Ads That Fail: The Nigerian Business Targeting Problem

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at how to get the best out of your social media advertising. And that is because somebody just hit me up recently with some advertising campaign and I realised that this person is just wasting their orgasm money because really, there was no need for me to see that advertisement now. Yeah, I'm regarding today's episode out and about. It's a Sunday. Kids are having caveatism classes and then there's some construction going on, you know,

close by. So expect to hear some drilling and all that. Now, this podcast is not to tell you about my private life, but I'm here to solve business problems. And today we're going to be talking about advertising. And so if you have been wondering, you know, you have a marketing team, you have a marketing crew. Are they wasting your money? Is this advertisement effective? Are you going to get customers from this kind of thing?

How do I grow the business? If these are the kinds of challenges that you wake up and every day these things are on your mind, as in money on my mind every day, then this podcast is your jam. So subscribe Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect with me, I'm the host. My name is Tavishma IED. You can call send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So like I said now advertising.

How do you get the best out of your advertising? Now to be honest, this is also a semi rant because this in a troop me well, well as in like it really pains me because of course when people bring me into a business, you know, to troubleshoot for them or to consult for them or to train for them. We're trying to get the money up. So it's not unusual. Now by the time they hire me, they already had somebody to be doing marketing as well.

And marketing boys, let me be honest with you anyway, let me not be disrespectful. Let me just say marketing boys in Niger, you guys still leave a lot to be desired. You guys when it comes to creative collateral, you know, the, the design, the color, the font, the everything. The campaign is sweet, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I mean, even now that people are using artificial AI tools to create video, you know, video advertising and stuff like that.

I mean, they create such wonderful things, but then the execution of the campaign leaves a lot to be desired anyway, so let's just get straight into it. So basically, OK, let's just go straight to the chase. If you're advertising online, whether advertising offline or online, targeting is the main thing. I repeat, targeting is the main thing. Let me say one more time, targeting is the main thing for you to maximise. You're spend the money that you're spending to maximize the results that you get.

Targeting has to be on point. For those of you who've been listening for a while, you remember the guy been in the one who runs a, a gadget shop, you know, computers, mobile phones, you know, stuff like that. When he came down to billboards, we had to sit down and have that conversation, OK? This is our target audience, blah, blah, blah, stuff like that. What people that paid you the most? OK, these are G Wagon boys and no problem, a couple of them on campus.

It only made sense that OK, at this intersection that is close to the university, the one that is away from all those other billboards, let us put one there so that student community will see. Now, there's no guarantee that, excuse me, that because we have put it there, we're going to get some business from it. But The thing is, you know, advertising is part art and it's part science. So this is part of the artistry that is involved.

This is where we think our target audiences, this is where we think they'll be driving back. So let's put 1 billboard there. Now take that same mentality. So excuse me now take that same mentality and apply that thing online. Where do you think the target audience is going to be? Where do you think the eyeballs are going to be? You know, took that advertisement there so that the eyeballs can see. Because if the people who are supposed to see it are not seeing it, and then the people who are not supposed to see it are seeing it truly, truly, I

say on to thee, thou art wasting your money. OK, Well, in this case, your gas money. And I think that's the thing that pays me the most about all these marketing boys. You go into a company, you do your, you know, all of you talk real fancy because you'll have a master's degrees and everything and then you collect people's money, big, big money. Like one guy I'm working with right now, 500,000, that's what they collected just to run the campaign.

We now start seeing some of the results. By the time I pick up the phone and call some of those leads, I'm like, hi, this is rubbish, absolute rubbish. That's why 500K don't go like that. Anyway. So basically the thing that causes run today was I was just chilling on LinkedIn. Mind my business, you know, checking my, you know, my engagement because you know, I put up posts, you know, people interact, people leave comments,

you know, things like that. So just do my thing. Next thing now in my inbox, I receive one of those sponsored advertisements, you know, stuff like that from inter switch. Now I'm not going to read the whole thing because you know, those of you who listen for a while, you already know Now when I do my takedowns message was too long. You had to scroll on my own phone. I'd scroll like 5 or 6 times to finish the whole thing.

But shot, because I'm a student of the game, I said let me just see what's out there. Let me see what techniques people are using, you know, things like that. So I went ahead and looked at the whole thing. We're very, very, I say on to the marketing people, all these long copy that people are using your advertisement. What do you think is reading this thing because you think people don't have what they're doing with that time.

They will sit down and be scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. Wasted money. Those guys just wasted inter switches money. And then he's paying me because inter switch. That's a good client. Those are the people that will be paying correct money. You know, don't be charged pricing you, you know, for 400-5555 hundred, you're collecting millions. So The thing is painting me, that's money that should have went out my pocket if I need some connections into these kinds of organizations.

So he was long as hell, very long and all thrust of the advert was we're talking about how you can digitize your oil and gas business for growth. I repeat, some of you, you'll be wondering, did I hear him correctly? Yes, you heard me correctly. The advert was digitize your oil and gas business for growth. Now those of you who have been listening to this podcast, even if you've only listened for two episodes, do I sound like somebody who is in the oil and gas business?

Do I, should I be seeing that kind of advertisement? Should I? If I'm seeing that advertisement, obviously the other people who are not in the oil and gas business, who that advert is being shown to as well. The marketer will now tell Inter Switch that we did a brilliant campaign. They will say that that ad was seen by over 800 million Nigerians. Then they'll clap for them. They'll say good, that the thing the campaign had good reach which can reach when people who should not be seeing it are seeing it.

If I do not own an oil and gas business and this thing is talking about inter switch solutions for people in the oil and gas space, does it sound like I am going to take action on something that I do not need and I am not interested in now? This is the problem. Marketing people listen very well. This is the problem. I studied oil and gas, yes, that was my second degree, oil and gas law. So because of that, on my profile, I'm sure oil and gas is written there because my university will be there and my degree will be there and my graduation will be there.

So the problem is the people who came up with this advertising campaign, what they did was when they were putting the targeting criteria, they just said anybody that has done anything in oil and gas before this person should see the advert. No marketing boys and girls. Listen, what is the most important thing? Is it that anybody who has anything to do with oil and gas should see this advert or should it be anybody who has a career or a business in oil and gas should see this advert?

I repeat, marketing boys and girls in the targeting that people are doing for these kinds of campaigns, you're working on this kind of thing, is it OK? The person has something related to do with oil and gas, no matter how small, therefore, the person should see this advert or should it be somebody who has had a career or a business in oil and gas? Now, the problem I have with marketing boys and girls, especially in Nigeria is they worry too much about reach.

Marketing people in Nigeria have a reach mentality. They want plenty of people to see the adverts, plenty and plenty and plenty. And then they have these their funny metrics. The more people see it, the more the impressions. Then they can say that oh the cost of the impression was cheap and they will tell your guy that they ran an efficient campaign because 800 million people saw it at the cost of so so and so per impression.

The cost is low. Therefore it was a sweet campaign. Sweet campaign. How marketing, boys and girls. This is not about reach. It is not about how low the cost of the impression was. It is about whether the right audience sees it. Even if the impression costs higher, even if it costs more, because if the right audience sees it, then we might get some money. At the end of the day, Inter Switch is not paying for impressions.

What they're paying for is they're hoping that somebody would take on this thing and buy their solutions for the oil and gas industry. Marketing boys and girls, your clients are not paying for impressions. They are paying for business results. They are paying for sales. So please stop this reach mentality or so, so, so impressions and the impression was cheap. Who cares if the impression was cheap when by the time you pick up the phone, you can't do anything with these contacts.

This one of my clients like that. OK, I really told you guys now 500K, 500K, by the time you start calling, it's supposed to be targeting Nigerians in diaspora. By the time you start calling the people, sorry, Nigerians in diaspora who want to buy land and want to buy land or rent property in Lagos, by the time you start calling the people, people in Kano, people in Maiduguri, people in will carry people in like and then all of them based in Nigeria.

Like, is that the point? Cheap impressions, OK was seen by 1,000,000 people and so a million people that we cannot get a single customer from. And so when you are advertising, it is all about targeting, targeting you marketing people. Stop being so afraid. You want the targeting to be as broad as possible because you want reach. It is not about reach, it's about the quality, smarter quality. What is the whole point? If a million people see it and then you know you don't get a single naira of business out of this thing.

But then if half 100,000 people see it and then, I don't know, maybe you get 10 millionaires worth of business. I mean, which one is better? Marketing people, please, I beg targeting, targeting, targeting. Narrow, narrow, narrow. The more focused the better. That's the reason why people call this thing ideal customer profile or target audience or something. Target audience, you know, it means it's, it's like archery. We're trying to shoot gun, we're trying to shoot an arrow.

We're trying to hit the zero in the board. We're not trying to scatter bullets everywhere. Nigerian marketing boys and girls, people like giving us a bad name. That's the reason why those of us who are in the marketing, who are in the revenue communications business, that's the reason why people are skeptical of doing business with us because they have dealt with too many of you and you will have have given them a nasty experience.

Someone who dropped 500K and won't see results then do now think that all of us are charlatans. But of course, you marketing people was your own. You've already collected your money and you've gone. You now leave some of us to come and clean up this mess. So for this kind of campaign now, it should not have been anybody that has anything to do with oil and gas. It should have been maybe people that have a career in oil and gas.

People have a business in oil and gas. Not only that, it is Interstate we're talking about it's a fintech company, you know, very complicated solutions. So people like me who are one man show we should not be seeing this advert. They also should have put there a certain revenue size for the business. They also should have put there a certain size of the business, you know like employee count because one man show does not engage inter switch.

These are the kinds of things that should have gone into that campaign. This is the level of granularity, the level of targeting that should have gone into that campaign. Then apart from the targeting and apart from the length of the copy, there was also an issue with the call to action. Now the call to action just means the the thing that you want people to do at the end of reading your message, at the end of digesting your advertising campaign, what do you want them to do next?

It is part of a good marketing campaign, advertising campaign, direct response copy campaign, whatever campaign you're doing sha anything that is sales related. It's a good idea that the end of it you put a call to action. What do you want the people to do next? Excuse me, because that is how you move people along the buying process eventually until they make a deposit and then they become your customer. So there should always be a call to action.

Now the call to action that they put there at the end of nothing was book a demo Now, please marketing brothers and sisters, is that realistic? You people are selling a product. This is inter switch. This is for big boys and big girls, you know, people where they earn 1,000,000 millions, not naira millions dollars as in big, big, big, big money. This is a very expensive solution. You really think somebody will see your advert one time and just click and then go for a demo?

How? It's not realistic. This is a complex sale scenario. Book a demo that's like you're running into a babe on the first day and then you tell her you're going to be my wife, you know? Yeah, in in Hollywood, it works. It's romantic. But in real life, the first time you see a girl, you tell her you're going to be my wife. You don't think she'll run away. You take it easy. How about the realistic when you say the call to action should be the, how do I put it?

The smallest or most reasonable next step, the easiest next step that somebody should take. So in this case, how about click here to learn more. That's an easier call to action. How many people do you think will see this thing as a book a demo and then they will click on book a demo. How about click here to learn more? How about if you would like to see how Inter Switch can help you, you'd like to see how inter Switch can help you, you know,

improve this, improve this, improve that, click here and easier and call to action. It's a complex sale scenario. Nobody's going to make a decision on the spot. Very few people are just going to click through and then go and see a demo. So anyway, sorry I got carried away. Instead of making this an objective, dispassionate podcast episode, I ended up turning this thing into a rant. But basically I think we I passed across what I was trying to pass across.

So marketing boys and girls, please, this thing is not about reach and it's not about impressions. It's not about 1,000,000 impressions if we don't get customers from it. When people give US money, they are Rex, they are expecting results, they're expecting clients at the end of the day. So marketing people, please understand that and then don't make my own job difficult. Those of us who have to call up the customers don't make my own job difficult.

Please make the targeting as narrow as possible so that by the time people like me pick up the phone and call, the conversation will be sweet. Now, of course, we know that it's not going to be everybody that sees the advert. That is, you know, nothing can be perfect. Nothing can be perfect. But let's go back to this 500K people. Now they're on the advertisement. They got a couple of contacts. I looked at the sample size.

It was not much. I say, you know what, before I hand it over to the guys in house team, let me sample this thing myself. Let me just taste it. Let me see the quality of these leads. Let me call these people. Then we'll now come up with a game plan. I called them out of the sample size, 0 percent, 0%, not even 10 percent. Nobody was the ideal target audience. Nobody. Every single person I called based in Nigeria. Every single person I called based in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, we are targeting people who are supposed to be diaspora, people who live in Canada, people who live in America, people who live in where? Again, I can't remember then of the sample size, I think only like 20% remotely remembered clicking on the ad or were interested in real estate, about 20%. The remaining 80% nothing. And then for some of the people who are some language barriers there, you can understand what I

mean. I don't want to, you know, I don't the sound tribalistic. So let me just leave it like that. Let's just say it was language barrier. Let me just leave it. So I told your guy, gave your guy my report. Look, this is how we need to change the advertisement. We need to tighten this up. We need to tighten this up. And I told them that look, I will use money to pre qualify, put it there in the advertisement that the cost of your solution is between this and this and put the amount in dollar so that some people will see it and be afraid and won't click on it.

Those are some of my recommendations, Borgia, to get the best out of your marketing spend, make sure it is targeted. The more narrow you can make it, the better. Then stop worrying about reach it. Reach is not the main thing. If we're not reaching out to the right people, then the fact that, you know, 1 billion people saw it like OK and so. Then our call to action should be realistic. Book a demo, man. That's too much.

Make it a small step that seems reasonable that somebody could, that somebody can take without fear. Anyway, so that's it. Yeah, that's it. Any forgive me for a rant, but it's one of those things that just really, really, really pay me because this year alone, I think this year alone is like maybe four or five. Yeah, let me say 5, five of these air hops that I have faced personally. And anyway, please, marketers, you should get your house in gear.

You are giving us a bad name. People are giving us a very, very bad name. I beg you people, organize yourselves, maybe we'll go for town hall meeting, marketing association, you know of Lagos, you know, whatever, you probably go for association meeting. We should talk to yourselves, a big talk to yourselves. Anyway, let me stop there. So that's it and that's all for today. If you'd love to connect, call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140.

Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you at the next episode. And you know what, let me apologize. I'm not trying to make marketers sound as if they're all a holes and you know they don't, they don't know their work. But anyway, see you guys next episode.