If you have tried to target Zimbabweans with Facebook ads in the past, (because social is king of audience numbers right now, and Facebook is right there at the top) you probably found, much to your disappointment, that Facebook wouldn’t let it. See, you could not target Zimbabwe as a location for your adverts on Facebook. Sanctions it was, apparently. Double standards we called it.
Well, Facebook is easing on that. Now you can. If you are in Zimbabwe, you might have noticed over the past week or so, that adverts are starting to show up on the right side panel of the web site. The same way they would if you used Facebook from outside the country. That’s because advertisers can now target you.
We notice however that Zimbabwe is still not an option on the “Account Country” selection but we’re sure this is a much easier hurdle to go around. We’re not sure why this is so. Could it be Facebook means to only allow people outside Zim to target Zimbabweans?
They’ll also be the credit card issue for most advertisers, with Zim issued credit cards either too difficult to get, or just an issue to use on the net. Yes, those locally issued prepaid debit cards are not accepted on many websites especially US based ones. But then, again, that’s an easier hurdle to go around.
A mistake some will make after knowing this is to rush in for this latest possibility. Facebook is not the only advertising path on the net. There are still many options ,the obvious one to mention being Google Adwords. There are local ad marketplaces emerging as well. Local design company, C2 Media, have created adz; there’s SpryAds created by some local entrepreneurs which is still in beta; and there’s FaraiMedia, which we’ve used here for some of our inventory.
Ultimately, which platform you use is a decision driven by your objectives and the opportunity each platform avails, which should in turn drive a placement strategy.
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8 comments
Finally….great news!! I smell Paypal around the corner!
i think a more meaningful strategy is for us Africans to develop our own search engines optimized for the African audience other than that we will always have “white-centric-google-ads or results” shoved down our throats. creating a social network as one might suggest would be futile. We techies should fight neo-colonialism. the web is the weapon the west is using on us. I all honesty they decide what information we have access to. we need to start an internet revolution.
Agree 10000% and I wish i had the funds to start such a project.
Really don’t think politics is relevant to this discussion. Google Adwords is open to anyone that wants to advertise. Facebook probably just decides to bother with a country once it hits a certain number. Please please don’t turn techzim into political or race rubbish. We get enough of that from normal news.
care to check why paypal is “blocked” in Zim. Again, politics!!
Now they want to include us… They got the shock of their lives when it was found out that Mxit was almost two times more popular in SA than Facebook
Whilst its welcome, its really disheartening for a service like that being so discriminatory. It is unlike other services like Google Play that are impeded by country regulations.
Facebook had no such challenge. They just decided…”No, not Zimbabwe…that white farm looting country”
mxm!
sweet n sour 🙂
Paypla even had a crazy reason that they emailed to all Zimbabweans who tried to sign up for the service nxa!
Well, they blantantly say you are in a sanctioned country. Once upon a time, we had access.