Pay per click marketing is changing at a pace we haven’t seen before in the Arab world. Below we will explore some of the key changes taking place in the world of Arabic pay per click advertising.

More Competition

When I first launched an Arabic digital marketing agency nearly seven years ago, there was almost non-existent competition for Arabic keywords in Google paid search. At the time, even the most competitive industries didn’t have Arabic ads on the first page of a Google result for a specific keyword. Much has changed since then. Many industries and verticals now have Arabic keywords that trigger a full page of Arabic ads, and there will be far more in 2022 as the market has awoken to the opportunity.

Stricter Policing of Ad policies

When Arabic ads were first available, Google offered only limited support due to a shortage of Arabic team members. As a result, Arabic keywords and associated ads were seldom monitored, to the extent that they would not be flagged even in industries where Google had ad restrictions imposed.

The ability to bit on competitors’ branded keywords in Arabic was still available, even though trademark regulations preventing this practice in English. Now that Google has more native Arabic speakers in its staff, and their systems and algorithms are improving, the loopholes in Arabic ads are rapidly closing.

More Types of Ads Rolling Out in Certain Countries

In previous years, many ad formats didn’t work or weren’t available in the MENA region in Arabic. Google is now addressing this issue by rolling out many of these ad formats in Arabic, too. For example, product listing ads were non-existent in Arabic a few years ago, yet this ad format is now becoming prominent in Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. It is clear that as Google invests more resources in global expansion, all the features currently available in English will soon be available in Arabic as well.

More Savvy PPC Marketers Entering the Arabic Market

Although the number of companies that are skilled in running Arabic PPC campaigns is relatively small, Arabic ecommerce market opportunities are driving more companies to invest in PPC marketing. As companies begin to test Arab markets, they discover where the opportunities and challenges lie, which results in more savvy ad expenditure.

More companies investing in digital marketing in 2022 due to global pandemic

As traditional offline marketing channels like events and other in person activities shut down due to the global pandemic many companies have shifted marketing budgets online and this is also the case when it comes to Arabic PPC marketing. If offline marketing continues to be difficult we expect that companies that avoided PPC in the past will begin to see this as a opportunity area.

Despite the Changes, Arabic PPC is still an Easy Win

Even with the increased competition and ad awareness in Arab markets in 2022, we consider Arabic PPC an easy win. The reason for this is that competition in some industries is still relatively low when compared to PPC advertising in English. Even the companies who are currently running Arabic ads are not optimizing their campaigns and messaging as much as they could be. Arabic search volumes in many industries continues to show real demand for online products and services. All of this makes Arabic ads on Google in 2022 a smart and easy win.

If you need help running your PPC ads in Arabic in 2022, contact IstiZada to find out how we can help you better reach your market in the Arab world.