customer interest into purchases and measurable actions.

A well-planned Amazon Advertising Strategy focuses on all three stages to support meaningful business growth rather than simply generating clicks.

What Industry Research Reveals About Advertising and Business Growth

Advertising decisions become more effective when supported by actual research. Industry surveys and academic studies provide useful insights into how businesses approach advertising, the challenges they face and which strategies deserve attention.

1. The 2026 Amazon Ads and Opinium Survey: How AI Is Changing Advertising Opportunities

The 2026 Amazon Ads and Opinium research examined 4,100 SMB marketing decision-makers across 14 countries, including 300 respondents from India. The findings reveal how AI is changing the way smaller businesses approach advertising.

According to the study:

• 87% of surveyed Indian SMBs said AI-powered advertising tools helped them access previously inaccessible channels, audiences or formats.
• 75% said AI-enabled advertising had directly supported business growth.
• 88% said they were likely to use AI to create advertising assets.
• 68% said AI helped them become more creative with advertising.
• 55% said AI tools helped them compete with larger brands.

These findings highlight an important opportunity for smaller businesses. Advertising no longer needs to involve extensive creative production resources for every campaign.

For example, a fashion brand can experiment with different product visuals, video concepts and advertising messages. It can then evaluate which creative approaches attract more engagement.

AI does not replace campaign planning or customer research. It makes experimentation easier, while businesses still need to understand their audiences and evaluate campaign performance.

Read the original research: Amazon Ads and Opinium – How AI advertising tools are helping India’s small businesses reach new audiences and drive growth.

2. Academic Research: What Drives Retail Media Advertising Performance?

Industry surveys explain how businesses perceive advertising. Academic research helps us understand how different advertising formats contribute to brand performance.

A 2024 study by Vivian Qin, Koen Pauwels and Bobby Zhou, published in the Journal of Marketing Analytics, examined more than 122,000 brand and product-category combinations.

The researchers studied the relationship between retail media advertising, brand size and three important outcomes: brand awareness, consideration and revenue.

The findings revealed that:

• Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Brands Video and Sponsored Display impressions were associated with improvements in brand performance metrics.
• Upper-funnel advertising and new product launches were particularly effective for smaller brands.
• Medium-sized and larger brands benefited more from lower-funnel advertising.
• New reviews, discounts, negative keywords and geographic reach also contributed to brand performance.

The key takeaway is that businesses should not judge every advertising campaign through immediate sales alone.

A new brand may first need to build awareness and customer consideration. An established brand may focus more on converting shoppers who already recognise its products.

This is why advertising budgets should reflect the brand’s current position and its desired business outcomes.

Six Practical Ways to Grow Business Leads with Amazon Ads

Research provides direction, but businesses also need practical ways to apply these findings. The following strategies explain how Amazon advertising solutions can help attract relevant audiences and encourage customer action.

1. Target Customers Based on Their Search Intent

Search intent helps businesses understand what potential customers are actively looking for. Reaching shoppers through relevant searches makes advertising more useful because the audience has already demonstrated an interest in a particular product or category.

For example, someone searching for a specific ergonomic chair is likely to have a different purchase intent from someone browsing general home-office inspiration.

Businesses can use keyword targeting through Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands to reach shoppers searching for relevant products.

However, targeting broad keywords without understanding their intent can waste advertising budgets. A business selling premium office chairs may attract irrelevant traffic if it targets generic furniture-related searches.

A better approach is to identify relevant keywords, separate research-oriented searches from purchase-oriented searches, review search-term performance and refine targeting regularly.

The objective is not to generate the highest number of clicks. It is to attract shoppers whose interests align with the business’s offering.

2. Build Brand Awareness with Sponsored Brands

Customers do not always purchase from a brand the first time they discover it. They may compare products, explore alternatives and return later before making a decision.

Sponsored Brands can help businesses introduce their brands through prominent advertising placements on Amazon.

Depending on campaign eligibility, these advertisements can feature brand logos, custom headlines, product collections and video creatives.

For example, a skincare business can use Sponsored Brands to introduce an entire product collection rather than promoting just one individual product.

To make these campaigns effective, businesses should focus on clear messaging, relevant product selection and a consistent brand experience.

A strong brand presence can improve recognition and encourage shoppers to consider the business when they are ready to purchase.

3. Use Sponsored Display to Reconnect with Interested Audiences

Not every interested shopper converts during their first interaction. Some leave to compare alternatives, while others postpone their purchasing decisions.

Sponsored Display can help eligible advertisers reach relevant audiences through Amazon’s display advertising capabilities.

Depending on marketplace availability and campaign configuration, businesses can use contextual and audience-based targeting to encourage further consideration.

For example, shoppers who previously interacted with relevant products may encounter related advertising again during their shopping journey.

This gives the brand another opportunity to communicate its value.

However, repeated exposure alone does not guarantee conversions. The advertisement must offer a relevant reason for customers to reconsider the product.

Businesses should experiment with different creatives and audience segments while monitoring engagement and conversion performance.

4. Use Video Advertising to Communicate Your Value Proposition

Some products are easier to understand when customers can see how they work. Video advertising gives businesses an opportunity to demonstrate product features, explain benefits and communicate their brand story.

Sponsored Brands Video can showcase products within Amazon shopping experiences. Streaming TV advertising can help brands reach audiences through eligible streaming content and placements.

Consider a company selling kitchen appliances. A static advertisement may display the product and its price. A video can demonstrate how the appliance works, highlight its features and show how it solves a common customer problem.

Businesses should ensure their videos communicate the main benefit early, demonstrate product features and use clear, audience-focused messaging.

Video advertising is particularly useful when a product requires demonstration or when a brand needs to explain what makes its offering different.

5. Use AI to Create More Effective Advertising Campaigns

Creative production can become a major challenge for businesses with limited marketing resources. Producing multiple versions of advertisements, product images and videos takes time and planning.

AI-assisted tools can help reduce some of this workload.

The 2026 Amazon Ads and Opinium survey found that 88% of surveyed SMBs were likely to use AI to create advertising assets. This indicates growing interest in AI-assisted creative production.

Businesses can explore these tools to develop alternative headlines, generate creative concepts, experiment with product imagery and produce variations for campaign testing.

For example, an apparel brand can test different creative directions that focus on fabric quality, styling options or everyday comfort.

Instead of assuming which message will perform best, the business can compare results and refine its campaigns.

AI-generated content still requires human review. Product claims, visual accuracy and brand consistency must be checked before advertisements go live.

6. Build a Conversion-Focused Advertising Journey

Attracting interested shoppers is only one part of customer acquisition. Businesses must also ensure that the next step is relevant and easy to complete.

An advertisement may generate clicks, but poor product information or an unclear value proposition can prevent customers from converting.

Businesses should connect their advertising campaigns with the experience that follows the click.

For example, if an advertisement promotes a particular product feature, the destination page should explain and demonstrate that feature clearly.

A conversion-focused approach includes matching advertisements with relevant product pages, using high-quality images, highlighting important benefits and monitoring conversion performance.

This makes amazon PPC advertising more accountable because campaign performance is evaluated beyond the initial click.

How to Choose the Right Amazon Ads Format for Your Business Objectives

Different advertising formats serve different purposes. Choosing the right one depends on the product, target audience, campaign objective and stage of the buying journey.

 
Businesses should not automatically use every advertising format. A new brand with limited awareness may benefit from brand-building campaigns, while an established product with strong search demand may prioritise Sponsored Products.

For example, amazon PPC advertising can help capture existing product demand, while video campaigns can introduce the brand to audiences who may not yet be familiar with it.

Similarly, Amazon prime advertising can be considered as part of a broader awareness strategy where eligible Amazon-owned advertising opportunities and placements are available. Its suitability depends on the campaign objective, marketplace and advertiser eligibility.

How to Measure Whether Amazon Ads Is Generating Valuable Leads

Advertising performance should be measured through outcomes, not just activity. A campaign may receive thousands of impressions but still fail to attract customers who are genuinely interested in the business.

Businesses should monitor a combination of visibility, engagement, conversion and acquisition metrics.

• Impressions: Show how frequently advertisements are displayed. They help businesses understand campaign reach but do not indicate whether customers are interested.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures the proportion of impressions that generate clicks. A higher CTR can indicate that an advertisement is relevant to its audience.
• Cost Per Click (CPC): Shows how much a business pays for each advertisement click. Monitoring CPC helps advertisers understand the cost of attracting traffic.
• Conversion Rate: Measures how many visitors complete a desired action. For Amazon product campaigns, this often means a purchase.
• Advertising Cost of Sales (ACOS): Measures advertising spend relative to attributed sales. It helps advertisers understand how much they spend to generate sales revenue.
• Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS): Shows the attributed revenue generated for each unit of advertising expenditure.
• New-to-Brand Metrics: Help eligible advertisers understand how effectively campaigns attract customers who have not previously purchased from the brand.
• Qualified Lead Rate: For campaigns designed to generate enquiries, businesses should track how many enquiries meet their actual customer requirements. This generally requires appropriate lead tracking outside standard retail sales reporting.

These metrics should be interpreted together. A campaign with a lower CPC is not automatically more profitable. Similarly, a high CTR does not necessarily mean the campaign is generating valuable customers.

For a more complete picture, businesses can also explore Amazon Brand Lift studies. These compare brand-related responses from exposed audiences with those from a control group to assess changes in awareness, consideration and purchase intent.

The objective is to understand whether advertising is influencing customer behaviour, not simply whether people are seeing advertisements.

Common Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid When Using Amazon Ads

Even well-funded advertising campaigns can underperform when businesses overlook basic campaign planning and optimisation.

Some common mistakes include:

• Focusing only on clicks and impressions: High traffic does not guarantee customer acquisition. Businesses must understand whether visitors are taking meaningful actions.
• Targeting irrelevant keywords: Broad targeting without proper search-term analysis can attract shoppers who have little interest in the product.
• Ignoring creative quality: Advertisements need to communicate a clear benefit. Poor visuals and unclear messaging can reduce engagement.
• Sending shoppers to irrelevant destinations: The product or brand experience after the click should match what the advertisement promises.
• Spending without a defined objective: Every campaign should have a measurable purpose, whether that is awareness, consideration or conversion.
• Expecting immediate results from every campaign: Awareness campaigns may influence future purchasing decisions even when they do not generate immediate sales.

These challenges show why campaign planning and creative development deserve as much attention as budget allocation.

A well-planned Amazon marketing strategy should address these issues before increasing advertising expenditure.

Real-World Example: How an Indian Brand Used Amazon Ads to Reach New Customers

Research becomes more useful when businesses can see how advertising strategies work in practice.

One example featured in Amazon’s 2026 research is Klosia, an Indian women’s ethnic wear brand.

The brand used a combination of Streaming TV advertising and search advertising to reach potential customers.

According to the reported case study:

• Its Streaming TV campaign reached an audience of which 80% were new to the brand.
• The combined campaign approach reportedly generated three times more purchases than before.

The interesting aspect of this example is the combination of advertising objectives.

Streaming TV helped introduce the brand to new audiences, while search advertising helped capture shoppers actively exploring relevant products.

This demonstrates how awareness-focused and intent-driven campaigns can complement each other.

However, these results should be understood in the context of Klosia’s individual campaign. They are not a guaranteed benchmark for every advertiser.

Read the case study: Amazon Ads and Opinium – AI advertising and Indian SMB growth.

Building an Effective Amazon Ads Strategy for Sustainable Business Growth

A successful campaign requires more than selecting an advertising format and setting a budget. Businesses need a structured approach that connects audience research, campaign execution and performance measurement.

Step 1: Define your target audience. Understand who is most likely to purchase your products, what problems they want to solve and what influences their buying decisions.

Step 2: Identify relevant customer searches. Research keywords and product categories that align with your offering. Focus on relevance rather than chasing high search volumes.

Step 3: Select advertising formats based on objectives. Use Sponsored Products to capture product demand, Sponsored Brands to improve visibility and suitable video formats to demonstrate product value.

Step 4: Develop relevant creative content. Create advertisements that communicate specific benefits and give customers a clear reason to explore your offering.

Step 5: Test campaign performance. Experiment with targeting, creatives and bids. Avoid making decisions based on short-term fluctuations alone.

Step 6: Measure customer acquisition. Monitor conversions, advertising costs and new-to-brand performance where available. If your objective is lead generation, track lead quality separately.

Step 7: Optimise using actual results. Allocate more budget to campaigns that meet your business objectives and refine those that attract irrelevant traffic.

This framework helps businesses connect advertising activity with measurable outcomes. It also ensures that campaign decisions are based on actual performance rather than assumptions.

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