Adbot and MTN partner to offer automated digital ad services to Nigerian SMEs

MTN Nigeria has partnered with Adbot, a South African adtech startup, to enhance the online visibility of Nigerian SMEs through MTN’s Thryve Google Ads services, which provides 1Gb of data, a minimum of 10 website conversions, and 500 ad views on Google.

“As key constituents of the emerging digital economy, it is paramount for SMEs to position themselves effectively across search engines and digital platforms in order to accelerate growth,” Lynda Saint-Nwafor, chief enterprise business officer at
MTN Nigeria said in a statement seen by Bendada.com. “With this revolutionary solution, and our shared vision for innovation and progress, we will collectively ignite the aspirations of these small businesses, propelling them toward unprecedented growth opportunities in this dynamic digital era.”

When Adbot raised an undisclosed seed fund earlier this year, CEO Michelle Geere said that the startup was planning to expand into Nigeria. According to Geere, although Nigerian SMEs leverage social media platforms for advertising, they have not explored so much of Google advertising.

MTN’s Thryve Google Ads platform streamlines the management of Google ad campaigns, utilizing straightforward inputs from business users, such as target location, keywords, and ad content. Concurrently, Adbot’s system amplifies these inputs by initiating campaigns and harnessing machine learning to continually enhance performance, all while maintaining optimal click-through rates at minimal expenses.

This collaboration between the two entities levels the competitive landscape, granting businesses of all sizes in Nigeria access to efficient Google Ads solutions.

According to Michelle Geere, “By teaming up with the nation's largest telecoms company, we have an extraordinary opportunity to bring our cutting-edge advertising tool within reach of over 40 million MSMEs in the region. This initiative aims to empower small businesses to reach new levels of success in the digital world, and we, together with MTN, are excited to see them embrace the endless possibilities that lie ahead.”

However, she admits that “the challenge will be educating the [Nigerian] market that they can do what they’ve been doing on a bigger scale using our technology.”