Middle East & Arabic PPC Company

Choose IstiZada to manage your pay per click campaigns in Arabic and in the Middle East. IstiZada has the unique market knowledge of the region combined with an advanced understanding of Internet marketing.

What makes IstiZada different

• Extensive Knowledge of Middle Eastern markets online
• English & Arabic speaking account managers
• Arabic content focused
• Experience working some the largest global companies
• Google Ads Certified
• Conversion & ROI Focused
• Obsessed with the Arab World

Challenges involved with running PPC & SEM marketing campaigns in the Middle East

• Bids for the same keywords can vary drastically by country
• Clicks and conversions happen at different times of the day than in Western countries
• Cost per Acquisition goals will fluctuate greatly when compared with Western countries
• Many search results pages will have few or no competitors
• Arabs that are new to the Internet can tend to click on ads without the intent of buying
• Ad texts must be crafted carefully as to not encourage unnecessary clicks
• Keywords can vary by country

Major Arab Markets we target with our SEM campaigns

 

The Gulf

With a vast amount of oil wealth and a high demand for Western products and services this market is key to any company looking to start off successfully in the Middle East. This region has a steadily growing population of over 54 million as of 2024, meaning it shouldn’t be overlooked. The Gulf’s oil wealth has contributed to a high level of prosperity and has helped to generate a well educated middle class in countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. These countries also enjoy generally low tax rates, low unemployment, and higher-than-average per capita GDPs. Often referred to as the GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council) States, the Gulf region includes not only the above mentioned countries but also Bahrain, Oman, and Yemen. Many of these countries – especially Saudi Arabia and the Emirates – are becoming increasingly important international business and tech hubs, making the Gulf is the ideal region for a PPC campaign in 2024.

The Sham

The Sham (or the Levant) region of the Middle East includes Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. This region constitutes a mass of Arabs who are eager to have access to the latest trends and products from the US and Europe. Beruit, Lebanon is known as the Paris of the Middle East thanks to the local fashion and aesthetics scene. In fact it has become a regional hub for beautification services and plastic surgery. Jordan on the other hand is an immigrant nation with Arabs from all over the region living in it. The country boasts strong ties with the West and a free trade agreement with the United States. Jordan’s population is very Internet savvy and Amman the capital is becoming known as a center for tech startups and other entrepreneurial ventures.

 

North Africa

North Africa, though technically outside the Middle East, is the most populous Arabic speaking region. Egypt is the largest Arab state, and has experienced rapid population growth over the past decades, with its 114 million inhabitants concentrated mostly in urban centers along the Nile River. With this urbanization of the North African populations we are seeing Internet usage rates increase rapidly. As cellular networks expand coverage and smartphones become available at accessible prices, the entire region including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Sudan is shaping up to be the perfect target for an online marketing campaign. Soaring social media usage rates in North Africa also benefit the savvy advertiser who will be able to make the most of the opportunities this market provides.

Are you a PPC agency that needs help in the Middle East?

Having worked in America IstiZada knows that it can be nearly impossible to run a successful PPC campaign in another language other than your own, especially one written in a foreign Arabic script. In light of this we seek to make things easier for PPC agencies that are looking to provide their clients an opportunity to enter the ripe market in the Middle East. IstiZada speaks the same marketing speak you speak and knows the SEM industry’s best practices in and out. We seek to provide our agency partners with the best customer service and transparency into all relevant metrics including CTR’s, CPC’s, CPA’s, ROAS, etc.

 

Mobile Ads in Arabic

No discussion of paid Arabic advertising would be complete today without mentioning the boom in mobile smart phone usage in the Middle East. Spending reports throughout the region show that consumers in the Middle East tend to prioritize purchasing a smartphone, even if it creates a financial burden. According to Data Reportal’s 2024 report on Saudi Arabia, the country has an internet penetration rate of 99% and more mobile connections than people! Additionally, this report indicates that Saudi Arabians are increasingly turning to the internet and social media for their shopping needs: in fact, this past year nearly 82% of Saudi Arabians active on social media reported using at least one social media platform for brand research.

Let’s take a look at some examples of Arabic-language mobile ads within web pages:
 

 

Now let’s take a look at some different Arabic-language social media ads. You’ll notice that many of these feature bilingual Arabic and English content, which can be a good way to cast a wide net with your ad and reach not only Arabs but also English-speaking expats.

 

 

Display Ads

Depending on your industry, a combination of both Arabic text ads on Google search and display ads on the Google Display Network (GDN) might be the most effective for reaching your audience in the region. With the right targeting and proper ad messaging, display ads can often drive qualified traffic and conversions to your website. Below you will find some examples of Arabic ads we’ve used on the GDN.

 

PPC competition in the Middle East

For 9 years IstiZada has been updating this article. Most years the competition for the keyword evening gowns in Arabic in Saudi Arabia was much less than the competition for the same keyword in English in the United States. As you’ll see below, we ran an example with the keyword “Evening Gowns” – in Arabic for a Saudi Arabia-based Google search and in English for the US-based Google search. Check out these comparisons:

 

Keyword: Evening Gowns – فساتين سهرة – Location – Saudi Arabia – 2024

 

 

VERSUS – Keyword: Evening Gowns Location: United States – 2024

In the above comparison you can see that the PPC competition for the same keyword is much lower in Saudi Arabia than it is in the US. For the Arabic search, the results first show images of evening gowns, rather than ads for the product. In the English search, however, the search results in eight display ads from six different sellers.

Although PPC competition continues to grow in the Middle East as more and more companies move to online marketing, there are still many product and service categories where there is almost no competition in the Middle East for Arabic keywords. The competition of certain categories can also fluctuate significantly based on current trends and consumer needs.

 

 

2024 Product Listing Ads Update

 

In 2024, users searching for products in Arabic can generally find Arabic-language results with ease, which is a change from past years when Arabic listings were few and far between. Arabic ads are showing up across more and more industries, especially as the e-commerce market continues to boom in the Middle East. This past year, the e-commerce market in the Middle East reached nearly USD $124 Billion, and is projected to keep growing steadily. Despite this, the page real estate that product listing ads take up in Arabic usually isn’t as much page real estate as you would see taken up in English search results. This is likely because fewer products are competing for the space, so fewer are shown. One trend that we are seeing is that including the words “for sale” in the Arabic keyword often contributes to product listing ads appearing.

See the snapshot below for the mobile phone industry in Arabic. You can clearly see product listing ads showing up in the search results in Arabic for this search term. Note, we also used the words “for sale” in this search as well. PLA ads in Arabic are likely to be very effective because of the limited competition. As you can see in the picture below, just one company is taking up all 5 PLA ad slots. In competitive markets like the United States, you will typically see all ad spots for PLA ads taken up by different competitors.

 

 

Arabic PPC in 2024

With big ecommerce brands like Amazon investing more heavily in the region we can expect increased competition in Google’s paid results. Increases in the cost per click will undoubtedly be the result as we’ve seen in previous years as more companies see the opportunity to make a good return on investment from Google advertising in the Arab world. As competition in the region increases on Google, strategy will become more important since seeing the opportunities in the midst of the competition will require working with experts that have experience running ads throughout the region.

PPC Changes Post Covid-19

Due to global economic changes around the world as a result of the Covid-19 situation new opportunities have opened up with PPC. One thing many in the marketing industry are noticing is low cost per click ad costs as some companies have cut their advertising. This is combined with the fact that many consumers now have a preference for online shopping and are spending more time online, as is reflected in current statistics on e-commerce popularity in the Middle East. Currently, we’ve found that industries relating to health and fitness are booming in the region, which has opened up a whole mobile health industry that includes apps and products like smartwatches. Health food products and supplements that Arabs would normally buy at a store are being bought online. eCommerce companies in many niches may find this is an opportune time to attract Arab customers with targeted Google ads. Since Google Ads runs the advertisements on Youtube, now is also an opportune time to get low cost per view ads in the region as Arabs are spending more time on YouTube than ever before.

 

What you can expect from working with IstiZada

 

Arab Obsessed

We’re IstiZada, we’re obsessed with the Arab World. We’re a team of marketers hyper-focused measurable online marketing across the Middle East. You benefit from insights gained from working across many websites and industries targeting the Arab world.

 

Conversion Focused

Conversions are the most important metric from our standpoint. If our advertising isn’t driving sales, leads, or some other type of conversion, we aren’t getting you the results you are looking for. Traffic, impressions, clicks, and other metrics are useful in many cases but they aren’t indicators of a successful campaign. Proving our value to you with conversions is an essential part of the campaigns we run.

 

Arabic & English

We run both Arabic and English ad campaigns across the Arab World. Yes, to get the most reach and to have the most success we recommend using a combination of both Arabic and English ads. IstiZada has both native Arabic speakers and native English speakers on our team so we can target and tailor ad messaging accurately and effectively for each language.
 

Complete PPC Transparency

When it comes to pay per click advertising we provide clients with complete transparency into their account and campaigns with us. This means that our reports include metrics like clicks, avg. cost per click, click thru rate, total impressions, and most importantly the number of conversions. To add to this if for any reason you want to leave we will give the account over to you with all the appropriate access so you can run it.

 

Dedicated Project Manager

Each client we take on has their own dedicated project manager who will lead the strategy for your account. This same project manager will remain with you throughout your campaigns with IstiZada. Each project manager takes a keen interest in the accounts they take on and their individual success is closely tied to the success of your campaigns. Our clients like that we have project managers who not only help them with the services they signed up with us for but also advise them on various other ways to increase their marketing success to drive more revenue for their companies.

 

Ad copy – Ad copy – Ad copy

Even before the invention of digital advertising, marketers as earlier as Claude C. Hopkins discovered that small changes in ad messaging could make a huge impact on how successful those ads were. In light of this, testing different ad copy with different audiences is important to getting the most success from your online campaigns today.

We’ve come across many companies that have been running Adwords ads that were just translated from English by a translator that had no clue of which words in Arabic would be the most effective to use. In an effort to save money, these companies end up losing much more money because they waste money running ads with words that fail to compel their audience to action. Having well written Arabic ad copy that uses action evoking words is just as essential as well written English ad copy. Effective Arabic Google Ads management makes use of the best ad copy to drive results.

 

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