Firms not fully exploiting online adverts – Google

Google says Kenyan firms are under-utilising the online space as an opportunity to advertise their goods and services, thus missing out on a chance to communicate with information-hungry consumers.

The tech giant says that when users enter different queries on Google Search, they get advertisements next to the relevant search results.

However, only firms that have leveraged the world’s most commonly used web search engine will have their company websites pop up among the top results relevant to the search query.

“Digital advertising is still quite nascent in Kenya. The consumer is far ahead of the businesses. There are more consumers online utilising digital on a day-to-day basis than there are advertisers advertising to target those consumers so there is a clear gap,” Country Manager for Google Kenya Charles Murito said during celebrations of the 20th anniversary of Google Search.

Google says Kenya is a priority market for the firm and is dedicating a lot of its resources educating Kenyan businesses on the untapped value of digital advertising.

In April this year, marketing communications firm WPP Scangroup #ticker:SCAN inked a deal with Google Africa to roll out a digital advertising product to serve the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm’s clients across the continent.

The solution, dubbed “Doubleclick Suite”, allows WPP Scangroup to buy and sell advertising space in real time.

According to a recent IAB Internet Advertising report, tech giants Google and Facebook are disrupting the old structure of advertising dominated by traditional marketing companies.

Most of the growth in the world’s digital advertising market is driven by the two US-based technology firms.