Problems and prospects of online advertising in Nigeria
Due to the rapid development of information technologies and market relations, Internet advertising is one of the most promising areas of the advertising market. 10% of all world advertising is placed on the Internet, so it is really important to observe such topic as problems and prospects of online advertising in Nigeria.
3 main problems of online advertising in Nigeria
At the present stage, the growth rate of the Nigerian Internet advertising market outrun the world average, demonstrating a positive dynamic for several years. However, despite the fast development, the Nigerian online advertising market is still considerably behind the world market in terms of competitiveness. It can be explained by some significant problems that negatively affect this economic area. Let’s have a closer look at some of them.
Further development of Internet advertising in Nigeria is hampered by a number of problems. will explain some of them:
- Banner blindness, i.e. internet users ignoring banner advertising, which can happen both consciously and unconsciously. To date, the average click-through rate (CTR) of display advertising is about 0.1%. This indicates that 99.9% of network banners are simply ignored by users. The reason for this behavior is the information overload of Internet users. Monthly, the average online visitor is shown about 1700 advertising banners and in order to avoid information overload, he tries to block unnecessary information. As a result, thousands of companies have invested their funds to create media advertising ineffectively.
- Fraudulent ads in the field of Internet marketing remain relevant to this day. After getting caught on unscrupulous advertising, users stop trusting Internet marketing in general, which negatively affects the online advertising market.
- The decline in the media Internet advertising segment is observed not only in Nigeria but all over the world. Specialists of J'son & Partners Consulting report that recently, advertisers with large budgets are inclined to transfer funds to television advertising. This is due primarily to the high cost of such communication channel, as the Internet. The development of mobile technologies, in particular, mobile Internet, is also affecting this decision. So, there are technical limitations of mobile banners. Many of them simply do not open on mobile devices. Likewise, 60% of users usually miss and accidentally click on the banner. After this, they never return to it, which indicates the lack of interest on the part of users.
Thus, in the field of Internet advertising today, there are many problems. If we solve at least a part of them, it would be possible to place the Nigerian market of Internet advertising on a new level.
Solution for problems and prospects of online advertising in Nigeria
Returning to the topic of banner blindness, it is impossible to eliminate this problem completely. However, we can reduce the effect of this phenomenon. According to the research of Jacob Nielsen, most users study the web page on the principle of the F-shaped curve, i.e. they quickly scan it, looking for the necessary information and not read the whole text. In this regard, to minimize the effect of banner blindness, you can place advertisements above the so-called "fold line", i.e. to the bottom of the screen of the gadget which the user uses to browse the Internet resource. This will attract the attention of more potential buyers, and also raise clickability.
Another method to minimize banner blindness is the natural (native) Internet advertising, which is a kind of contextual advertising. Its benefit is that it is perceived by the user as part of the Internet resource on which it is located. It is not identified with advertising and does not cause rejection. The most effective way to use natural advertising is in blogs, video ads, and various mobile applications. Using natural advertising, companies can increase the level of users loyalty to their brand. It is possible that in the future this type of advertising will replace the banner era.
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In addition to the above, you can reduce the effect of banner blindness with your creativity, i.e. create original advertisements that favorably differ from others, use non-standard types of communication.
What about the frauds on Internet? In the last few years, online advertising blockers became a remedy for users who want to avoid cybercriminals in the field of Internet advertising. Simultaneously, it created a problem for respectable advertisers. The problem is that these services not only block malicious advertising, but also legitimate ones. As a result, some clean websites lose their earnings.
The number of people who want to block annoying ads on the Internet is growing every year. So, according to the research of PageFair, today services specializing in blocking online advertising are installed for 198 million people around the world. In Nigeria, the proportion of users using blockers is 8% and is increasing every year.
It’s fair enough to say that people are being pushed to the use of such software products, by advertisers' aggressive formats such as pop-up banners, video clips, and flash animation. Thus, the way out of the current situation will be a transition from aggressive banner advertising to more targeted ones. The combination of media and contextual advertising on the Internet will help to attract more users and as a result, lead to a higher conversion rate.
As already noted above, the decline in the online advertising area is partly due to the rapid development of the mobile Internet. However, this phenomenon can be used for good. So, in addition to standard advertising in applications, you can apply such an Internet marketing tool as advergaming, previously used only on computers and game consoles. Advergaming is a branded online game, created to promote a particular product. The game is built around a certain brand, and the player can create some emotional attachment to the product, while not feeling annoyed.
Thus, the trend of modern Internet advertising is the development of non-standard types of communication with a potential buyer. The use of this approach focuses on the creative and deep understanding of the Internet audience.
To date, one of the main directions of the development of Internet advertising in Nigeria should be the creation of new technologies that will make online advertising more targeted, which will increase its profitability, and thus ensure further growth.
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Source: Legit.ng
