To advertise on Takealot, you sign up to Takealot Group Advertising and run Sponsored Product Ads. It is a pay-per-click system. You pick the products you want to push, the system places them at the top of search and category pages, and you only pay when someone clicks. That lands your product in front of buyers who are ready to spend, on South Africa's biggest online shop. World Wide Worx found Takealot was used by 31.9% of online shoppers in 2024, up from 20.9% the year before. This guide breaks down how Takealot ads work, what they cost, and how to keep them profitable, from V8 Media, the team behind R2+ billion in client sales.
The full episode of the eCommerce Marketing Secrets Show sits above. Below it is the playbook: the durable lessons from the show, pulled out and turned into moves you can make this week.
What this episode of the eCommerce Marketing Secrets Show covers
This episode is a fast run through the platform news that actually mattered for online stores that week.
Shopify dropping a big announcement. Takealot rolling out new advertising features. New shopping ads landing on Instagram.
Three different platforms. One shared idea underneath.
Get your product in front of people at the exact moment they are ready to buy.
The news dates fast. That idea does not.
And in South Africa, no place puts you in front of more ready-to-buy people than Takealot. So that is where this guide goes deep. We touch the Shopify and Instagram angles near the end too.
What is Takealot advertising, in plain words?
Takealot advertising is paying to get your product seen first on Takealot.
Picture the site. A shopper searches "air fryer". Dozens of listings come back. The ones near the top get the clicks. The rest may as well not exist.
Ads buy your way to the top of that list.
It runs through Takealot Group Advertising. The main tool for marketplace sellers is Sponsored Product Ads.
It works on cost-per-click. You are not paying for the slot. You pay only when a shopper actually clicks your product.
You load money into a prepaid wallet first. Then each click gets debited from that balance. When the wallet runs dry, the ads stop. Simple.
You choose which products to advertise. The system then places them where they have the best chance of converting, like the top of search results and category pages.
According to Takealot Group Advertising, almost every product is eligible. Books are the main exception.
So it is the same idea as Google Ads or Meta ads, but right inside the shop where people already came to spend money.
Why advertise on Takealot at all?
Because that is where South Africa already shops.
Takealot is the country's largest online retailer. World Wide Worx's Online Retail in South Africa study found 31.9% of online shoppers used it in 2024, up from 20.9% in 2023. Close to half of surveyed shoppers say it is the platform they use most.
One word explains it. Intent.
Someone scrolling Instagram is killing time. Someone searching on Takealot has their card out. Different game.
So an ad on Takealot does not have to convince a stranger your product exists. It just has to win the click against the other listings on the page.
The whole market is growing under you too. The same study put South African online retail at R96 billion in 2024, up 35% in a year, and on track to pass R130 billion in 2025.
More people are buying online every month. More of them start on Takealot.
And it got more crowded. Amazon launched its South African marketplace on 7 May 2024. Takealot still grew right through it. Naspers and Prosus results showed Takealot lifting revenue 17% and orders 15% in the year after.
More sellers fighting for the same shelf means the top spots get harder to reach for free. Ads are how you stay visible when the crowd doubles.
The Takealot ad products, explained simply
Takealot Group Advertising is not one button. It is a small menu. Here is what each does.
| Ad type | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Product Ads | Pay-per-click ads that lift your listings to the top of search and category pages | Almost every seller. This is where you start. |
| Display and banner ads | Image banners on the homepage and across the site | Bigger brands building awareness and pushing a launch or sale |
| Category and deal placements | Featured spots in a category or in deal zones like promotions | Hero products during big sale events |
| Newsletter and email features | Your product inside Takealot's marketing emails | Reaching shoppers who are not on the site that day |
Start with Sponsored Product Ads. Master that, then test the rest. Do not buy the fancy banner before the simple pay-per-click ad is making money.
How to set up your first Takealot Sponsored Products campaign
You do not need an agency to start. You need a few good products and a small budget. Here is the order.
1. Fix your listings first. An ad sends traffic to your product page. If that page is weak, you are paying to lose. Sharp title, clean photos, full description, real reviews. Get those right before you spend a cent on ads.
2. Pick your winners. Do not advertise everything. Start with products that already sell and have good reviews and stock. Ads pour fuel on a fire. They do not light one.
3. Load your wallet. Top up your prepaid advertising balance. Start small. A few hundred Rand is enough to learn what works before you scale.
4. Launch and leave it a few days. Let the campaign gather clicks and sales before you judge it. One day of data tells you nothing.
5. Read the numbers, then cut and feed. Check which products turned clicks into sales. Kill the ones burning money. Put more behind the ones making it.
That last step is the whole game. Advertising on Takealot is not "set and forget". It is "feed the winners, starve the losers", every single week.
One honest warning. Takealot's ad tools give you less control than Google or Meta. Targeting is limited and the reporting is thinner. So you lean harder on picking the right products and watching your sales data closely.
How much does it cost to advertise on Takealot?
There is no fixed price. You set the budget. Cost-per-click means you control the tap.
But the ad spend is only one number. To know if Takealot is actually making you money, you have to count everything Takealot takes.
Takealot charges a success fee, basically a commission, on each sale. It runs roughly 8% to 15% depending on the category. Then there are fulfilment fees per order and storage fees if they hold your stock.
So the real maths on a Takealot sale looks like this.
Your selling price. Minus the cost of the product. Minus the success fee. Minus fulfilment. Minus your ad cost to get that sale.
Whatever is left is your actual profit.
This is where most sellers get burned. They see sales climbing and feel rich. Then they add up the fees and the ad spend and find they were working for free.
Know your margin per product before you advertise it. If a product only makes R30 after Takealot's cut, you cannot spend R40 in ads to sell it. That is not growth. That is a slow leak.
We go deep on this in how much profit the average eCommerce store really makes. Read it before you scale any ad spend.
How to keep Takealot ads profitable
Ads are easy to start and easy to waste. Here is how to stay on the right side.
Think in return, not in spend. The question is never "how much did I spend?" It is "how many Rand came back for every Rand I put in?"
That is your return on ad spend. If you put in R1 and get R4 in sales, that is a 4 to 1 return. Whether that is good depends on your margin after all the fees above.
Advertise products with room to breathe. Higher-margin products can carry the ad cost and the Takealot fee and still profit. Thin-margin products cannot. Pick your battles.
Watch stock like a hawk. Running ads on a product that sells out is paying to send people to an empty shelf. Pause ads the moment stock runs low.
Use ads to win the launch. A brand new listing has no sales history and no reviews, so it sits invisible at the bottom. Ads buy it early visibility and those first reviews. Once it ranks on its own, you can ease off.
If you want a deeper framework for measuring this properly, our guide on ROAS vs POAS for eCommerce shows why profit-based maths beats revenue-based maths every time.
Takealot ads vs your own store: which should you do?
This is the question every SA brand wrestles with. Do you sell on Takealot, or on your own site?
Both. Different jobs.
| Takealot Sponsored Ads | Your own store (with Meta + Google ads) |
|---|---|
| Buyers already on the site with card out | You have to pull people in from social and search |
| Built-in trust from the Takealot name | You build the trust yourself, over time |
| Takealot takes a success fee on every sale | You keep the full margin, minus your own costs |
| You do not own the customer or their email | You own the customer, the data, and repeat sales |
| Limited control over targeting and data | Full control of audiences, creative and tracking |
| Fast, low-effort way to start selling | More work to build, far more valuable long term |
Best move: use Takealot for reach and easy sales, but build your own store and list in parallel so you are not renting your whole business from one marketplace.
On your own store you control the whole game. You run Google Ads to catch buyers searching for what you sell, and Meta ads to put your products in front of new audiences on Facebook and Instagram. Then you keep every customer's email for free repeat sales.
On Takealot you rent the shop floor. Easy to start, but you never own the customer, and you pay the fee on every sale forever.
Smart SA brands do both. Takealot for the easy reach. Their own store for the profit and the relationship.
The other episode highlights: Shopify and Instagram
The same episode flagged a big Shopify announcement and new shopping ads on Instagram. Same lesson, different doors.
Shopify is the engine most serious online stores run on. The constant upgrades to its checkout and storefront all chase one thing. Fewer taps between "I want it" and "I bought it". If you run your own store, a fast, clean checkout is the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart. See the tools we rate in 5 must-have apps for an 8-figure Shopify store.
Instagram shopping ads are the social version of the same play. Tag your products, let people buy in the app, and run paid ads to push your winners to new buyers. We break that down fully in how to use Instagram and TikTok to generate sales for free, and the wider shift in our sister episode on social commerce in 2026.
Three platforms. One job. Meet the buyer where they are, and make buying stupidly easy.
How V8 Media puts this to work
We do not chase vanity metrics. We chase profit. Here is what that looks like for an online store.
We map every channel a brand can sell on. Takealot, their own store, Meta, Google, email. Then we put each one to the job it is best at.
Takealot for the warm, ready-to-buy reach. Their own store for the margin we get to keep. Paid ads to feed both. Email and WhatsApp to bring buyers back for free.
Then we do the boring part most agencies skip. We count the true profit on every channel after every fee, so budget flows to what actually makes money, not what looks busy.
R2+ billion in client sales since 2018. Most of it for South African online stores, exactly like yours. You can see how we think about eCommerce growth on our store-focused site.
Read these next: the eCommerce KPIs to track every month, and the sister episode on eCommerce marketing strategies that actually grow sales.
Frequently asked questions
How do I advertise on Takealot?
You sign up to Takealot Group Advertising as a marketplace seller and run Sponsored Product Ads. It is a pay-per-click system, so you choose the products you want to push, the platform places them at the top of relevant search and category pages, and you only pay when a shopper clicks. You load money into a prepaid wallet first, and each click is debited from that balance. Almost all products are eligible, with books being the main exception. Start small, watch which products turn clicks into sales, then put more budget behind the winners.
How much does it cost to advertise on Takealot?
There is no fixed price because Takealot Sponsored Products work on cost-per-click, so you control the budget and only pay when someone clicks. The bigger cost to watch is everything else Takealot takes on a sale: a success fee of roughly 8% to 15% depending on the category, plus fulfilment and storage fees. Work out your profit per product after all of those, then make sure your ad cost per sale still leaves you a margin. If a product barely profits after fees, advertising it will only deepen the loss.
Are Takealot ads worth it for small sellers?
Yes, but only if you pick the right products. Takealot has close to a third of South Africa's online shoppers, so the buyers are already there with intent to buy. For a small seller, ads are the fastest way to get a new listing seen and to win those first reviews that help it rank on its own. The real question is whether your margin can carry both the Takealot fee and the ad cost. If it can, run ads and watch your sales data weekly. If it cannot, you are just paying to lose faster.
What is the difference between Takealot Sponsored Products and display ads?
Sponsored Product Ads are pay-per-click ads that lift your individual listings to the top of search and category pages, so you only pay when someone clicks. Display and banner ads are image placements across the site, like the homepage, and are aimed more at building brand awareness for bigger budgets. For most marketplace sellers, Sponsored Products are the place to start because they tie spend directly to product clicks and sales. Display ads make more sense once you are a known brand pushing a launch or a big sale event.
Should I sell on Takealot or build my own online store?
Do both, for different reasons. Takealot gives you instant reach and built-in trust, so it is the easiest place to start selling and to move volume. But it takes a success fee on every sale and you never own the customer. Your own store keeps the full margin, lets you run your own Google and Meta ads, and lets you capture every customer's email for free repeat sales. The smart play for South African brands is to use Takealot for easy reach while building their own store and email list in parallel.
Does advertising on Takealot help my products rank higher?
Indirectly, yes. Sponsored Product Ads put your listing in front of more shoppers, which drives more clicks and, if the listing is good, more sales and reviews. Sales velocity and strong reviews are what help a product rank well organically over time. So ads can jump-start a new or buried listing, build that early momentum, and then you can ease the spend off once it earns its place near the top on its own. Ads are the push-start, not the permanent engine.
How do I keep my Takealot advertising profitable?
Think in return on ad spend, not just spend. Advertise higher-margin products that can carry both the Takealot success fee and the ad cost and still profit. Watch your stock so you never pay to send shoppers to a sold-out listing. Check your sales data weekly, cut the products burning money, and feed the ones making it. Most importantly, calculate your true profit per sale after every fee, so you know your real break-even before you scale a single campaign.
Key takeaways
- To advertise on Takealot, run Sponsored Product Ads through Takealot Group Advertising. It is pay-per-click: you pick products, the system places them, you pay only on a click.
- You fund a prepaid wallet, almost all products qualify (books are the main exception), and the system places ads where they are most likely to convert.
- Takealot is worth it because the buyers are already there. World Wide Worx found 31.9% of SA online shoppers used it in 2024, up from 20.9% in 2023.
- Cost is set by you, but the real number is profit after fees: a success fee of roughly 8% to 15%, plus fulfilment and storage, on top of your ad cost.
- Only advertise products with enough margin to carry the fee and the ad spend. Feed the winners, starve the losers, and watch stock.
- Use ads to launch new listings and win first reviews, then ease off as they rank on their own.
- Best play: use Takealot for easy reach, but build your own store and email list in parallel so you own the customer and the margin.
