In this article
Key takeaways
- 69% of the ads are video, a discount or an offer in 38%, cash on delivery in 16%, free delivery in 12%.
- Fashion, hair care, electronics, accessories, health and perfumes: the six categories that take most of the ad spend.
- Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone are half the ads or more; Oman is the highest on cash on delivery, Bahrain the highest on video.
- The median advertised price in Saudi riyals is 189; half of the priced ads sit between 79 and 350.
What is advertised in the Gulf right now?
The categories in the chart are ranked by their share of current ad spend. Fashion and shoes first, then hair care, electronics, accessories and watches, then health and supplements, skincare and perfumes. The big categories are not necessarily the most profitable: competition there is fiercer, and the opportunity often sits in the fourth or fifth category in one particular country.
One article per country: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman.
Where the ads run
One ad can run in several countries, so the shares add up to more than a hundred. Saudi Arabia is the biggest, then the UAE and Kuwait. Note the size of Oman and Qatar: markets many ignore, whose ads say that plenty of merchants do not.
What actually sells: the longest running
The charts measure what is advertised; the list above measures what sells: ads their merchants have paid for for weeks, with the store page, its price and its offer. Repeat it with your country filter and your category word. How to tell a winner.
How the Gulf sells
Video is the language: 69% of the ads. A discount or an offer in 38%, "limited time" or "hurry" in 18%. Cash on delivery in 16% of Gulf ads, but it ranges from 12% in Saudi Arabia to 26% in Oman: the smaller the market or the lower the trust in online payment, the higher the share. Instalments (Tabby, Tamara) only 3%, nearly confined to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Emojis in 77% of the ads, and the median text is 60 words. Read Arabic ad copy for copy templates.
Prices
In Saudi riyals (the ads that state them): the lower quartile up to 79, the median 189, the upper quartile from SAR 350. In local currencies: the UAE median is AED 280, Qatar QAR 211, Kuwait KWD 21, Bahrain BHD 22, Oman OMR 20. The rule is the same everywhere: what sells through direct ads sits between "a hundred and a few hundred" in the local currency; above that you need instalments or a known brand.
Platforms: where the ads lead
Selling over WhatsApp without a store is the most common across the Gulf, and Shopify is the second platform in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, while Salla is almost purely Saudi (91% of Salla ads run in Saudi Arabia). Read Salla, Zid and Shopify for the platform comparison and Salla and Zid store ads for Salla and Zid ads.
