Next level · 3/5 Advanced
Online advertising: Meta and TikTok on a small budget
A specialty you can bill for
Campaigns managed on cost per customer, for your own business or billed to your clients every month
75,000 FCFA 14 h
View the next levelDigital marketing for SMEs: win customers with WhatsApp, Google and social media
Customer inquiries every week from Google, WhatsApp and Facebook, with three hours of work a week and no agency
- 12 h of training
- 6 modules · 30 lessons
- 73 exercises
- 2 projects
- Certificate included
What you will be able to do
- Define an SME's priority customer and a quantified value proposition
- Optimize a Google Business Profile and local "service + city" search visibility
- Structure WhatsApp Business as a sales channel: catalog, quick replies, follow-up sequence
- Plan and produce a month of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok content with Canva
- Launch and manage a small-budget Meta "WhatsApp messages" campaign
- Build a weekly acquisition dashboard and allocate effort across channels
What you will produce
- Your one-sentence promise of 15 to 25 words, with a figure and a city, validated by three customers and displayed everywhere
- Your complete Google Business Profile: exact category, hours, 20 photos, prices, Q&A and review link
- Your configured WhatsApp Business: catalog with prices, five labels, five quick replies and the Day 1, Day 3, Day 7 follow-up sequence
- Your four-week posting calendar: 12 posts across six formats, a Canva template and a named person in charge of replies
- Your first Meta "WhatsApp messages" campaign set up at 3,000 FCFA (about $5) per day, with your cost-per-customer threshold and your day-7 review sheet
- Your weekly Google Sheets dashboard (contacts, appointments, sales, cost, source) and your wa.me links tracked by channel
- Your marketing plan for the next 90 days and your three-hour weekly routine blocked in your calendar
Possible earnings
The gains come first from three free levers covered in the course: replying in under an hour with scripts, following up on silent quotes (20 to 30% recovered) and asking every customer for a review. For a service SME with an average ticket of 35,000 FCFA (about $58), this typically means 2 to 6 more customers per month, or 70,000 to 210,000 FCFA (about $117 to $350) of additional monthly revenue before any advertising. With a Meta campaign kept under the cost-per-customer threshold, the cases studied in the course go from 40 to 58 customers per month in one quarter (cases followed in the field in 2026; results depend on the business, consistency and local competition, and are not guaranteed).
Indicative estimate, depending on your market, pace and work. No income is guaranteed.
Tools used
- Google Business Profile
- WhatsApp Business
- Meta Business Suite
- Canva
- Google Sheets
- TikTok
- Google Search Console
What you'll learn
- State in one sentence what you sell, to whom, and why customers should choose you over someone else
- Show up on Google, Google Maps and in AI assistant answers when a customer searches for your service in your city
- Turn WhatsApp Business into an organized sales channel: catalog, quick replies, follow-ups, broadcast lists
- Post on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok with a sustainable calendar and content that brings inquiries, not just likes
- Launch and read a first Meta ad campaign with 2,000 to 5,000 FCFA (about $3 to $8) per day
- Measure every week the inquiries, appointments and sales generated by each channel, and decide what to stop or scale up
Prerequisites
- An active business with at least a few customers
- A smartphone, a WhatsApp account and access to Facebook
- No technical skills or prior advertising budget required
About this course
Your business runs on word of mouth and a handful of loyal customers. You know you should "do digital", you may have a Facebook Page gathering dust and a website nobody finds. You have neither the time nor the budget for an agency.
This course gives you a complete digital marketing system, designed for an SME in French-speaking Africa, that you can run in three hours a week with an advertising budget of 0 to 5,000 FCFA (about $8) per day, spent only when the numbers justify it. Across six modules, you choose your message and your priority customer, you become visible where people look for you (Google, Google Maps, AI assistant answers), you turn WhatsApp Business into an organized sales channel, you post on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok without giving up your evenings, you test Meta advertising on a small budget, and you set up the tracking that tells you every Monday what is paying off.
Every lesson ends with an exercise applied to your own business, graded online. Every module has its PDF handout and its quiz. Two projects are submitted: your WhatsApp Business system ready to sell (module 3) and your marketing plan for the next 90 days (final project). The examples follow two businesses from start to finish, a dental clinic in Dakar and an accounting firm in Abidjan, with amounts in FCFA and calculations you redo with your own figures.
You leave with: your one-sentence promise, your complete Google Business Profile, your organized WhatsApp Business with its scripts and follow-ups, a one-month posting calendar, your first ad campaign set up with its break-even threshold, your weekly dashboard and your 90-day plan.
Who it is for: Owners, managers and marketing leads of SMEs in French-speaking Africa: clinics, schools, professional firms, restaurants, hotels, real estate agencies, craftspeople and service providers who want a steady flow of customer inquiries without relying on word of mouth.
Curriculum
A module-by-module path: lessons, exercises, quizzes and projects to submit.
Module 1· 12 exercises
Your message and your priority customer
Decide who you speak to first, what you promise, and how to say it in one sentence your customers repeat.
- Why digital marketing fails when you talk to everyoneFree preview3 exercises15 min
- Choosing your priority customer: the one who pays, comes back and recommends youFree preview3 exercises15 min
- Your promise in one sentence, with a figure and a cityFree preview3 exercises20 min
- The proof to gather: reviews, photos, results, published pricesFree preview3 exercises15 min
- Module handout (PDF)Free preview5 min
- Quiz: message and priority customerModule quiz
Module 2· 12 exercises
Getting found: Google, Google Maps and AI assistant answers
Own local "service + city" searches with a complete Google Business Profile, a website that answers the question, and a presence in the rankings that AI assistants draw on.
- How customers look for you in 2026: Google, Maps, WhatsApp, ChatGPT3 exercises15 min
- A Google Business Profile that makes the phone ring: categories, photos, reviews, posts3 exercises20 min
- "Service + city" business keywords and the website page that must answer them3 exercises20 min
- Getting cited by AI assistants: the rankings, directories and reviews that count3 exercises15 min
- Module handout (PDF)5 min
- Quiz: getting found on Google and by AIModule quiz
Module 3· 12 exercises
WhatsApp Business as an organized sales channel
Set up WhatsApp Business, reply fast without spending your whole day on it, follow up without pestering, and turn conversations into appointments and sales.
- WhatsApp Business: profile, Catalog, business hours, Away message, Labels3 exercises20 min
- Quick replies and scripts: price, availability, appointments, objections3 exercises20 min
- Following up without pestering: the 3-message sequence3 exercises15 min
- Broadcast lists, Status and a wa.me link everywhere: bringing in the conversations3 exercises15 min
- Module handout (PDF)5 min
- Quiz: WhatsApp BusinessModule quiz
- Your WhatsApp Business system, ready to sellProject to submit
Module 4· 13 exercises
Facebook, Instagram and TikTok without giving up your evenings
A sustainable posting calendar, formats that bring in inquiries, and content produced with a phone in one hour a week.
- Which network for which SME: go where your customers are, not where the influencers are3 exercises15 min
- The six formats that bring in inquiries: before/after, behind the scenes, price, review, answer to a question, offer3 exercises20 min
- Producing a month of content in one morning with a phone and Canva3 exercises20 min
- The posting calendar and the reply-within-an-hour rule4 exercises15 min
- Module handout (PDF)5 min
- Quiz: social mediaModule quiz
Module 5· 12 exercises
Meta advertising on a small budget
Launch a first Facebook and Instagram campaign that sends people to WhatsApp with 2,000 to 5,000 FCFA (about $3 to $8) per day, read the results, and decide within seven days.
- When advertising is worth it, and when it burns money3 exercises15 min
- Setting up a "WhatsApp messages" campaign step by step in Meta Business Suite3 exercises25 min
- Targeting, budget and visuals: the settings that work in Dakar and Abidjan3 exercises15 min
- Reading the results: cost per conversation, cost per customer and the day-7 decision3 exercises15 min
- Module handout (PDF)5 min
- Quiz: Meta advertisingModule quiz
Module 6· 12 exercises
Measure, decide and keep up the pace
An SME's weekly dashboard, customer reviews that snowball, and the three-hour weekly routine that lasts over time.
- The five numbers that matter: contacts, appointments, sales, cost, source3 exercises15 min
- Knowing where each customer comes from: the question to ask and the links to track3 exercises15 min
- Customer reviews: asking for them, replying to them, reusing them3 exercises15 min
- The three-hour weekly routine and the plan for the next 90 days3 exercises20 min
- Module handout (PDF)5 min
- Quiz: measuring and keeping up the paceModule quiz
- Your 90-day marketing planCapstone
Certificate included
Your certificate at the end
A numbered certificate with your validated skills, a public page and a verification QR code. Add it to LinkedIn in one click.
Kolonell Academy
Verified by Kolonell AcademyCertificate of skills
Your name
has completed and validated the course
Digital marketing for SMEs: win customers with WhatsApp, Google and social media
Certified skills
- Define an SME's priority customer and a quantified value proposition
- Optimize a Google Business Profile and local "service + city" search visibility
- Structure WhatsApp Business as a sales channel: catalog, quick replies, follow-up sequence
- Plan and produce a month of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok content with Canva
- Launch and manage a small-budget Meta "WhatsApp messages" campaign
- Build a weekly acquisition dashboard and allocate effort across channels
Number KOL-CERT-2026-XXXXX
Mohamed Bah
Founder, Kolonell Academy
Course poster
Download the poster to print it, send it to your employer or share it with colleagues. The full programme details every module.
This course is part of the track
Marketing digital et réseaux sociaux
Level 2 of 5 · Practical
See the 5 track levelsYour instructor
Mohamed Bah
Founder of Kolonell, a digital agency in Dakar. He designs websites, business applications and customer acquisition systems for SMEs in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Dubai.
Questions about this course
How much time should I plan for?
About ten hours in total: roughly 7.5 hours of lessons, the end-of-lesson exercises and the two projects to submit (one hour for the WhatsApp system, two and a half hours for the 90-day plan). At 2 to 3 hours a week, you finish in four to five weeks. The system you set up then runs on three hours a week.
What are the prerequisites?
An active business with a few customers, a smartphone, a WhatsApp account and access to Facebook. No technical skills and no website required. No budget is needed for modules 1 to 4 and 6. Module 5 requires a bank card and a test budget of 21,000 FCFA (about $35), that is 3,000 FCFA per day for seven days, and only if your numbers justify launching the campaign.
How do I pay, and when does my access open?
You pay with Wave or Orange Money. When you enroll, you receive a pro forma invoice with the amount and the number to pay. Once the payment is received, your access is activated within 24 hours, often in less than an hour during business hours. Module 1 is free to view before you pay, and access is for life, updates included.
Is there a certificate, and can I share it on LinkedIn?
Yes. Once you have completed the lessons and passed the six quizzes, you receive a numbered Kolonell Academy certificate, with a public verification page, a PDF and the list of certified skills. An "Add to profile" button adds it directly to the Licenses & certifications section of LinkedIn. The "Capstone project validated" mention is added once your 90-day plan has been reviewed and approved.
How is this different from the E-commerce course?
The E-commerce course is for people who sell products online: choosing the catalog, collecting payment with Wave and Orange Money, delivering in Dakar, to other regions and to the diaspora. This course is for service and local SMEs (clinics, schools, professional firms, restaurants, hotels, real estate agencies, craftspeople) that want to be found, contacted and recommended: Google, WhatsApp Business, social media, Meta advertising and a dashboard. If you sell and ship products, take E-commerce; if you sell a service delivered in person, take this one. The two complement each other.
How do I pay?
Via Wave or Orange Money. After enrolling you receive a pro forma invoice by email with the number to pay. Send the proof on WhatsApp: your access is activated within 24 business hours.
How long do I keep access?
For life, updates included. Learn at your own pace and revisit lessons as often as you need.
How do I get the certificate?
Complete the lessons and pass each module quiz with at least 70%. The certificate is generated automatically, with a unique number and a public verification page.
Our commitments
- Lifetime access, updates included
- Publicly verifiable certificate
- Wave / Orange Money payment, activation within 24 business hours
- WhatsApp support
50,000 FCFA · 76 €
Practical