Digital Advertising in Tanzania – 3 Primary Channels you should leverage

Discover the primary channels for digital advertising in Tanzania based on the landscape and statistics. Utilize platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Google armed with data. As an advertiser, you cannot afford to ignore leveraging the power of digital for your marketing.

DIGITAL ADVERTISING IN TANZANIA – THE LANDSCAPE & CHANNELS

It won’t hurt to repeat the question, why advertise online? Reach, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, quantifiable and measurable results and more.

The landscape is ripe for advertising in Tanzania

At least 9.3 million internet users! This is as of early 2014 according to the TCRA. This roughly equates to about ~20.7% of the population – this rapid growth is expected to continue. Over 80% of the internet access in Tanzania is from mobile phones and tablets (TCRA). The estimated number of Facebook users in Tanzania ranges between 2-2.5 million people.

About 350,000 people are active daily on Facebook. Facebook is often synonymous with the internet in Tanzania. Companies or businesses with the largest number of fans on Facebook are usually perceived as market leaders in their fields of operation. Most businesses use Facebook to drive traffic back to their websites and collect leads in the process.

Twitter is by far the slowest growing social platform in Tanzania. The number of monthly active users is estimated at over 130,000. Still a growing platform with relatively expensive advertising compared to other platforms or channels.

Instagram is more popular than Twitter; however, no publicly available stats exist to support its perceived trendiness.  Evidence of the use of Instagram for business purposes is plenty even though official advertising opportunities from the platform itself are limited. Like Instagram, Pinterest is also growing in stature albeit more slowly.

WhatsApp – possibly the largest social media platform in Tanzania. However, without real data, it’s not possible to accurately say whether WhatsApp is larger than Facebook in terms of users in Tanzania. It is a SAFE assumption to say the least. The anonymity, privacy and closed group sharing have made WhatsApp a standout in terms of social networking and media sharing. Because it’s dark social, we have no analytics for this platform. There is no advertising as of yet. However, it will be very interesting to see where Facebook go with WhatsApp. Should its impact be measurable, then we’ll definitely start seeing more of the major industry players turn to WhatsApp for digital.

Primary channels available for digital advertising in Tanzania

1. Google AdWords

The Google network has massive volume and reach. With AdWords businesses can show ads on the most popular websites in Tanzania as well as internationally. Most companies use AdWords for content and keyword targeted ads to drive traffic to customer converting landing pages and/or lead collection web pages.

2. Facebook

By far the most popular and simpler platform for advertising in Tanzania. Precise interests and demographics targeting is the highlight of advertising on Facebook as well as the fact that most brand users are already on Facebook. With Facebook ads, the objectives can be driving traffic, e-commerce, growing fan base, driving app downloads, installs and usage, video views, event attendance and more.

3. Direct sponsorships on local websites, blogs and apps

This is by far the most popular way digital is being sold for advertising in Tanzania. In some cases, advertisers can be plagued by the expensiveness, inefficiency, low ROI and poor analytics. Depending on the arrangement between an advertiser and a publisher, advertising objectives, the technology available to serve ads, report and measure results, sponsorships can be an effective way to advertise online. This is especially true when the objective is branding or when the value add such as positive affiliation and off-digital promotion is significant.

Whether you want to generate awareness for your brand, products / services, create demand, increase sales, collect leads, online advertising should be part of your media budget and plan. Advertisers simply cannot afford to miss out on the potential opportunities. Most Tanzanians online have meaningfully higher than average education levels, income levels and the propensity to find brands online and be persuaded in one way or another to become customers for those brands.

Continue reading for potential digital advertising partners in Tanzania here.