Dmytro Balan, CEO of ThinkAd and a seasoned e-commerce knowledgeable, talks about automating Amazon promoting for companies, particularly for these with restricted budgets, aiming to thrive in aggressive markets
Prior to now, small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) usually confronted robust challenges attributable to restricted advert budgets and a lack of knowledge, thus making it exhausting for them to face out. However presently, good instruments are serving to them compete higher. This issues so much in e-commerce, the place massive platforms like Amazon dominate. In accordance with a SellersCommerce analysis examine, “AI in eCommerce Statistics (2025),” 34% of Amazon sellers already use AI to enhance listings, whereas one other 14% use it to deal with advertising and marketing and content material creation. This exhibits that AI is changing into key to serving to companies acquire an edge.
But, a essential query stays: What occurs to the 66% who don’t but leverage these highly effective AI instruments, and are these refined options really accessible to small companies? That’s the place specialists like Dmytro Balan make a distinction. Dmytro, an skilled e-commerce and digital advertising and marketing knowledgeable with over eight years of expertise, understands the struggles of scaling promoting budgets. Because the advertising and marketing strategist at Lev Manufacturers, an organization pulling in over $50 million yearly, he has witnessed these challenges firsthand. His expertise dealing with massive advert budgets motivated him to work on instruments that open entry to smarter advert administration. Based mostly in Boca Raton, Florida, USA, Dmytro began as a hands-on Amazon vendor earlier than he based ThinkAd, adjudged the 2025 “Finest SaaS Ecommerce Platform,” to automate Amazon promoting for SMBs.
Dmytro stepped into the world of Amazon gross sales in 2017, the place he didn’t simply stroll his path as a vendor but additionally performed a job in serving to many different enterprise homeowners launch and develop their manufacturers. His most important abilities heart on Amazon promoting and selling merchandise. This consists of planning advert placements, finding out rivals, creating advert campaigns, and boosting returns on advert spending. In recognition of his quite a few achievements, Dmytro was just lately chosen as a choose within the 2025 Globee® Awards for Disruptors, the place he evaluated no fewer than 50 submissions, highlighting his deep information in figuring out and celebrating outstanding improvements. We spoke with him to listen to extra about his journey, his groundbreaking platform, ThinkAd, and the way AI provides trendy companies an edge in at present’s digital world.
Dmytro, at Lev Manufacturers, you deal with a month-to-month advert funds exceeding $300,000, which is an enormous accountability within the e-commerce world. Based mostly in your expertise, what’s the most typical mistake you see small or medium-sized companies make after they attempt to scale their Amazon adverts?
Thanks for citing such an necessary matter. The most important challenge I see is how a lot folks underestimate dynamic optimization whereas leaning an excessive amount of on handbook strategies. Many companies, particularly small ones, both lack the know-how or don’t have the time to maintain tweaking, monitoring bids, discovering new key phrases, and reducing wasted spending. They usually arrange their campaigns and simply overlook them, or they attempt to deal with every part manually, which wastes quite a lot of time. This drains budgets on dangerous key phrases, ignores possibilities to make use of nice ones, and ends in manner much less return on advert spend (ROAS) than they may get. The e-commerce world, significantly on Amazon, strikes too quick for methods that keep the identical.
That is smart. Contemplating these challenges, how do you’re employed to shut this hole and assist companies in avoiding these widespread errors?
After noticing the identical challenges pop up, I constructed our personal AI platform, ThinkAd, to repair them. ThinkAd makes it straightforward for Amazon sellers to run advert campaigns by automating every part with three easy inputs: minimal bid, most bid, and goal spend proportion. The system’s algorithms test advert efficiency stay, cease dangerous key phrases, transfer the funds round, and tweak bids. This lets even folks new to pay-per-click (PPC) deal with adverts without having expert-level information. In contrast to different choices on the market, ThinkAd was constructed for SMBs, works proper out of the field, and doesn’t want a crew of specialists to function. Its power is in creating advert plans particular to every enterprise’s targets, one thing most rivals don’t present. Our proprietary algorithms, just like the Wasted Spend System, make this doable by figuring out spots the place cash is wasted and mechanically optimizing bids accordingly. There’s additionally the Key phrase Harvesting Engine, which finds new helpful key phrases from promising search queries, and Irrelevant Phrases Detection, which spots and removes non-target queries that generate no gross sales. Lastly, the fourth algorithm, which is Marketing campaign Well being Notifications, ensures all campaigns, advert teams, and key phrases stay lively and efficient. ThinkAd runs by itself with little or no want for human assist, although customers can see and management each selection the system makes.
That’s fairly fascinating! You began your e-commerce journey in 2017, with a concentrate on democratizing skilled advert automation. How did that have form how ThinkAd got here to be?
My work focuses on advertising and marketing, tech, and entrepreneurship. Since 2017, I’ve been concerned in e-commerce and market promoting, concentrating on promoting by way of Amazon. Through the years, I didn’t simply work as a vendor myself; I additionally supported many enterprise homeowners in launching and rising their manufacturers on Amazon. My core power lies in Amazon promoting and managing product promotion. This covers every part from planning placement and analyzing rivals to creating advert methods and boosting advert marketing campaign returns. In recent times, I labored on ThinkAd, a system to assist sellers higher deal with bid changes, spot wasted advert spend, and enhance marketing campaign efficiency. My hands-on expertise performed an enormous position in shaping the platform’s design, optimization algorithms, and consumer processes.
Proper now greater than 100 lively U.S. shoppers are utilizing ThinkAd in a closed testing part, with the system already managing over $500,000 in month-to-month promoting budgets. Are you able to quantify the affect the platform has had in your shoppers?
Through the use of clever techniques at ThinkAd, our shoppers have diminished advert prices by 20–35% whereas additionally sustaining or boosting their gross sales numbers. Some even noticed their return on advert spend (ROAS) leap nearly double. Due to automation, the time wanted to handle adverts dropped by 60–70%. Since 2024, we’ve collected over 40 verbal consumer testimonials. Many have mentioned that ThinkAd made hiring an in-house marketer or exterior company pointless. Plus, with the Wasted Spend System characteristic, over 80% of customers stopped blowing cash on irrelevant key phrases.
That looks as if an enormous return on funding (ROI) for companies. Exterior of simply making a living, what wider results do you see or count on from ThinkAd?
I imagine that the affect of ThinkAd reaches far and huge. It exhibits that technological improvements can generate actual financial worth within the U.S. This consists of supporting American manufacturing, creating jobs, and serving to small companies develop. ThinkAd’s work has a social facet too. It provides small companies, who couldn’t afford it, an opportunity to make use of pro-level advert optimization. Our mission focuses on serving to sellers with restricted assets run adverts, lower your expenses, and develop income.
Your work with ThinkAd goals to problem the same old methods small and medium companies deal with e-commerce promoting, and your capacity to identify market gaps and convey ahead revolutionary options stands out. This concentrate on innovation seems to be getting extra consideration as you have been just lately picked as a choose for the celebrated 2025 Globee® Awards for Disruptors. How do you go about reviewing these sorts of improvements, and what does taking over this position imply to you?
Being chosen as a choose within the Globee® Awards feels each particular and rewarding. It matches my deep curiosity in figuring out actual innovation within the e-commerce world. I see it as a manner to assist spotlight options that don’t simply make small modifications however rework how industries work. When reviewing entries, I concentrate on how nicely they resolve issues, how far they will develop, and the distinction they make. I recognize concepts that perceive buyer struggles and ship distinctive and sensible options that others can use. It’s additionally about seeing how these concepts would possibly create lasting worth for society or the economic system down the highway. Personally, it additionally confirms my perception within the energy of AI to remodel automation for SMBs.
That sounds good! Based mostly on its spectacular efficiency up to now, ThinkAd just lately earned the 2025 “Finest SaaS Ecommerce Platform” award from the ECDMA International Affiliation. So, what’s forward for ThinkAd, and the way do you image its progress as e-commerce retains altering?
Automation is making the road between small and enormous companies on Amazon disappear. The exhausting half is determining how small household companies in Florida, in addition to different small entrepreneurs, can compete in opposition to massive companies without having big budgets. Sensible algorithms are the reply. Our mission goes past simply gaining shoppers. We care about creating actual affect. Proper now, we’re engaged on solidifying our presence and enhancing our AI instruments. We’re additionally the opportunity of teaming up with different e-commerce platforms exterior Amazon. On high of that, we’re planning to step into the European and Asian markets. This growth ought to open up new job alternatives right here within the U.S. in areas like assist, AI, growth, and enterprise. Over the lengthy haul, we intention to set the usual for advert automation, not simply on Amazon but additionally for multichannel advertising and marketing platforms. We’re planning to start out the ThinkAd Academy to show and certify customers, giving them extra management. We need to create an area the place superior promoting know-how turns into the norm for anybody making an attempt to realize success.
Nice! As somebody who has achieved success within the e-commerce and tech world, serving to ThinkAd decrease shoppers’ advert prices by 20–35% and Lev Manufacturers earn over $50 million a yr, what recommendation would you give to up-and-coming entrepreneurs or small companies making an attempt to make use of know-how to develop and compete in at present’s market?
From my journey whereas constructing ThinkAd, I spotted one massive factor: know-how is only a device, however understanding your buyer’s actual issues is the inspiration. Earlier than writing a single line of code, we spent months sitting down with sellers, listening to their struggles with advert administration. So, you may’t create options in isolation. You should perceive the actual issues. Additionally, automation is highly effective, however you have to know its function. Don’t automate simply because you may. Automate issues to unlock human creativity and permit for higher strategic selections. My previous, together with surviving robust conditions in Ukraine and coping with scarce assets, taught me the worth of being resilient and dealing good on significant issues. Lastly, your individual experiences and private knowledge matter so much in getting nice outcomes. All the time ask for suggestions, alter, and continue to grow. The digital world shifts so quick that steady studying isn’t non-obligatory. It’s now obligatory if you wish to obtain long-term success.
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