Programmatic Advertising in Kenya
- Author: Lizaveta Zhuk
When it comes to the digital market in Kenya, it’s worth preparing for the remarkable growth of investments in digital advertising. Consequently, Kenya’s digital advertising industry is undergoing a competitive and vibrant evolution. So, it’s a good point to be in touch with the current pace of the market so as not to stay ahead of the competitors.
Let’s attentively look at the state of the digital advertising market in Kenya, its peculiarities, popular ad formats and channels among advertisers, and the audience’s behavior.
Digital Advertising Market in Kenya
According to Statista report, ad spending in the digital advertising market is projected to reach $95.5m in 2024. Banner advertising demonstrates the fastest growth on the market, with a 6.5% growth rate in 2025. Generally, there are positive dynamics in Kenya—as experts are forecasting, the digital ads market will be boosted by 6.06% until 2028.
Source: Statista
It’s worth noting that 65% of total ad spending will be generated through mobile in 2028. It might be connected to the high mobile internet proliferation rate, so no wonder.
Programmatic Advertising in Kenya
If you notice the development of the digital market, you might see how the usage of programmatic technology has become broader. The thing is, those who launch programmatic advertising work smarter, not harder. One of the main reasons programmatic advertising is important and beneficial is the precision determination of brands’ target audience. Using AI & ML algorithms, programmatic DSP platforms analyze users’ behavior in real-time to determine the target audiences and choose for them relevant advertisements. As a result, brands interact with high-intent users, outperform, and grow their profits.
This way, it’s no surprise that Kenya’s brands more and more often choose programmatic advertising for their digital campaigns. This is proved by research—according to Statista, 68% of the digital advertising revenue will be generated through programmatic advertising in 2028.
Source: Statista
Available Audience & Customer Behavior
According to Data Reportal, there were 22.71 million internet users in Kenya at the beginning of 2024. That is equal to 40.8% of the total population. Despite the fact that the majority of the population doesn’t use the internet, the number of internet users is slowly growing. Year-on-year change in total internet users accounted for +2.0% at the beginning of 2024.
The most often used device to get internet access is a mobile phone.
Source: Data Reportal
Kenya’s citizens like chatting and messaging, scrolling social media, and going through search engines or web portals on the Internet. These are the top activities on the Internet.
Source: Data Reportal
When it comes to social media, Kenya’s citizens use 5.7 platforms on average. The most often used social media are WhatsApp, TikTok, and Facebook.
Source: Data Reportal
More Kenyans are keeping up with friends and family through social networks. Also, people want to see what’s being talked about. Here are more reasons users in Kenya use social media.
Source: Data Reportal
Considering where consumers discover new brands and how they research them is one of the most important things to businesses. That way, brands will be able to adapt their marketing strategies to users’ behavior. Kenyans do online brand research on search engines, social media, and, of course, consumer reviews. In terms of brand discovery, the top sources include TV ads, social media ads, and brand websites.
Source: Data Reportal
Ad Formats & Ad Channels
The largest market is video advertising, with a market volume of US$31.7m in 2024. The second choice of advertisers is banner ads. Brands spent on this ad format $26.77 million in 2024, increasing their investment in banners by 9.3% compared with the previous year.
Source: Data Reportal
It’s important to notice that 55.5% of total advertising ad spend accounted for advertising on mobile devices. Also, the great potential for brands is advertising on social media. According to Data Reportal, 27.6% is the share of social media ad spend from total digital ad spend.
Ad Inventory
Top popular websites
youtube.com, en.wikipedia.org, facebook.com, whatsapp.com, play.google.com, forebet.com, instagram.com, twitter.com, openai.com, fctables.com, premierleague.com
Top SSP platforms
- AppLovin Max
- Google Ad Manager
- ExoClick
- ADxAD
- GaleForceMedia
- PX
- AdBook+
Top DSP platforms in Kenya
- Stackadapt
- NT DSP
- MediaMath
- Adform
How to Run Programmatic Advertising: How NT Technology Can Help You?
NT Technology is a team of experts in programmatic advertising. We have been mastering our own NT Demand Side Platform for over 10 years to help brands meet their marketing goals. We offer a full-service programmatic advertising solution powered by our expertise. Partnering with us, you get:
- Targeted Reach. Connect with your ideal audience through precise targeting based on consumers’ behavior. As a result, you interact with high-intent users among a brand’s target audience and achieve results faster.
- Real-Time Optimization. AI & ML algorithms at the core of the NT’s programmatic platform ensure your campaigns adapt dynamically for maximum performance. So, you get greater performance with optimal price and growth of profit.
- Full Transparency. Get clear insights into where your budget is going with detailed reporting and analytics. Our team provides you with a comprehensive report on your personal account in NT DSP.
- Brand Safety. Protect your brand with premium inventory and top-tier fraud prevention tools. We manage the most modern way of protecting brands’ reputations on the internet as well as protection from any fraudulent activities.
- Personalized Support. Work with a dedicated team of experts who tailor strategies to your goals. We create a personal team for each of our clients that allows us to be near you on each step with clients and offer custom solutions.
Partner with us to elevate your advertising strategy and achieve measurable results. Contact us at info@nt.technology or fill out the form on our site.
In order to prove our expertise, we share a case study of our client below.
How to boost orders in a shoe store with programmatic advertising
Our client is a shoe store in Nairobi that offers a wide range of goods in-store and online with delivery. With the rise of competition and a tough year, the client was challenged with advertising the products to keep the brand top of mind and increase sales. In order to reach high-intent users and drive conversions, the shoe store approached us to use the power of programmatic to boost the efficiency of ads and profit.
During one month of the ad campaign, a comprehensive ad strategy included several ad channels: display, social, and search. With different ad formats (banners, promo posts, and stories on Facebook and Instagram), we delivered the brand’s messages and drove users’ interest. Search ads and dynamic retargeting helped us increase conversions.
Additionally, our team focused on the following of the ad campaign:
- Conducted A/B testing to define the most efficient ad creatives and optimize ad budget spending.
- Developed and changed different ad creatives to avoid banner blindness and maintain user engagement.
- Tested different combinations of targeting options, audience segments, and channels to choose the most efficient one and scale ad campaigns and profit.
- Used both manual and automatic optimization to decrease CPO and drive the key KPIs of the ad campaign—conversion rate, conversions, and so on.
Thus, we achieved the client’s tasks and got the following results:
- 323 orders
- 23.1% conversion rate in order
- 23.1% decrease in cost per order
Bottom Line
Kenya’s digital advertising market is rapidly growing, with mobile internet driving trends and programmatic advertising booming. NT Technology offers a robust programmatic solution, combining precise targeting, real-time optimization, and personalized support to help brands achieve measurable results. Contact us at info@nt.technology or fill out the form on our site to boost your performance.
