Most Nigerian businesses think about ads in one way: “I want sales.”
But here’s the truth — not all ads are built for sales.
If you don’t match your budget to your ad goal, you’ll either overspend with no results or underspend and get frustrated. Let’s break it down in plain language.
🎯 The 3 Types of Ad Goals
1. Awareness Ads
- Purpose: Get your name out there. Reach as many people as possible.
- Cost: Usually the cheapest. In Nigeria, CPM can be ₦400–₦700.
- Good for: New businesses, launches, or credibility campaigns.
- Bad for: Direct sales. Don’t expect someone to buy a ₦300k service the first time they see your logo.
👉 Example: A restaurant spends ₦50k on awareness ads for 2 weeks. They get 50,000 impressions. More people know their new meal exists — but no guaranteed orders yet.
2. Lead Ads
- Purpose: Get conversations started — names, phone numbers, DMs, sign-ups.
- Cost: More expensive than awareness. In Nigeria, CPL ranges ₦500–₦1,500 depending on niche.
- Good for: Businesses with mid-ticket offers (schools, salons, clinics, training centres).
- Bad for: Vanity. You’ll get fewer impressions, but better quality engagement.
👉 Example: A skincare clinic spends ₦300k over a month. They get 250 leads at ₦1,200 each. Out of those, 25 book consultations.
3. Sales Ads
- Purpose: Drive purchases directly.
- Cost: The most expensive. Needs bigger budget for retargeting + nurturing.
- Good for: E-commerce with affordable products or high-ticket services with strong follow-up systems.
- Bad for: Small random spends. ₦20k won’t cut it.
👉 Example: A real estate firm spends ₦1.5M on bottom-funnel ads with retargeting. They only close 3 clients — but each plot sold is worth ₦10M. Profitable, but only because the offer is high-ticket.
⚖️ Why Budgets Fail
- Wrong Ad Goal, Wrong Expectation
Spending ₦20k on awareness but expecting sales is like planting maize today and wanting to harvest tomorrow. - Underfunding the Funnel
Each stage of ads feeds the next. If you only run awareness, you’ll be popular but broke. If you only run sales, you’ll be shouting at strangers. - No System Behind the Spend
Ads don’t run in isolation. You need creatives, follow-ups, retargeting, and sales processes. Otherwise, money leaks out.
Read: How to use Difgital Marketing ROI Calculator for Smarter Business Decisions in Nigeria
🧩 How Slvr Wlf Would Use This Blog as an Ad
We don’t just tell our clients what to do — we test it on ourselves. So, if you are reading this blog, you are probably part of that test.
If Slvr Wlf Digitale were promoting this very blog, here’s how we’d run it as part of our funnel:
- Ad Type: Traffic Campaign
→ Goal: bring business owners to this post so they learn and enter our warm audience. - Target Audience:
- Creative Style:
- Headline: “Not all ads are built for sales — here’s how to match your budget to your goal.”
- Visual: simple funnel graphic (Awareness → Leads → Sales).
- CTA Button: Learn More.
- Budget: ₦5k–₦10k/day for 5–7 days. Enough to test without waste.
- Next Step: Everyone who clicks to read this post is automatically added to a retargeting list. In the next week, we’ll show them ads for our free webinar on How Much Should I Budget for Ads?
👉 This way, the blog does double duty: it educates and it builds our audience for conversion.
🎬 Takeaway
Your content isn’t just for your website or social media feed. With the right strategy, every blog post can be an ad funnel entry point. That’s exactly how we’d use this one.
And if you’ve been wondering “How much should I budget for ads?” — you’re not alone.
That’s why we’re hosting a free webinar to break it all down:
📌 How Much Should I Budget for Ads?
🗓️ Friday, Sept 26
⏰ 11 am – 12 pm
🎥 Live on Google Meet
We’ll show you:
- How to calculate your daily spend without guessing.
- Why underfunded ads quietly fail.
- How to match your budget to awareness, leads, or sales ad goals.
👉 Register here and take the guesswork out of your ads.
Meet Abigail Anaba—your go-to expert for mastering digital strategy. With a postgraduate award in Creating Strategic Advantage from Warwick University, Abigail transforms complex digital challenges into clear, actionable insights. Her unique blend of storytelling and journalistic precision not only makes her strategies engaging and relatable but also drives real results.