AdvancedDigital MarketingIntermediate Version française

Online advertising: Meta and TikTok on a small budget

Campaigns managed on cost per customer, for your own business or billed to your clients every month

  • 14 h of training
  • 6 modules · 30 lessons
  • 72 exercises
  • 2 projects
  • Certificate included

What you will be able to do

  • Calculate a maximum cost per customer and size an advertising budget
  • Structure a Meta business portfolio, ad accounts and conversion tracking
  • Build Meta and TikTok audiences: local, custom, lookalike and diaspora
  • Design and test video, image and carousel ad creatives
  • Manage Meta and TikTok campaigns on cost per customer and run A/B tests
  • Sell, run and report on a paid advertising management service

What you will produce

  • Your Google Sheets calculator for maximum cost per customer and test budget
  • Your documented Meta and TikTok account architecture, with shared access and a payment method
  • Three ready-to-use audiences: local, existing customers, lookalike or diaspora
  • Your costed campaign plan with its decision thresholds
  • A library of six creatives across three angles, with their copy
  • A live campaign with its 7-day review sheet and decision log
  • Your ad management offer in two packages and its monthly report template

Possible earnings

For your own business, the first gain is the money you stop wasting: in the cases worked through in the course, moving from boosting to a campaign managed on cost per customer often cuts a third of wasted spend. As a service, campaign management is billed in Dakar and Abidjan at 50,000 to 150,000 FCFA (about $83 to $250) per client per month, plus the ad budget; with three clients, that is 150,000 to 450,000 FCFA (about $250 to $750) a month (2026 market rates; income depends on the sectors you serve and your ability to prove results, and is not guaranteed).

Indicative estimate, depending on your market, pace and work. No income is guaranteed.

Tools used

  • Meta Business Suite
  • Meta Ads Manager
  • TikTok Ads Manager
  • TikTok Promote
  • CapCut
  • Canva
  • Google Sheets
  • WhatsApp Business

What you'll learn

  • Calculate the maximum cost per customer of an offer and derive a 7 to 14-day test budget from it
  • Set up a Meta business portfolio, an ad account, a payment method and conversion tracking without structural mistakes
  • Build local, custom, lookalike and diaspora audiences suited to the offer
  • Produce video, image and carousel creatives that comply with Meta and TikTok advertising policies
  • Launch a TikTok Ads or TikTok Promote campaign when the target audience is there
  • Read results down to cost per customer, run a structured test and decide whether to stop, fix or scale
  • Price and present a campaign management offer to a client

Prerequisites

  • Level 2, "Digital marketing for SMEs", recommended, or equivalent experience: an active Facebook Page, Instagram account and WhatsApp Business
  • A real offer or client to apply the exercises to
  • For the final project, optional: a payment method accepted by Meta (Visa or Mastercard, bank or prepaid) and a test budget of 20,000 to 40,000 FCFA (about $33 to $67)

About this course

You have already clicked "Boost post". A few thousand FCFA went out, some likes came in, and you have no idea whether a single customer came from it. That is the story of most ads run in Dakar or Abidjan: the wrong objective, a vague offer, no measurement. This course turns online advertising into a specialty you master and can bill for. You start from the business numbers (average order, margin, repeat purchase) to set a maximum cost per customer and a test budget. You set up a clean Meta business portfolio, the ad account, a payment method that works from West Africa, conversion tracking and TikTok Ads Manager. You build local audiences, audiences based on your customers and diaspora audiences. You produce creatives that convert (vertical video, testimonial, carousel) while following the rules that prevent rejections and account restrictions. You move to TikTok when your audience is there. Finally, you manage: reading results, testing with method, scaling budgets, and selling campaign management to a client. Six modules, 24 lessons, graded exercises after every lesson, a quiz and a PDF handout for each module, and two graded projects: your costed campaign plan (module 3), then a complete campaign launched, read and optimized (final project). The examples follow fictional cases set in Dakar, Abidjan, Bamako and the diaspora, with amounts in FCFA. You leave with: your maximum cost-per-customer calculator, cleanly set up Meta and TikTok accounts, three ready-to-use audiences, a library of tested creatives, a live campaign with its review sheet, and an ad management offer ready to pitch. **Place in the Digital marketing and social media track**: level 3. It follows level 2, "Digital marketing for SMEs", where you launch a first campaign to WhatsApp, and comes before level 4, "Freelance community manager", which builds advertising into a complete monthly service.

Who it is for: SME owners, marketing managers, community managers and freelancers in Dakar, Thiès, Abidjan, Bamako or Cotonou who have already posted or boosted a few posts and want to turn paid advertising into a skill they master, for their own business or as a service billed to clients.

Curriculum

A module-by-module path: lessons, exercises, quizzes and projects to submit.

  1. Module 1· 12 exercises

    Before you spend: the offer, the numbers and the break-even point

    Decide the most a customer can cost, which offer to push and where to send the click, before you spend a single franc.

    • Why most ads burn money: boosting, the wrong objective, a vague offerFree preview15 min
    • Maximum cost per customer: order value, margin, repeat purchase and the test budgetFree preview20 min
    • Choosing the offer to push: lead product, trial offer, free consultation, pre-orderFree preview15 min
    • Where to send the click: WhatsApp, form, call or sales page, and the cost of handling eachFree preview15 min
    • Module handout (PDF)Free preview5 min
    • Quiz: campaign economicsModule quiz
  2. Module 2· 12 exercises

    Setting up your accounts properly: Meta, TikTok, payment and tracking

    Put in place a solid account structure, a payment method that works from West Africa and reliable conversion tracking.

    • Meta business portfolio, Page, Instagram account and ad account: the right architecture20 min
    • Paying from Dakar, Abidjan or Bamako: account currency, accepted cards, billing thresholds15 min
    • Pixel, events and Conversions API through no-code integrations: measuring beyond the click20 min
    • TikTok Ads Manager, TikTok Promote and the ad policies that get accounts restricted15 min
    • Module handout (PDF)5 min
    • Quiz: accounts, payment and trackingModule quiz
  3. Module 3· 12 exercises

    Audiences and targeting: local, existing customers and diaspora

    Build the audiences that fit the offer, from your local catchment area to the diaspora, and know when to let the algorithm do the searching.

    • Precise location targeting: radius around a pin, neighborhoods, secondary cities15 min
    • Custom audiences: your WhatsApp contacts, your customers and people who engaged20 min
    • Lookalike audiences and Advantage+ audience: when to let the algorithm search15 min
    • Targeting the diaspora in France, Italy, Spain and the US: language, timing, delivery, payment15 min
    • Module handout (PDF)5 min
    • Quiz: audiences and targetingModule quiz
    • Your costed campaign planProject to submit
  4. Module 4· 12 exercises

    Creatives that convert: angles, videos and copy

    Produce ads that stop the scroll and trigger a message, without breaking the rules that get an ad rejected.

    • Finding five ad angles from your customers' questions and objections15 min
    • The 15 to 30-second vertical video: hook, proof, offer, call to action20 min
    • Static images, carousels and customer testimonials filmed on a phone15 min
    • Ad copy and Meta and TikTok policies: health, finance, before-and-after, what gets ads rejected15 min
    • Module handout (PDF)5 min
    • Quiz: ad creativesModule quiz
  5. Module 5· 12 exercises

    TikTok Ads on a small budget

    Know when TikTok beats Meta for your audience, boost a video that is already working and build a campaign in TikTok Ads Manager.

    • When TikTok beats Meta, and when it is useless for an SME15 min
    • Spark Ads and TikTok Promote: boosting a video that already works15 min
    • Building a campaign in TikTok Ads Manager: objective, ad group, minimum budget, bidding20 min
    • Creating for TikTok: trends, sounds, local creators and native content15 min
    • Module handout (PDF)5 min
    • Quiz: TikTok advertisingModule quiz
  6. Module 6· 12 exercises

    Manage, optimize and sell ad management

    Read results down to cost per customer, test with method, scale the budget without breaking the campaign, and bill for this work.

    • Reading a results table: CPM, CTR, cost per conversation, cost per customer, frequency20 min
    • Testing with method: one change at a time, budget per variant, duration and decision15 min
    • Scaling the budget without breaking the campaign, and cutting what does not pay15 min
    • Selling campaign management: flat fee, percentage of spend, monthly report and contract20 min
    • Module handout (PDF)5 min
    • Quiz: campaign management and optimizationModule quiz
    • Final project: a complete campaign launched, read and optimizedCapstone
  7. 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 Academy

Certificate of skills

Your name

has completed and validated the course

Online advertising: Meta and TikTok on a small budget

Certified skills

  • Calculate a maximum cost per customer and size an advertising budget
  • Structure a Meta business portfolio, ad accounts and conversion tracking
  • Build Meta and TikTok audiences: local, custom, lookalike and diaspora
  • Design and test video, image and carousel ad creatives
  • Manage Meta and TikTok campaigns on cost per customer and run A/B tests
  • Sell, run and report on a paid advertising management service

Number KOL-CERT-2026-XXXXX

Mohamed Bah

Founder, Kolonell Academy

Poster for Online advertising: Meta and TikTok on a small budget

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 3 of 5 · Advanced

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
See the 5 track levels

Next level · 4/5 Career

Freelance community manager: run social media for SMEs and bill every month

The full job, with a portfolio

Your first SME client signed and invoiced, with a monthly retainer and a report that gets it renewed

100,000 FCFA 24 h

View the next level

Your 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, and manages their Meta and TikTok campaigns on cost per customer.

Questions about this course

How is this different from level 2, "Digital marketing for SMEs"?

Level 2 has you launch a first Meta campaign to WhatsApp, in one module, as part of a complete acquisition system. This level 3 is entirely about advertising: cost-per-customer calculation, clean account and tracking setup, advanced audiences including the diaspora, creatives, TikTok, testing, scaling and selling the service. You can take it directly if you already have an active Page and WhatsApp Business.

Do I need to spend money on ads during the course?

Modules 1 to 5 require no ad spend. The final project ideally calls for a real campaign: plan 20,000 to 40,000 FCFA (about $33 to $67) over 7 to 14 days. Without a budget, you submit the campaign fully built but unpublished, with a review based on the results dataset provided; the project is then graded on preparation and analysis.

How do I pay Meta and TikTok from Senegal, Mali or Côte d'Ivoire?

Module 2 compares the payment methods accepted in 2026: bank-issued Visa or Mastercard, prepaid and virtual cards offered by some banks and mobile operators, as well as the pitfalls of account currency and billing thresholds. The rules change often, so the lesson gives you a checklist of what to verify before paying.

My ad account has already been restricted. Can this course help?

Yes for prevention, partly for recovery. Module 2 covers the structure that limits restrictions (real profiles, two-factor authentication, backup admins) and advertising policies; module 4 details the content that gets an ad rejected. The appeal process is explained, with no guarantee of outcome since the decision belongs to the platform.

How much time should I plan?

About 14 hours: seven hours of lessons, the exercises after each lesson and the two projects (a little over an hour for the campaign plan, two and a half hours for the final project, not counting the time the ads run). At three hours a week, allow five weeks, campaign included.

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 send it to. Once payment is received, your access is activated within 24 hours, often in under an hour during business hours. Module 1 is free to preview before you pay, and access is for life, updates included.

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

75,000 FCFA · 115 €

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