Before going into any business whether in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world, it is important you have basic knowledge of what exactly you are going into. Now we are talking about how to start an online advertising agency in Nigeria, before we go into details we ought to know what an online advertising agency is
What is an online advertising agency?
Let us break it down for proper understanding. There are basically two major types of advertising,
- Traditional advertising
- Online Advertising
In this article I will be focusing on the online advertising, I will define online advertising, define an agency and then merge together.
Online advertising which is also known as online marketing, Internet advertising or web advertising, is a form of promotion, publicizing, selling, marketing and advertising which uses the world wide web (WWW) popularly known as your Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to targeted consumers, example of this form of advertising includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising on websites and blogs), and mobile advertising.
what is an Agency?
An agency is simply the middleman between the client and the consumer of the product or services, the agency is usually a business organization or individual providing a particular service on behalf of another business, person, or group
What is An Online Advertising Agency?
Therefore an online advertising agency can be defined as a business organization, individual, or group of persons providing the link between the client (potential advertiser) and the targeted consumer using the various internet marketing tools (Facebook, online forums, blogs etc.) at their disposal.
How To Start An Online Advertising Agency In Nigeria
According to statistics, over 20 million users are connected to the internet with 70% of the teeming youths taking more than half of the figure, which has brought about a sporadic increase in the use of various social media platforms, websites and blogs which has in turn created employment for the youths, owing blogs and registering with Google AdSense program.
How to get started
The good news is that you do not basically need an office to get your online advertising agency started. make sure you review all local licensing regulations and ensure you can either write the appropriate copy or hire competent people to do so.
Get a budget to work with
Working with a budget is important which you should not exceed as it guides your spending and achieve your targets
Get An Internet Connected System
It is only mandatory you get an internet connected system as this is the backbone of your business, since without the internet you cannot talk about starting an online advertising agency business in Nigeria.
Get A Web Expert
It is advisable you acquire the services of a web expert to open your online advertising platform be it a website or blog which usually is wise to get it connected to username, Facebook, Instagram (this mainly works if you are a celebrity with huge followers) as for website or blog, you need to select and pay for a domain name and host to get connected to the world wide web.
Define Your Niche
This helps you in knowing the type of advertising you want to target and services you want to offer, it gives you an edge over other online advertising agencies. For example, if my online agency niche is on Tech articles or promotions, I would only attract companies, group or individuals that wants to advertise tech related products, and this therefore has given me an edge over other random online advertising agencies without directions.
Get Digital Tools
When I say digital tools, i am referring to high resolution video cameras but this should not pose a threat as your mobile device is equal to the task, just make sure you get a mobile device with video camera of high pixels for quality pictures. This is very necessary as it helps you in getting exclusive items be it videos, photographs and live feeds from events organized by your clients.
Explore Good Writers To Help Rank On Search Engines
This is the area where you must not compromise; get good paid writers, to write valuable contents focusing on your niche and upload on your website or blog, with good contents and proper use of SEO skills, your articles would rank quickly on Google search engines so imagine the huge contacts you are likely to come across considering the high volume of internet users on Google daily.
I have an article on which I ranked on the first page and number one on Google search engine, this afforded me the opportunity to meet companies and individuals that contacted me and needed to advertise on one of my platforms and till date, this ads is still on going.
Use Traditional Means Of Advertising
Traditional, Visual (newspapers, magazines, television stations and other advertising media) and online advertising agencies are intertwined, they work pari-passu, you can use traditional means of advertising to get through to clients
Patience
One key virtue is patience, as an online advertising agency, you need to be extremely patient as this takes time for you to start getting clients and ranking on Google before you can start getting noticed on search engines.
With all these in place, you are good to start your little online advertising agency and grow it into a magnificent one.