By Lou Mastria
Big idea: Small businesses and startups discover customers and connect with consumers by using digital advertising techniques and data to gain necessary visibility.
Lartease Tiffith, executive vice president, public policy, Interactive Advertising Bureau (left) moderates a DAA Summit 24 workshop alongside three entrepreneur panelists.
In a Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Summit 24 workshop discussion titled, “Data 4 Good: How Responsible Data Collection Enables Empowered Social Outcomes,” attendees learned about the techniques and data used by small businesses to advertise online efficiently and effectively.
The panel was led by Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Lartease Tiffith, with small-business entrepreneur panelists Alex Dabagh, founder and creator of ANYBAG by Alex, Anthony Edwards, Jr., co-founder and CEO at EatOkra, and Ese Ofurhie, owner/founder and editor at ENSPIRE Magazine. The panelists highlighted how privacy, innovation, and the unique challenges faced by small businesses intersect in the digital advertising ecosystem.
The Crucial Role of Digital Advertising for Small Businesses
The panel collectively underscored the indispensable role of digital advertising and data for small businesses, explaining how digital ads provide a means to gain visibility, understand customers, and allocate marketing budgets efficiently.
“We don’t have the deep pockets that bigger corporate brands have, we depend on all of the free, available tools that are out there,” Alex Dabagh said. “Every dollar for us goes a long way, and every extra dollar goes back into the business to build it, to bring in new machinery or hire new personnel, all that. So it’s hard for us to go out and get a marketing company or a PR company and be like, here’s $60,000 for a six-month retainer and not know what’s going to happen.” He explained that having this control, and the efficiency made possible by targeted ads, allows them to increase brand visibility, increase share of market, and know who’s looking at what.
Powered in part by digital advertising, Ese Ofurhie, owner/founder and editor at ENSPIRE Magazine and Alex Dabagh, founder and creator of ANYBAG by Alex describe their go-to-market strategies supporting their respective businesses.
ENSPIRE Magazine and EatOkra have used targeted advertising to reach niche markets, demonstrating the power of data-driven marketing strategies, their founders reported. This approach allows them to attract and engage with specific audiences, maximizing their impact and fostering strong customer relationships.
Anthony Edwards Jr., co-founder of Eat Okra, discussed how his platform and mobile app helps connect consumers with black-owned restaurants and other businesses. “We’re also using tools like Instagram ads and Facebook ads and all the other Meta products to make sure our product is landing in front of the right people who are interested in supporting black-owned businesses, or just interested in finding cuisines that are of a certain type – like a Jamaican cuisine, or Caribbean or African,” Edwards said. This anecdote highlights the critical role that digital marketing plays in driving efficient and effective visibility and sales for his and his wife’s jointly owned small business.
Navigating Regulatory Challenges and Compliance
The panelists also discussed how privacy laws and regulations – both state and federal – have a direct impact on small businesses, particularly those that severely restrict access to free data-driven tools provided by large corporations creating harmful trickle-down effects. Main Street businesses and startups often rely on larger companies for access to data and advertising tools, as well as the open web, to find and engage efficiently with customers.
Anthony provided insights into the financial implications of regulatory compliance, explaining the significant costs associated with meeting potential legal requirements, particularly as a business grows. “For us, there’s a concern that we would reach a certain threshold of people visiting our apps,” he said. This dynamic can create a barrier to growth. “So much traffic and it could actually trigger a new level of audit, so to speak,” he continued. He explained that this would result in needing additional money for engineers and compliance, estimated at around $50,000 – as any small business exemption might easily no longer apply.
Advocacy and Impact on Policy
Ese Ofurhie, owner/founder and editor at ENSPIRE Magazine discusses how advocacy is critical to small and medium enterprises when formulating privacy and data protection regulations.
Ese Ofurhie of ENSPIRE stressed the importance of local advocacy, stating, “Small business owners must organize locally to reach officials, sharing their specific struggles and how laws affect them.”
When discussing her experiences speaking with policy makers, she added, “I’ve learned how to utilize my business and my story to tell them: this is how I started, this is what I’m doing, this is what I’m learning, and this is how these laws are going to affect me… because they are not considering small business owners whatsoever.”
With small- and medium-sized enterprises in the United States such an economic powerhouse, it’s due time that lawmakers – and all of us – consider how vital digital advertising data is to these businesses and organizations.
Thank you to our summer associate Ellana Robinson for her research and editorial support with this post.
