Session 6: Ads, Landing Pages & Conversion

Creative is what the person sees, and it decides whether they stop. On a phone feed the decision takes under a second, so the first frame has to carry it: a clear subject, high contrast, and something recognisable. For a product business that usually means the product itself, well lit, filling the frame — not a busy scene, not a logo on a plain background, not a design that looks like a design.

Video outperforms stills in most cases because it holds attention and can show the product in use, but only if the first two seconds work. Open with the product, the result or the problem — never with a logo or an introduction. Captions are essential, because a large share of video is watched without sound, and an un-captioned video is silent to most of its viewers.

The temptation to make it beautiful is worth resisting. Real beats polished in this market: a phone-shot video of the actual product in an actual Lagos setting, with a real person speaking, usually outperforms a studio shot, because it looks like content rather than advertising, and advertising is scrolled past. Test both if you can — the result is frequently counter-intuitive.

Ad copy has a reliable structure. Open with the problem, in the customer's language — the first line does the same job as a caption hook, because it is often all that shows before the 'see more'. Agitate briefly: name what the problem costs them, in time, money or frustration. Then present the offer clearly: what it is, what it costs, what happens when they act.

Then prove it and ask. Proof is one specific piece of evidence — a named customer, a number, a guarantee, a delivery time. The ask is one action, stated plainly: 'Send BAG to our WhatsApp on 0803 000 0000' or 'Tap to see prices'. Two asks produce none, and a vague ask ('contact us for more information') produces very few, because it asks the reader to work out what to do.

Two habits make copy convert. Write like you speak, in short sentences, using Nigerian expressions where they fit — formal copy reads as advertising and advertising is skipped. And state the price or the price range. Hiding it in an advert does not create curiosity; it filters out everyone who would have bought at that price and attracts people who will not, which wastes the budget twice.

A landing page has one job: take a person who clicked and get them to do one thing. That means one headline stating the offer, one paragraph on who it is for and what it solves, three or four points of proof, a clear price, and one button — repeated near the top and again at the bottom. Every additional link is a way to leave, so remove navigation and anything not serving the action.

Most Nigerian small businesses do not need a landing page; they need a working WhatsApp route, and it converts better here because messaging is how buying happens. The route is: the advert says exactly what to send, the WhatsApp Business greeting answers immediately, the catalogue shows products and prices, quick replies answer the common questions, and a human takes over within minutes. Set that up and you have a conversion system.

The leak that destroys most campaigns is response time. Someone who messages after seeing an advert is at peak interest for perhaps an hour; a reply the next morning loses most of them to whoever answered first. Automated greeting plus quick replies plus a person who checks messages three times a day is the minimum viable system, and it costs nothing.

Conversion fails at identifiable points, and each has a fix. Nobody clicks — the creative or the first line is not stopping the scroll; change the opening, not the offer. People click but do not message — the destination does not match the advert, or the ask is unclear; make the advert and the destination say the same thing. People message but do not buy — the price, delivery or trust is the obstacle; answer those three questions before they ask.

People ask the price and disappear — usually the price was higher than expected and they had no reason to justify it; state what the price includes and offer a smaller option. People buy once and never return — there is no follow-up, which is the cheapest revenue most businesses never collect.

Diagnose by working backwards through the numbers. If a campaign gets a thousand impressions, forty clicks and one enquiry, the problem is between click and enquiry, not in the advert. Fixing the wrong stage is the most common waste in paid promotion, and it is avoidable simply by looking at where the drop actually happens rather than guessing.

A lead is a person who has shown interest and given you a way to reach them. Not every message is a lead — some are curiosity, some are price-shopping, some are mistakes. Qualify quickly with two questions: what do they need, and when do they need it? That takes one message and it tells you where to spend your attention.

Record leads somewhere. A notebook works; a spreadsheet with name, contact, what they want, when they need it and status works better; WhatsApp labels work best because they live where the conversation is. Label them new, quoted, follow-up, won, lost. Without a record, follow-up depends on memory, and memory fails at exactly the wrong moment.

Then follow up without pestering. Most sales happen after the first message, and most businesses stop after one reply. The sequence that works: answer fully the first time, then if there is no reply, follow up in a day or two with new information rather than 'any update?' — a photo of the item, a delivery date, a small deadline. Two or three useful follow-ups is persistence; after that, stop, because continuing damages the brand you are trying to build.