Google contextual advertising in Egypt

Egypt is a fast-growing market and the most populous country in the Middle East, which offers great opportunities for advertisers. More than 104 million people live in the country, most of whom are actively exploring the Internet.

Contextual advertising in Egypt may not be as developed as in the EU or in the US, but the market here is quite large and is an interesting area for online business development.

Features of setting contextual advertising in Egypt

Setting up contextual advertising in Egypt has its own unique features, which are determined by the cultural traditions of the country and the religiosity of the local population. Attention to detail when setting up advertising campaigns allows you to make marketing activities as effective as possible by understanding the needs of the target audience. Consider the following factors:

Target audience

Egypt is a country where Islam and Christianity are the main religious movements, and Islam has a deeper influence on society, covering up to 90% of the local population. Religion has a pervasive impact on Egyptian life, from business to advertising and entertainment. This fact should be taken into account when setting up Google Ads in Egypt.

Despite their religiosity, among the Egyptians it is not customary to use religion in marketing campaigns, this topic is banned. This must be taken into account when creating advertising creatives and ad texts.

An integral element of a successful advertising campaign in Egypt is the use of national color and humor. A sense of humor and cultural flavor help to attract the attention of a local audience and increase the effectiveness of advertising.

Language targeting

In Egypt, the dominant language is Arabic. This is the native language for the vast majority of the population – about 90% of Egyptians know it and actively use it in everyday life.

In Egypt, English is also widely spoken, which is actively used in business, tourism and education. Approximately 35% of the country’s population speak English at a level sufficient for communication, but the percentage of proficiency is much higher among educated urban residents and youth.

When setting up contextual advertising for Egypt, they usually create two campaigns in different languages. But it should be borne in mind that they can be aimed at different target audiences. For the younger generation under 30, ads in English will be more relevant, while an older audience will be more comfortable building communication in Arabic.

Also, remember that for a PPC specialist, setting up Google Ads in two languages will be tantamount to running two different advertising campaigns (in terms of labor and cost).

French also has some presence in Egypt, mainly due to historical ties with this country and educational institutions where French is taught. However, it is less common – only about 4% of local residents own it.

Seasonality in advertising

There is a strong seasonality in the Egyptian advertising market associated with the local holiday, Ramadan, which lasts a whole month. For this period, companies are trying to lay the largest advertising budget.

It is usually invested in advertising on TV, radio, billboards and part is allocated to marketing campaigns on the Internet. Due to the dramatic increase in the number of commercials during this period, locals often refer to it as “advertising season”. Consider this feature when planning your advertising campaign budget.

Geo targeting

The most solvent and educated population in Egypt is concentrated in large cities, including the capital of the state – Cairo, where more than 20 million people live. It is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. This is the largest shopping hub in the region, so be sure to target the location of your advertising campaign to Cairo and its surroundings.

The nearest distance from Cairo is Giza, where about 4 million people live. This is a kind of tourist magnet, where tourists from all over the world are attracted, because it is here that the famous pyramids are located. For this agglomeration, advertising campaigns in English will work well, because it is visited by many English-speaking tourists.

The second-largest city in Egypt is Alexandria. It is a large industrial center with a population of about 5 million people. There are also many educated people and active smartphone users here, so you can expand your targeting to this city as well.

Port Said and Suez can also be interesting directions for marketing activity. These are large port cities and state-scale industrial centers with a fairly high per capita income by local standards.

Promotion tools

The Egyptian advertising market is relatively conservative. Here, TV advertising, radio and print media continue to play an important role. In addition, large cities are completely covered with billboards.

It must be said that Egypt lags behind the United States and European countries in the field of Internet marketing by about 3-4 years. That is, those advertising tools that we are already used to using will be popular in the Egyptian market only in a couple of years.

This is not surprising, because global Internet coverage came to this country only from the beginning of the 2010s, while in Ukraine it began to be introduced 7 years earlier, and in the countries of the Western world this difference is even more striking. Although digital marketing in Egypt is gaining momentum quite actively, only 60% of local businesses use online advertising in their promotion.

The most popular platforms among the Egyptian audience are Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. The growing popularity of TikTok should also be noted.

At the same time, traditional advertising in Google AdWords works well here as well. Due to lagging behind our market for some time, we can assume that relatively new tools from the largest search engine — Google Shopping and Performance Max — will be popular there in the near future, so advertisers need to actively prepare for their implementation right now.

The blogosphere is also highly developed in Egypt. True, local opinion leaders rarely reach millions of audiences. Most of them blog on YouTube and Instagram. At the same time, an important feature is that most of them are men.

What can not be advertised in Egypt?

There are certain limitations to consider when developing an advertising strategy for the Egyptian market. This is important to keep in mind when setting up advertising for the Egyptian market.

1. Religion. Egypt is a country with a deep religious tradition, and any promotional material that mentions Islam in a negative or joking way will be met negatively and subject to public censure.
2. Gambling. Although there are many casinos in the country, they are intended exclusively for tourists. The Egyptians themselves are forbidden to visit such establishments for religious reasons. At the same time, advertising of bookmakers and bets is completely allowed.
3. Cigarettes and alcohol. In recent years, Egypt has been actively promoting healthy lifestyles, and marketing campaigns promoting tobacco products have been banned. The reason for this is disappointing statistics, according to which every third person smokes in Egypt, which has become a real problem on a national scale. Advertisements for liquor are also discouraged, even though they are sold in local stores.

Cost of contextual advertising Google Ads in Egypt

The price of contextual advertising in Egypt, as in any other market, is influenced by competition in a particular niche, the cost of services of a PPC specialist or an agency with which you cooperate, the number of campaigns in different languages, the quality of landing pages on your site and many other factors.

At the same time, the cost of a click in Google Ads has the main impact. You can view it in the Keyword Planner tool. Here are examples of CPCs for some popular queries:

• Manicure services — $1.5;
• dentist — $0.55;
• refrigerators — $0.37;
• cosmetics from Korea — $0.25;
• cat toys — $0.07;
• dog food – $0.27;
• fertilizers for plants — $0.28.

As you can see, the cost of advertising in Egypt is low compared to the developed English-speaking countries and the European Union. This is due to the lower popularization of Internet marketing in this country and less competition.

Google share of total search traffic in Egypt

The most popular search engine in the Egyptian market is expectedly Google – it accounts for 97.65% of all search traffic from this country. At the same time, Bing and Yahoo are also popular among Egyptians.

However, if the former collects about 1.5% of local traffic, then the latter does not account for even half a percent. Thus, we can state the fact that Google is almost a complete monopoly in this market. This means that setting up Google Ads in Egypt is a very profitable and promising direction, due to the trends in the development of digital marketing in this country.