With ever-increasing online business and E-commerce awareness in Pakistan, we are witnessing the popularity of new forms of advertising other than traditional media. Due to the higher cost of TVC & no specific targeting, businesses are always looking for alternate channels that can give them the best ROI for their marketing budget. Internet marketing is the perfect answer to their requirements. Usually, internet marketing involves any marketing efforts that use the internet to drive business objectives. This includes, but not limited to, Email Marketing, Search Marketing, Influence Marketing, Digital Marketing, etc. In Pakistan, after search marketing, we have witnessed a huge growth in Digital Marketing & specifically in Display Advertising; which is increasing day by day.
According to Wikipedia, Internet marketing, or online marketing, refers to advertising and marketing efforts that uses the web & email to drive direct sales via electronic commerce, in addition to sales leads from Web sites or emails.
Let me show you a brief snapshot of the Digital & Display Market of Pakistan. According to Facebook Ads Manager, there are 21 million users from Pakistan, aging between 18 and 65+, as of January 2016, out of which 8.1 million are active users who use Facebook on daily basis. Among these 21 million users, 4.2 million people are from Karachi with 1.7 million active users; 6.4 million people are from Lahore with 2.3 active users and 2.3 million people are from Islamabad with 82,000 active users.
Google Display shows 4 Billion Impressions per month of the audience from Pakistan on various websites including Pakistani Publishers.
Usually, the majority of the online advertisers starts with Facebook Ads & then move to other channels gradually, but Facebook advertising cost in Pakistan has been increasing every year, leaving advertisers no choice but to look for alternatives. Moreover, Facebook Algorithm changes have reduced the Audience Reach notably, thus, making a digital advertising campaign on Facebook a tricky business.
As per the majority experts, Most effective Facebook Ad Placement is Desktop News Feed.
On Average, Facebook CPM rate was increased by 140% in 2014 compared to 2013. Consider the following chart of a campaign we did for a Women Clothing Facebook Page. You can see that the results we get for the same budget have sufficiently decreased over time.
* These campaigns were targeting the same placements and audience.
Pakistani publishers were earning majorly from AdSense before the Digital Boom in Pakistan. Although AdSense is still a popular option among publishers, however, due to Google crackdown on Pakistani websites using AdSense in 2011 and stricter policies afterward, many publishers lost a good amount of revenue. Luckily, the established publishers overcame this revenue shortfall by selling ad placements directly to local Pakistani brands, especially Telco & Mobile companies. Once the trend started, every other local publisher started the same. Since brands are ready to pay a premium price, local publishers blocked the major brands from advertising on their websites via Google Adwords directly, forcing them to buy ad space directly from them at their rates.
Google Pakistan got eight million queries In 2012
Due to amazing growth in the Display Advertising industry in Pakistan, we are now seeing several content networks gaining online visibility. However, the market is still open and untapped. Since news outlets were the ones that started earning hugely by selling Display, they were the first ones to start new portals to capture the market. Due to their existing readership and brand awareness, it was relatively easy for them to generate traffic on their news portals. A recent example of such portals are WebChutney.pk by ExpressMedia and DawnNews Images.Dawn.com
When it comes to media spend, in 2013, TVC spend was 30 billion PKR. Telecom companies made 23% TVS ads spend (which is evident in the form of trauma we suffer viewing their Ads after every 15 minutes) whereas Food companies, including beverages, made 30% of TVs ads spend. Now the same industries are spending on Digital ads too. Digital Advertising started to get momentum in 2007-2008 and eventually, the Digital Ad Spend in Pakistan increased from PKR 560 million in 2011 to PKR 1 billion in 2014.
According to a research report, Pakistani brands spent 0.25 billion PKR for internet marketing during 2013, and a large chunk of this figure was collected by Google, Facebook, Daily Motion (since YouTube was banned) and Yahoo!. According to a Gallup Pakistan 2013-14 report, the total Ad Spend of Pakistan in 2014 was 38.32 billion PKR among which Internet Ad Spend share was 0.60 billion PKR.
Digital Agencies & Publishers of Pakistan
Today there are literally hundreds of “digital agencies” in Pakistan offering services from Facebook Campaigns to what not but the fact remains that Symmetry Digital is the pioneer of Digital Advertising in Pakistan. They were the first to start selling digital inventory to local brands. In fact, they are the ones who actually educated the brands about Digital Advertising in Pakistan. The following are the current major Digital Agencies of Pakistan that buy the inventory from local publishers and then resell it to the brands.
- Symmetry Digital
- Starcom Mediavest Pakistan
- Manhattan Communications
- GroupM Pakistan
- Lowe & Rauf Pakistan
On the other hand, when we talk about major digital publishers in Pakistan, News websites clearly dominate the area. Currently GEO/Jang Group, Express Group & Dawn Group are the major players in selling Display Advertising. Express News has gained the first spot in terms of earnings from selling Digital Ads on its online properties with estimated earnings of approx. 15 million PKR per month. Jang/GEO group is at second number with estimated earnings of approx. 10 million PKR per month whereas Dawn is generating approx. 6-8 Million PKR per month from its Display Ads. Following are the major digital publishers in Pakistan;
- Express
- Jang/Geo
- BusinessRecorders
- ARY
- Hum TV
When it comes to individual players, HamariWeb.com is the largest individual publisher in Pakistan.
It’s no surprise that the same industries that spend heavily on TVCs are now focusing on Digital Ads. Following are the major industries and brands that are using Digital Advertising in Pakistan.
- Telcos
- Consumer Goods brands including Unilever, P&G, etc.
- Airlines including emirates, qatar airways & Flydubai
- Food Brands including Nestle, Pizza Rockets, Dominos, Johnny Rockets, BurgerKing, etc.
Unlike established digital industries like in USA, Pakistan Digital industry is in its very nascent stage. Concepts like Performance Based Advertising, Pre & Post Analysis are still unknown to even major players of industry. Despite these hurdles, 2017 will bring the huge opportunism for publishers as advertisers have already realized the importance and target percussion of Digital Advertising. They understand the value & ROI of Digital Advertising now and next they will look for Niche Targeting. If you are a publisher who can offer even 0.2 million Impressions per month on a quality content portal with engaging users, you can easily earn up to $2.5-$4 per CPM from local brands.
Challenges for Publishers
- For individual publishers, it keep getting harder to enter into the market due to major news groups already working on dozens of content portals.
- It requires time as well as investment to create Engaging & Brandable Portals. 100Rupee articles won’t do any good to you in that case. (Trust me you can still get an article in 100 Rupees)
- Lots of Social Media Marketing, Branding & Time are required initially to establish a sustainable brand. It will take anywhere from 6 – 10 months to create a good engaging portal.
Positives for Publishers
- Market is unsaturated and wide open.
- Local portals in Fashion & Lifestyle, Health & Technology will be in high demand for advertising.
- Native Ads will be selling like hot cakes in 2016-17
Unique Opportunity
A platform for publishers & advertisers where they can independently buy and sell inventory.
