A Google chief has said online advertising is on the rise in Nigeria as businesses begin to wake up to the benefits, with Adwords allowing advertisers to cut costs and use more scientific approach in reaching customers.
Goetz Trillhaas, head of agency business development for central eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA), was speaking in Lagos.
He said: “Businesses that want to be online to reach these consumers can market themselves in a way which is flexible, targeted, and cost effective – which means they can get more value out of every naira they spend.
“Advertisers are able to connect with potential customers at a time when they are searching for information – which makes it far more likely that this potential will turn into new sales.
“Instead of taking a scatter-gun approach, search marketing enables advertisers to target warm leads.”
The country manager of Google Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan, highlighted what Nigeria will gain from Adwords.
She said the benefits were: “Fragmentation of media, more scientific approach, change in decision making process, ability to reach customers at the right time, payments by results and huge returns on investments.”
Trillhaas also noted the nation’s rapid rate of internet adoption. He said: “The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) estimated that there were 12.5 million active Internet subscriptions in Nigeria in January 2013, and this number is growing.
“The ITU projects that the number of people online in Nigeria would have risen to 70 million by 2015.”
