Advertising Platforms in Nigeria: Where to Run Ads Online

Start with what is free: a Google Business Profile, and listings on Jiji if you sell goods. When you are ready to pay, the first money for most small businesses in Nigeria should go to Meta or Google, because both can bill you in naira. TikTok, X and LinkedIn each have a use and each has a catch. TikTok sets a high daily minimum, and the other two charge Nigerian advertisers in foreign currency.

This page used to list ten free classified-ads sites. Seven of them have since closed, been sold or lapsed, and they are named at the end. What follows is what each platform’s own pages say about minimum spend, currency and payment.

Advertising platforms compared

Meta, X and Nairaland turn away automated visits, so for those three we read the Internet Archive’s most recent copies of their own pages.

The global platforms

Google Ads

Google Ads puts you in front of people on Search, YouTube and the sites that carry Google’s display ads. Google says there is no minimum ad spend, and you set a daily or monthly cap.

An account can be billed in naira. For Nigeria, Google’s payment page lists credit and debit cards with a Visa or Mastercard logo. You can be charged automatically after your ads run, or add money first. The currency is fixed when the account is created and cannot be changed later.

Two things on Google’s own pages are specific to Nigeria. It charges 7.5% VAT to every customer with a billing address in Nigeria. And since 1 January 2024, naira accounts pay an “operating charge” on any spend from ads shown to people outside Nigeria. The rate was 50% in the first month and has been 1% in every month Google has listed since. If your customers are all in Nigeria, Google’s advice is to set your location option to “Presence”, so that only people in or regularly in your target area see the ad.

Meta ads: Facebook and Instagram

One ad account covers Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s other apps. Meta’s list of accepted payment options has a section for Nigeria:

• credit cards or co-branded debit cards: Visa, Mastercard and American Express;
• PayPal;
• two local methods: “Naira card”, and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the bank-owned company that runs instant transfers between Nigerian accounts.

The local methods come with conditions. They are offered only if the ad account’s country is Nigeria and its currency is the naira, and only if you choose one when you first set the account up. Meta calls them manual payment methods. An account on one of them runs on a balance that you top up before your ads go out, and the ads are paid for from that balance.

On minimum spend, Meta says it requires a minimum budget and that the amount varies by country and objective. It gives no figure. Ads Manager shows an alert if your budget is too low.

TikTok Ads Manager

TikTok states the highest minimum of the five. Its budget rules say a campaign’s daily budget must exceed $50 and an ad group’s must exceed $20. Over a 30-day month that is more than $1,500 for one campaign.

Nigeria is on TikTok’s list of countries where you can create an ad account in its Business Center without going through a TikTok representative, though not on its separate list for creating a Business Center yourself. What TikTok does not publish is how a Nigerian account pays. Its table of payment methods for Europe, the Middle East and Africa has entries for Egypt, Morocco and South Africa and none for Nigeria. TikTok’s instruction is to open Billing in Ads Manager and click “Add Payment Method” to see what your account is offered. Do that before you plan a campaign around it.

X Ads

X says there is no minimum spend for its ads. You pay with a credit or debit card: Visa, Mastercard or American Express. X places a temporary $5 hold on a new card to check it.

X does not bill in naira. Its ads currency page puts Nigeria among the countries charged in US dollars. The country and currency are chosen when the ads account is created and cannot be changed afterwards. Billing in dollars means the card you add must work for foreign-currency payments, and that depends on your bank.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn sells access to what it calls a professional audience. Its minimum daily budget is $10 for any ad format, and a new campaign needs a lifetime budget of at least $100. Thirty days at the minimum is $300.

LinkedIn’s list of account currencies has 31 entries. The naira is not one of them. The only African currencies are the Egyptian pound and the South African rand. Self-service accounts pay by credit card, and the currency cannot be changed once the account exists.

Nigerian sites that take adverts

Jiji

Jiji is the only general classifieds site from our old list that is still running, and posting on it is free up to a limit. Each category has its own number of free slots. Jiji says large categories such as Cars have fewer, and once they are used up a new advert is saved as a draft.

Paid promotion comes as Boost packages, in tiers from Basic to Enterprise, sold for one, three or six months, with twelve-month terms on the top tiers. Jiji does not print the prices on its public pages. They depend on the category and appear on the Premium Services page after you sign in. Sellers with a package can also use Pro Sales, where you pay only when someone clicks. You fund your Jiji balance with a Verve, Visa or Mastercard card, a bank transfer or your bank’s USSD code.

Nairaland

Nairaland sells banner space by forum section, so a property advert can sit on the Properties board and a job advert on Jobs. Its instructions for advertisers ask for a 318 by 106 pixel banner in JPG or PNG. Ads run on prepaid credit, and you fund it by transferring at least ₦5,000 to Nairaland’s bank account and submitting a payment claim. Each section has six advertiser slots. The weekly rate for each section is listed on Nairaland’s ad rates page and moves with demand, so we have not copied the figures here.

Private Property

Private Property has moved to privateproperty.ng. A limited free account allows up to 20 listings. Paid packages for agents run from Starter, at ₦10,000 a month for 100 listings, to Exclusive at ₦200,000 a month. Its FAQ says the plan is charged to your card on a yearly basis, so ask what the first payment will be before you sign up.

Jobzilla

Jobzilla will post a vacancy free if you email the details, though it says there is no guarantee a free post is published on time, or at all. A post pinned to its home page and jobs page for 10 days costs ₦10,000 per role. An email to its subscriber list is ₦50,000.

Google Business Profile

This is a listing, not an advert, and it belongs here because it is the free thing most worth doing. Google says creating a Business Profile and listing your business on Search and Maps costs nothing.

Which to pick for your business

• A shop, restaurant, salon or workshop that people look up: the Business Profile first. Then Google Ads on searches in your city. There is no minimum and the bill is in naira.
• Goods you can photograph, such as phones, clothes, furniture or cars: free Jiji listings first. Add Meta ads when you want to reach people who are not already looking.
• An online or Instagram store: Meta. If you have no card that suits, open the ad account in naira and choose one of the local payment methods at setup. You cannot add it later.
• Property: Private Property’s free account and Jiji’s property category. Pay for a package only when you have more listings than the free limits hold.
• Services sold to companies: LinkedIn, if $10 a day on a foreign-currency card is workable. If the aim is hiring, try Jobzilla’s free post first.
• A brand that already makes short videos: TikTok, but only with more than $50 a day to spend. Below that, Instagram through Meta is the nearer fit.
• A very small budget: ₦5,000 starts a banner on a Nairaland section. Choose the section your buyers read.

If you have no card that pays in foreign currency, that settles a good part of it. Of the five global platforms, only Google and Meta publish a way to pay in naira. The Nigerian sites all price in naira.

The classifieds sites that have gone

We visited every site on the old list. Jiji, Private Property and Jobzilla are still running. The rest:

• OLX Nigeria. OLX Group announced on 1 April 2019 that its Nigerian users would be redirected to Jiji. The Nigerian address now leads to OLX’s global page, which has no Nigeria on it.
• Cheki. Autochek bought Cheki Nigeria in September 2020, as Techpoint reported, and the Cheki outlets were to be rebranded. The old Nigerian address now fails with an expired security certificate. Autochek’s site takes car listings from sellers.
• Ady.ng. The address no longer resolves.
• Adverture.net. The address shows an unrelated placeholder page.
• Gidimarket. The domain shows a registrar’s holding page that says it was recently registered.
• Tradestable. The domain forwards to a page offering it for sale.
• Mobofree. The address forwards to a domain-parking service.

Quick answers

Which advertising platforms take naira?

Google Ads and Meta both offer naira accounts. Jiji, Nairaland, Private Property and Jobzilla price in naira. X bills Nigerian accounts in US dollars, and LinkedIn does not list the naira among its currencies.

How do I pay for Facebook ads in Nigeria?

With a Visa, Mastercard or American Express card, or PayPal. On an ad account set to Nigeria and the naira you can instead choose a naira card or NIBSS, but only when the account is first set up.

How do I pay for Google Ads in Nigeria?

With a credit or debit card that carries the Visa or Mastercard logo. The account can be in naira, and Google adds 7.5% VAT for billing addresses in Nigeria.

What is the minimum budget for TikTok ads?

A daily budget of more than $50 for a campaign and more than $20 for an ad group.

Where can I advertise for free in Nigeria?

A Google Business Profile is free. Jiji is free within each category’s limit, Private Property allows 20 free listings, and Jobzilla posts vacancies free by email without a guarantee.