Online advertising is saving entrepreneurs and small business owners significant time and money, creating more efficiencies and effective uses for the limited capital they have on hand, and playing a positive role in driving new sales growth and revenues. These are the findings of a new survey conducted by TechnoMetrica for SBE Council in “The Digital Boost to Startups and Small Business: Online Advertising Delivers BIG Benefits.”

Moreover, for startups and new businesses, the availability of online advertising was identified by entrepreneurs as a key factor in launching their enterprises, with 80% agreeing that: “The ability to reach customers and potential customers was an important factor in starting my business.”

With entrepreneurship lagging in recent years, tools and strategies that lower risks and strengthen affordable access to markets and customers are vital to enabling startup activity. Of the startups surveyed in the report, 90% agree that “Online advertising has provided my business with an affordable option to launch and/or grow my business,” and 86% agree that the method is “important to my business survival and growth.” Technology, obviously, has become an entrepreneur’s best friend. New innovations continue to produce cutting-edge tools for entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses. Thanks to the internet and cost-effective methods that help entrepreneurs target and reach potential customers, small business owners are experiencing very positive returns through online advertising. They are also shifting savings from this affordable option to other important needs within their businesses, which in turn supports their competitiveness and growth.

SBE Council has found each new wave of technological innovation and the tools spawned by big innovations has created big benefits for small businesses. For example, in tracking the emergence and then explosion of mobile devices and apps in 2014, the adoption of these new technologies by small business owners added up to big savings – with mobile apps saving businesses almost 600 million hours annually and mobile devices nearly 2 billion in hours. In total, SBE Council estimated that the use of these technologies saved America’s small business owners a staggering $67.5 billion a year.

According to estimates, the savings for small businesses run even higher when it comes to online advertising, nearly $163 billion annually.