Facebook has about 4M+ users in Tanzania based on the stats from the Business Manager. Compared to the country’s population, this is not a staggering amount but it is still worth a shot for businesses and brands that are looking to reach Tanzanian consumers. The strategies mentioned in this guide are for B2C businesses but you can absolutely tailor them for B2B businesses.

1 – Start with $5 per day to test audiences

For Tanzania, $5 is enough to test cold audiences and warm audiences in Tanzania. Let’s say you were trying to promote a product to women in Tanzania, you would be reaching around 2M women in Tanzania from 18-65+ as an age range. You can start at $5 per day for your campaign and tailor it by targeting a puer cold audience with a broad reach or target exactly the type of female consumer you are looking for. Due to the fact the Tanzanian Facebook market is around 4M+, $5 is enough for the Facebook algorithm to find the right people who might be interested in your products or services.

2 – Use Facebook Messenger for low cost lead generation

Facebook Messenger Ads work for Tanzania due to the rising adoption of the Messenger app in the country. Messenger Ads in Tanzania are the cheapest from a cost per lead (CPL) point of view BUT they do come with their own challenges. On the whole, they tend to attract a client base that is just looking and thinking about it. Building a solid customer base from these types of people who respond to Messenger ads is not impossible but it is difficult to break through without a consistent Messenger retargeting programme.

3 – Avoid using Lead Forms on Facebook

Lead forms on Facebook in Tanzania don’t really work! One issue for this is many people don’t update their new phone numbers and don’t understand that they are filling out a form. Don’t use the Lead Form option to scale your ads in Tanzania.

4 – Use Sunday as the day to test cold audiences in Tanzania

Sunday is a good day to test cold audiences because after 12pm, people are coming back from church services and are more likely to be online looking at Facebook & Instagram feeds. Sunday is the canvas for cold audiences because there is a wide mix of people who are online compared to weekdays when advertising in Tanzania is harder because people are at work or at seminars at universities.

5 – Use manual campaigns with large bid caps

Campaign Budget Optimisation (CBO) is the new crown jewel of Facebook’s new approach to advertising. Manual campaigns is basically manual bidding. You tell Facebook how much you are willing to spend per metric. For example, if you are doing Messenger ads, you will get the chance to do manual bids per message or conversation started. Manual campaigns allow you to maintain your budget better and if you are on a tight budget and you don’t have the space to explore, manual bidding campaigns are for you. You need to have large bid caps to give Facebook the chance to find the customers you want at your target. For example, if I want to get $0.20 per message started for a manual bid campaign in Messenger, my bid cap in the cost per control section will be more than $2+.

YES This looks super scary but what it does is it gives the algorithm the space it needs to find the costs that you are looking for.

6 – Increase the budget 20% every 24 hours with your CBO

The kiss of death for all Facebook campaigns is changing the budget randomly without rhyme or reason.

SAY NO.

If you want to scale manual and CBO campaigns, all you do is increase the budget by 20% and duplicate your winning ad into a NEW CAMPAIGN. You should find the cost per lead to match the winning campaign assuming you are not overdoing the budget on the new campaign. If your winning campaign budget is $10 per day, your duplicated campaign’s budget should be $20 per day or 50% increase of your winning ad set.

Don’t mess up your winning campaign by overextending the budget. This resets the learning phase of the Facebook algorithm.

7 – Build your campaign until it stops working

Once you have your winning campaign, keep building on it by increasing the budget by 20% every 24 hours until you stop seeing returns from the campaign. Some Facebook campaigns wither away after 3 days, others can go on profitably for weeks.

I prefer testing new creative & copy in a NEW CAMPAIGN instead of changing the campaign copy that is currently working. You should always have a winning campaign that is already popping and test new ideas in a new campaign so when your winning campaigns starts to sag, you have new pastures to harvest from.

These Facebook Ad Campaign strategies work for Tanzania but they can also be applied for other emerging market economies.

For more tips & strategies, email info [at] imperial-drive.com