Google confirms online advertising growth in Nigeria
The search engine giant, Google Nigeria, has confirmed huge growth in online businesses and advertising in the country, stressing that more opportunities still lie ahead.
The Head, Agency Business Development and Country Manager for new Market in Central Eastern Europe, Mr. Goetz Trillhaas, who disclosed this in Lagos, said the rate of Internet adoption in Nigeria was growing very rapidly.
According to him, Google's new initiative - the Adwords is helping advertisers save lots of money and efforts by targeting and reaching their customers in a more scientific way.
Trillhaas said the initiative is aimed at providing agencies and their teams with a comprehensive strategy-focused training on the latest tools and best practices of managing accounts.
Already, the International Telecommunications Union and the worldinternetstat.com said there are over 48.3 million people online in the Nigeria, representing 28.4 per cent of the population, all sharing and communicating.
He said: 'The Nigerian Communications Commission 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.'
Trillhaas said Adwords was helping advertisers to save a lot of money and efforts by helping them to reach their customers in a more scientific way.
According to him, as consumers become more price-conscious, they spend more time online, researching purchases and finding good deals - even if they go on to make their purchase in an actual store, everything (search engines, social networks, blogs) plays a large role in driving that purchase.
Trillhaas 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.'
Speaking on the benefits of Adwords to Nigeria, Country Manager, Google Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan, said today, there are 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.
Ehimuan said for certified partners, the benefits includes trainings designed to equip employees to run Google advertising programmes effectively and efficiently, stressing that it allows advertisers looking for support to find and get contacted.