Digital advertising is increasingly being used by advertisers in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. According to our estimates, it already accounts for between 10 and 15% of total advertising expenditure by advertisers, with significant disparities between countries, of course, since Internet penetration also varies greatly from one country to another.
Display Advertising
Display advertising includes all types of graphic ads displayed on websites, such as banners, images, and videos.
Banners: these are images of various formats placed at the top or sides of web pages. The IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) has proposed a charter for the harmonization of vocabulary, formats used, and procedures employed.
Here are the main banner formats identified by the IAB
The mega banner: 728X90 pixels,
The banner: 300×250 pixels,
Expandable block: 300 x 250 > 300 x 500 or 600 x 250 pixels
Wide angle: 300X600 pixels
The skyscraper: 120X600 pixels
The billboard: 970 x 250 pixels
Video banners
Video banners are video ads integrated into advertising spaces on websites and take the form of advertising windows that appear above or below the active browsing window (pop-ups and pop-unders).
Advertising on Social Media
There are several types of ads that appear on social media:
Sponsored posts: Paid content appearing in users' news feeds.
Sponsored stories: Short, ephemeral ads integrated into users' stories.
Video ads: Video clips displayed in users' feeds or before/during the videos they watch.
Search Engine Advertising (SEA)
These are ads that appear at the top of search engine results such as Google, Bing, etc., based on the keywords used by the user.
They take the form of sponsored links or Google Shopping ads (displaying products with photos and prices directly in search results).
This form of advertising is very effective and highly sought after. It also comes at a high cost for the most popular keywords and for financing the best positions in the hierarchy of responses.
Online Video Advertising
Video ads broadcast on streaming platforms and video sharing websites such as YouTube.
Pre-rolls before the main video
Mid-rolls during the video
Post-rolls after the video
These ads may be skippable (meaning they can be disabled) after a few seconds or non-skippable.
Native Advertising
Advertisements integrated naturally into a website's editorial content so as not to disrupt the user experience.
They take the form of sponsored articles: that is, articles written in the form of articles but sponsored by a brand. Or in-feed ads: ads integrated into the platform's content feed.