The year 2020 will be a different year for everyone, at least in the media and marketing industry.
Worthy of note is the digital scene. The world’s largest messaging app, WhatsApp will finally be opened for business.
WhatsApp will start allowing advertising next year. This means that we will have access to over 1.5 billion people worldwide and in Nigeria, it could become the biggest trend for next year given the popularity of WhatsApp across target segments.
Facebook has not announced the launch date in 2020 or the particular month it would roll out the feature, but it has already added its signature to the app (WhatsApp from Facebook).
Here is What We Know for Now
- The company has not announced the launch date or the particular month in the quarter when it would roll out the feature/service.
- Now to how the ad will look like, well, the ad will be in its status section where WhatsApp users normally share text, pictures and videos to their members and it expires after 24 hours.
- People with the knowledge of the matter, especially those at the summit claimed that the status ad will look like the typical user status content but it will have an icon that a user can click to see the sponsor of the message.
- There is no information as to how it will charge advertisers or sponsors but it could likely be the same model with its advertising rate such as cost per impression (CPM), cost per click (CPC), cost per action (CPA) and perhaps cost per acquisition which is abbreviated as the former.
- It is also likely that Facebook would build special features that will allow advertisers to engage users within the app with their campaigns and content without exiting the app.
Now to the Elephant in the Room
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal as well the scrutiny Facebook is now facing, will the company WhatsApp allow its users to decline to receive ads on their apps? Should that happen, Facebook might experiment with a subscription model which was the initial plan of WhatsApp founders before Mark Zuckerberg acquired it in 2012.
But trust us, we will be here to share with you how to take advantage of this huge platform.
First published on NEXTGEN, a weekly newsletter of SBI Media Limited
