The Egyptian digital marketing landscape is a vast, complex and highly competitive place. While it’s by no means the only player in the digital space in the Arab region, many still look to Egypt as an indicator of what’s coming next in the digital marketing industry in the whole MENA region.

Below we’ve outlined a number of stats and insights that have cropped up in the Egyptian market recently based on a unique study conducted in 2018 on over 425 companies in Egypt by eMarketing Egypt, the leading digital marketing consulting firm in Egypt, to explore the full story about businesses approach to digital marketing, and what brands should take into consideration in the year ahead.

Some other stats are based on eMarketing Egypt’s study conducted in 2017 on over 3,220 internet users in Egypt to fully discover the digital sphere in Egypt.

These enlightening insights and stats are a good indicator of what we’re going to see more of nationally in the near future.

So, if you need to stand ahead in digital marketing in 2019 and 2020, you need to hone your digital marketing strategy with these insights.

Let’s delve deeper…

There Are Different Estimates for the Number of Internet Users in Egypt

1. In its 8th report on Internet users in Egypt, eMarketing Egypt compiled various statistics from several sources on the actual number of Internet users in Egypt, which ranged from 27 million according to CAPMAS and 47 million according to Northwestern University in Qatar.

2. The same is internet penetration in Egypt which ranged from 28.9% according to CAPMAS and 50% according to Northwestern University in Qatar.

The Number of Internet Users in Egypt

Egyptians Have Positive Attitudes Towards the Internet

3. 81% of internet users in Egypt would not be able to live without the internet!

4. The most benefit from the internet was for learning opportunities and resources (57%); then to get better choices of goods and services (47%) while the least was for the benefits from interaction with business organizations (33%) or the governmental organizations (30%).

5. Finding information via search engines leads the activities undertaken online (78%), while social networking follows shortly (77%) and then follows, finding events and news (57%).

81% of internet users in Egypt would not be able to live without the internet!

Facebook Was and Remains the Undisputed King of Social Media in Egypt

6. Egypt leads all the Arab countries in terms of the number of Facebook users with 36 million Facebook users to rank the 11th globally.

7. More than 83% of Facebook users in Egypt use it daily.

8. Males are much more likely to use Facebook than females (64% vs. 36%).

9. Mobile devices are the main device for 89% of internet users in Egypt to access Facebook.

The Number of Facebook Users in Egypt

Facebook Has Great Opportunities for Businesses in Egypt

10. 33% of Facebook users like and interact with a certain business page in order to receive discounts, promotions, and giveaways.

11. 42% of Facebook users may unlike or 53% may stop following a business page for many reasons especially the negative experience with business products or services.

Reasons to Like a FB Page

Egyptians Have Positive Attitudes Towards Online Ads

12. About 90% of internet users had noticed some types of online ads.

13. 61% of them view it as eye-catchy, and only 26% of them would like to follow it.

14. Moreover, only 20% of them may trust it.

15. About 39% of the internet users who interested in online ads totally trust ads by the technology sector, while 34% of them totally trust ads by the communication sector, then follows textiles, fashion & apparel sector (27%) and home appliances sector (26%).

16. Only 28% have interacted with online ads by clicking on the Ad itself, compared to 40% who ignored the ad.

17. Users younger than 25 years trust more the Ads displayed in-video (46% of them) compared to the users in the other age groups.

18. Males are much more likely to trust in all types of online ads than females.

The Egyptians’ Negative and Positive Attitudes Towards Online Ads

Gaining Customers Is Still the Core Objective of Digital Marketing Strategies for Companies in Egypt

19. 92% of companies in Egypt considering “acquiring new customers” as their most important marketing priority, followed by 80% mentioning “Retaining current customers”.

20. When it comes to digital marketing strategic role, the majority mentioned that digital marketing to be “very useful” for “acquiring new Customer”, although it was mentioned only by 53% of companies.

Organic Activities Dominates the Technicalities of Digital Marketing in Egypt

21. Social media management (organic activities) is the top used channel and technique used by companies in Egypt as mentioned by 97% of the surveyed companies.

22. Next comes the social media advertising (sponsored campaigns) as mentioned by 80% of the surveyed companies.

23. Among those who use social media management, the majority use it primarily for brand awareness objectives (34%), while about 19% use it primarily for lead generation objectives and 45% of them use it for both objectives.

24. Social media advertising (sponsored campaigns) is used primary by 30% of companies for lead generation, while 16% of them use it for brand awareness.

Most Used Digital Marketing Channels / Tactics by Companies in Egypt

Related: How to Select a Social Media Management Tool

The Digital Marketing Activities of Companies in Egypt Are Going to Be Run In-house

25. Nearly half of the companies in Egypt allocate more than 50% of the total marketing budget to digital marketing activities.

26. In general, 84% of companies in Egypt are using both sponsored and organic digital marketing campaigns, while just 16% are using sponsored campaigns only.

27. About 72% of the surveyed companies in Egypt are running digital marketing operations in-house, while only 9% are outsourcing digital marketing operations.

The Total Budget Allocated to Digital Marketing as % of the Total Marketing Budget

Related: 5 Strategies to Maximize Your Marketing Budget

Wrapping Up

The Egyptian market has a high potential for growth and there has been a lot of activity over the last couple of years. Egypt is the media hub of the whole Arab world. Startups are springing up and funds are growing and becoming both more visible and more accessible.

And to achieve that it’s essential to have some background knowledge on Egypt before launching any digital marketing campaign there. eMarketing Egypt’s annually enlighten insights are your way to achieve this.