Quora: The Next Big Move in Pakistan's Advertising Industry?

Quora is a global Q&A based website founded by Adam D’Angelo in 2009 and launched in 2010. According to the now-defunct Alexa popularity ranking, in February 2022, Quora was ranked #276 in terms of traffic, out of all websites in the US. Globally, it ranked #323. According to Google Trends, Quora’s search ratio is higher in India than in the US and it is gaining popularity in Australia, France, Germany, Japan and Korea too. The website appears in a country's local language.

Here is my take on how Quora can unlock several opportunities for advertisers and customers in Pakistan:

Brand Awareness: Brands can spread awareness and introduce their products to potential customers as people on the site frequently log on to check out product reviews and comparisons.

Influencer Marketing/Organic Reach: Influencer marketing on Quora can be a game changer as it can open up opportunities for products to be noticed if they get a certain number of up votes; plus, it is counted as organic reach.

User Generated Content: Users can spread their view through word of mouth and ask questions from brands directly – this creates better B2C relationships.

Online Reputation Management: With Quora’s up vote system, marketers can gather a lot of valid insights and information about a brand’s reputation. If someone ‘upvotes’ a comment on Quora, it means they agree with your answer/it has fulfilled their query. A ‘downvote’ means they disagree; the number of upvotes are proportional to a comment/response being viewed by a greater number of people.

Intent-Based Content Strategy: This is a content strategy focused on a buyer’s online behaviour, which indicates their purchase intention. It is also known as funnel-based marketing, which consists of the following stages: awareness, consideration, intent, evaluation, decision. The content is customised for each stage of the funnel (as listed above). Marketers can for instance analyse what a consumer is searching for and how (which search terms are used, keywords and what they are looking for)

Feedback/Social Listening: Quora unlocks the opportunity to focus on what customers want from a brand and product.

Quora Ads: Quora has approximately 300 million users, which opens vast reach to brand advertising – that too via unskippable ads on a user's main Quora feed. These ads usually have a call to action, such as "Learn More" "Subscribe Now," "Sign Up" or "Follow for More".

Laraib Agha is a graphic designer and a copywriter, currently working in advertising.