Working with Influencers vs Paid Ads and Media Buying in Egypt

If you're a business owner or marketing lead in Egypt, you've probably asked this question more than once:

"Should I keep spending on influencers or double down on paid ads and media buying?"

It's not just about budget anymore.

It's about growth, consistency, and getting real returns on your efforts.

Spoiler: The answer isn’t one or the other. It’s both, used the right way.

Let’s break down why this question even exists, what each channel actually offers, and how you can build a funnel that doesn’t just flash, it scales.

Let’s be real.

You’ve probably paid an influencer once, saw a nice spike in reach or engagement and then what?

Sales plateau. No long-term lift. You’re back to square one.

Or maybe you’ve been pouring tens of thousands into Meta or Google ads.

Clicks are decent.

But ROAS? Meh.

Feels like you’re renting attention without owning outcomes.

Here’s the core issue: Most brands treat these two channels as disconnected tools instead of a single, scalable system.

That mindset is what’s costing you growth.

We’re not anti-influencer.

In fact, we use them strategically across our growth funnels.

But it’s important to understand their real role.

Influencers are excellent at:

• Building awareness: They put your brand in front of people who might never have heard of you.
• Generating trust: A recommendation from someone your target audience follows beats a banner ad any day.
• Creating strong content: Let’s be honest, most influencers can produce better, more relatable content than in-house brand shoots.

In Egypt especially, micro-influencers are powerful.

They connect with niche communities.

That’s gold if you have a plan for what happens after they post.

Paid ads and media buying don’t care if you’re trending. They care if you're converting.

When used right, media buying in Egypt gives you:

• Full control over audience, creative, placement, and timing.
• Trackable performance: Know exactly what’s working, and scale it.
• Retargeting power: You can bring back people who saw you once, and give them a reason to act.
• Immediate results: When you need sales this week, paid wins.

The biggest advantage? Scalability.

You can’t ask an influencer to go live 40 times in one month.

But you can duplicate your best-performing ad 40 times with a higher budget.

Let’s say you just had a successful influencer campaign:

200M impressions

A few thousands profile visits

Hundreds of DMs

Awesome, right?

Except… what’s next? That traffic disappears unless you:

Retarget it

Re-engage it

Convert it

And if the influencer doesn’t post about you again? It’s gone.

That’s the trap: Influencer marketing without a follow-up system is just temporary hype.

Here’s where things shift. Instead of asking "which one is better?", ask:

How do I use both to move someone from discovery to purchase?

• Focus on reach, storytelling, and connection.
• Let the influencer introduce your brand naturally.

• Target people who visited your site or engaged with the influencer’s content.
• Use testimonials, product videos, UGC, and benefits-driven messaging.

• Offer-based campaigns (free shipping, 10% off, bundles, urgency).
• Test audiences, placements, and copy. Scale what works.

Pro tip: Repurpose influencer content in your paid ads and content for media buying in Egypt. You’ll get higher click-through rates, better engagement, and a more consistent brand voice.

Let’s say you’re a skincare brand.

You work with two Egyptian beauty influencers.

Their posts generate 100M views and 300K site visits.

Your role now is to:

• Retarget those 300K visitors with Meta ads showing product benefits.
• Show a 10% discount to cart abandoners.
• Use influencer content as ad creative in a broader campaign.

Result?

• Influencer spend = 40K EGP
• Paid ads = 30K EGP
• Combined ROAS = 6.7x

That’s not just reach. That’s systemized revenue.

Influencer marketing is not dead.

Paid ads are not enough.

But when you combine both with intention, you get:

• Awareness
• Trust
• Data
• Performance

This is how you scale in Egypt’s digital space.

Not with disconnected posts, but with structured media buying and content planning.

At our media buying company in Egypt, we do this every day.

We plan full-funnel campaigns, from influencer selection to retargeting logic, designed to move people from curious to converted.

If you’re tired of throwing money at “awareness” with no ROI, let’s talk.

Book a free consultation session.