Targeting for Revenue: Making Online Ads Work for Small Businesses

Hello everyone! Im coming to you today from a very full, very noisy house. Its a public holiday here, the kids are watching cartoons, and the energy is high, but the show must go on! Today, I want to talk about a trap I see so many small and medium-sized businesses falling into: Brand Advertising. We all see the big players like Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz running beautiful ads that dont necessarily tell you to "buy now." They've been doing this for over 50 years to stay top-of-mind. But if you are a small business looking for Naira and Kobo today, copying them is a massive mistake. When youre starting out, you need Revenue-Based Advertising. You need a clear call to action, something that makes people download a lead magnet, slide into your DMs, or click "buy." Brand advertising without a massive, sustained budget is just throwing money away. Zuckerberg will gladly take your cash, but if you stop after two months because you aren't seeing immediate sales, you've gained nothing.We also have to talk about Targeting Criteria. Your ads are only as good as the instructions you give the algorithm. I recently saw a Nigerian tech company running ads to show in Ghana and Kenya when they weren't even set up for cross-border payments! That is pure waste!If you sell human hair, dont show your ads to bald men. If youre based in Lagos and your shipping costs make you uncompetitive in distant cities, tighten your geography. Don't let your "ad guy" make all the decisions. Sit down, look at the Word doc, and check the targeting. Are you reaching the right sex, the right location, and the right interests? Using "lookalike audiences" based on people who actually watched 75% of your video is much smarter than targeting random website visitors who bounced after two seconds.Stop the "start-stop" cycle and start targeting for revenue. If you need help looking over your sales process or your ad frameworks, you know where to find me!