Paidtrends.com is a new crowd-sourced advertising platform that rewards users for publishing ads and is the latest entrant into Nigeria’s growing online sector. Co-founder Ekele Abel spoke to HumanIPO about the platform, what is unique about it and how to use its services.
HumanIPO: What is Paidtrends.com all about?
Ekele Abel: Paidtrends.com is a “crowd sourced” social advertising platform that pays or rewards users for publishing ads with their social accounts.
Users who want to benefit from this platform sign up with their social accounts – Facebook or Twitter – and by doing so get access to a dashboard that shows the history of Tweets, amount of money earned and number of SocialAds that has been published with their accounts.
How does it work?
Paidtrends users are required to sign in with their social network accounts, Facebook or Twitter, with a minimum of 100 friends or 100 followers respectively, though this is subject to change over time. Paidtrends uses these accounts to post SocialAds. These SocialAds are in form of Tweets or facebook updates Paidtrends makes on behalf of its users. Users are rewarded each time their accounts are used to make posts.
Users get a token added to their wallets each time a SocialAd is posted with their account, just once, SocialAd repetitions are not rewarded. When a user gets up to NGN200 he or she can decide to send it as airtime to their mobile phones. Supported networks include Airtel, Etisalat, Glo and MTN. @PaidTrends could mention you on Twitter once you have that amount in your wallet, or you could just check-in from time to time to see how much is in your wallet.
How does Paidtrends generate revenue?
SocialAds are like any other online ad scheme, except it runs only on social networks. SocialAds here consists of word-of-mouth text, customised to appear as a simple social feed. It could contain links and pictures as well, but at a cost.
SocialAds operate only on impressions (number of probable human interactions) which costs more as the number increases. After creating a SocialAd we email you the payment process. Once payment is made, we are sure to keep in touch with you on how you wish this ad to run. Note, a SocialAd is allowed to run three times after a single payment is made. We help you customise the ad to make it less corporate and more social, so that people actually see it as a Tweet or post and not as an ad, because ads are turn-offs, no one likes them, and no one might interact with it if they knew it to be an ad. We do this to avoid spam-like ads from our platform, which could damage our integrity, and that of our users.
How different is it from Ad Dynamo and similar ad services that are popular in Nigeria?
Paidtrends ads could be described without doubt as true digital word-of-mouth advertising. Making use of real active accounts to publish ads is arguably a more effective way to advertise. PaidTrends capitalises on the cumulative effect of publishing ads over a short period of time to ensure that it goes viral.
PaidTrends has a unique notification system that bypasses the usual email notification system. This system notifies each user immediately earnings are made in their respective social accounts. It also offers a unique option for users to cash out earnings through airtime vouchers, mobile recharge or through their personal bank accounts.
We have a strict ad posting guideline that puts a check on spam or fraudulent advertising, this ensures only genuine causes are promoted on its platform.
Who will benefit most from the platform?
With the rapid increase in tech startups, upcoming talents and new businesses in the region, the platform is designed to give new companies an alternative yet affordable media that they could gain premium visibility at a cost effective price. So in as much as I’d rather see it as a win-win situation for all parties, the brands, business or products get online visibility and users signed up earn a token for participating in a cumulative effort.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
