As Nigerian firms reassess marketing budgets under inflationary pressure, industry executives say the only path to measurable returns on digital investment is stricter data discipline and deeper collaboration between agencies and corporate teams.
This was stated at the Leadway Digital Growth Summit, where speakers warned that digital spend often fails because many businesses still cannot track what drives revenue.
CEO of Intense Group, Leye Makanjuola, said many companies still enter digital without clear financial expectations.
He said, “The biggest mistake is not being data-focused. You need to know how much it should cost you to acquire a customer, and ensure that you’re not spending more than your threshold for customer acquisition.”
He added that revenue growth requires transparency between partners, stressing that neither side can deliver meaningful results alone.
Makanjuola explained that digital’s Return on Investment (ROI) will expand as Nigerian consumer behaviour continues shifting online. He noted that while digital’s contribution in large organisations is small, its influence on buying patterns is rising.
“The trend is that in the next few years to a decade, digital will be the way that people make buying decisions and purchase,” he said.
Demand-side data presented at the summit reinforced this commercial opportunity. Senior Client Partner at Aleph, Timilehin Oyedeji, said Nigeria’s rising internet penetration and youth demographics make digital channels critical for customer acquisition.
“Nigeria is a market of over 220 million people, with over 50% internet penetration,” he said, adding that platforms such as TikTok offer about 35% cheaper cost per acquisition.
Oyedeji argued that firms seeking stronger ROI must invest in signals, automation and multi-channel touchpoints. “Better signals would mean better optimisation,” he said, warning that brands that ignore data consolidation and personalisation will lose out as consumers move across multiple digital environments before making purchase decisions.
For Leadway Holdings, improving ROI means unifying its subsidiaries’ digital operations instead of running fragmented campaigns. Head of Digital Business, Diana Mulili, said the group is shifting from traditional ads to performance-led execution.
“We want to scale our digital business across the group and move from traditional advertising marketing into performance marketing,” she said, adding that effective returns will come from leveraging the brand equity Leadway Assurance has in the group to drive awareness and conversion across other subsidiaries.
She said the group’s 2026 target is an integrated digital ecosystem where customers transact across products within a single platform, arguing it will streamline conversion and improve measurable revenue outcomes.
