How new advertising tools are leveling the playing field for small businesses

When Adria Marshall started the hair care brand Ecoslay, she needed to address her own hair challenge that existing products weren't solving. So she turned to what she knew. With a background in gardening and engineering, she began experimenting in her kitchen using aloe vera and flaxseed to create something better. She shared her creations directly with her community via social media, scaling from 0 to 1,000 products made by hand.

Then came a defining moment: a factory requested she change her formula. Marshall refused. Ecoslay was built on ingredient integrity, and she wasn't willing to compromise. Instead, she made a bold decision to manufacture her own products.

Eight years later, Ecoslay achieves a 90% customer retention rate and 5:1 return on ad spend (ROAS). Today, the company not only sells their own products but also helps manufacture for other brands.

Marshall's journey reflects a larger shift happening in advertising today: The tools that were once exclusive to brands with massive budgets and large marketing teams are now accessible to businesses of all sizes. Capabilities like AI-powered optimization, advanced measurement, and high-impact video have leveled the playing field. Success no longer depends on budget size. It depends on authenticity, curiosity, and willingness to lean in.

At Prosper Show 2026, Marshall joined Lucia Ying, Head of Americas SMB Marketing at Amazon Ads, and Joon Choi, Chief Revenue Officer at Xnurta, to explore how small businesses are executing full-funnel strategies with enterprise-level sophistication.

Prosper Show 2026. Turning Demand Into Sales: A Full-Funnel Amazon Playbook for Small Businesses

"I come from a family of small business owners. I've seen firsthand the blood, sweat, and tears associated with entrepreneurship," Ying said. "So the topic of growing a business is one that's close to my heart."

Three tools that amplify what small businesses do best

For small brands like Ecoslay, authenticity is not just a value. It is a competitive advantage.

"Brand trust is foundational and a performance multiplier on ad campaigns," Choi noted. "It can directly lower paid media costs and drive repeat purchase and lifetime value."

Small businesses have always had this advantage. What they lacked were the tools to scale it. What's changed is that three capabilities once reserved for enterprise brands are now accessible to everyone.

Video storytelling that was once prohibitively expensive is now available through Sponsored Products video. "I applied social tactics to Amazon with helpful how-to product videos," explained Marshall, who was one of the first sellers to test Sponsored Products video. "Customers want to see and feel the product."

For Xnurta's client Wuffes, a pet supplement brand, video became the cornerstone of a strategy that doubled new-to-brand customers and increased total ROAS by 11%. It proves that video does more than drive awareness. It delivers measurable performance.

"A common misconception is that video is expensive," Choi acknowledged. "But its true impact extends far beyond ROAS across multiple metrics." The format allows small businesses to showcase products in action, tell origin stories, and build trust within high-intent shopping environments.

Xnurta won the 2025 Amazon Ads Partner Award for full-funnel campaigns. This award celebrates ingenuity and innovation in digital advertising. Xnurta won this special award for helping Wuffes become a category leader and grow revenue by 164%.

Advanced measurement that may have been previously out of reach is now available through Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC).

"AMC allows brands to see the full, detailed journey that shoppers take," Choi explained. "This is especially powerful when brands are going after new-to-brand customers."

With this level of visibility, small businesses can identify which touchpoints matter most, understand lifetime value, and optimize for repeat purchases. These were insights that were once out of reach.

"If you're not already using AMC, the time is now—it's the biggest innovation in sponsored media," Choi urged. "For small businesses, it is a vital tool that levels the playing field and drives the kind of measurable, scalable growth that matters most."

AI-powered optimization helps small teams work on a much bigger scale. "We help small and medium businesses with our AI platform to get better performance from their ads," Choi explained. "Small businesses feel the weight of ownership, and we are there to take on the marketing performance and efficiency part so that they can focus more on building the brand."

Rather than spending time on manual campaign management and creative production, teams can focus on strategic questions: What customer journeys matter most? How should the brand show up in cultural moments? "Creative AI functionality democratizes a lot of what brands are able to do, especially SMB brands," Choi noted.

What winning looks like

When small businesses combine authenticity with these tools, the results speak for themselves. "We have leveraged tools like Sponsored Products video and Multimedia Solutions with Amazon DSP," said Marshall, an Amazon Ads Rising Star in 2025. "We are seeing results already—all of our campaigns are seeing an ROAS of 5:1 in early testing. With Amazon, we've been able to reach high-intent customers we wouldn't have been able to otherwise."

Ying emphasized what matters most: "New-to-brand metrics serve as the strongest indicator of true incremental growth driven by advertising."

And that speaks to the future of advertising for small and medium-sized businesses.

"The world is moving fast, and the brands winning in this space are the ones staying curious, trying new tools, and remaining open to what's next," Choi concluded. "The tools available today are already powerful, and AI-driven ad spend efficiency will only improve from here, making now the best time to lean in."

The great equalizer has arrived. Small businesses with authentic stories, willingness to experiment, and commitment to measuring what matters can now execute with the sophistication of enterprise brands—without enterprise resources. From kitchen experiments to national reach, the question isn't whether small businesses can compete. It's whether they're ready to lean in.