Google Ads for Saudi businesses, planned in Arabic first
Much of Saudi search happens in Arabic, the working week starts on Sunday, and a campaign pointed at “Saudi Arabia” spends across regions that behave like separate markets. We build the keyword list in Arabic, give each region its own budget, count every WhatsApp and phone enquiry, and add an AI assistant on WhatsApp that qualifies leads before your sales team calls back.
- HoursMonday–Saturday, 6:30am–3:30pm Riyadh time. Our team is off on Sundays
- OfficeNone in the Kingdom. Your account is managed from Kothamangalam, Kerala
- BillingGoogle charges your company directly; we take no margin on spend
Start the keyword list in Arabic, not in translation
Translate an English keyword list into formal Arabic and you will match the searches people rarely type, while missing the ones they do. These are the patterns we plan for in a Saudi account.
| Search pattern | Example | Why a translated list misses it | How we handle it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everyday Saudi phrasing | ابغى شركة تنظيف بالرياض | People type the way they speak, not in textbook Arabic | Keywords taken from the Arabic search-terms report and from your sales team’s own vocabulary |
| Spelling variants | جدة / جده | Many people type the closing letter ة as ه, so the same word has two spellings | Both spellings checked in the search terms, with negatives kept consistent across them |
| Brand names in two scripts | ايفون / iPhone | Product and brand names appear in Arabic letters and in Latin ones | Ad groups that cover both scripts and send each to a page in the right language |
| English from residents | ac repair riyadh | Many expatriate residents and business buyers search in English | A separate English campaign with its own budget, so it cannot crowd out the Arabic one |
Illustrative searches, not measured volumes. In the audit we work from your account’s real search terms, or from Keyword Planner if you are starting fresh.
Who approves the Arabic. We write the Arabic ads and landing-page copy; a person at your company who reads Arabic signs it off before launch. Arabic pages get their own address on your site and a right-to-left layout, so they can rank and convert on their own.
Three regions, three budgets
When one campaign targets the whole Kingdom, the largest city tends to take most of the money, and the report cannot tell you whether Jeddah paid for itself. We give each region you serve its own campaign and budget, so a slow month in one place does not hide a good month in another.
Inside each region we choose the narrowest setting that still fits the business. A clinic or showroom gets a radius around each branch. A company that delivers across a city gets the city. An online store gets the whole country, with the areas its couriers do not reach excluded.
We also switch the location option to people in or regularly in the area, rather than Google’s wider default that includes people elsewhere who have only shown interest. The exception is a business that sells to visitors, such as hotels or tour operators.
- Riyadh
- Jeddah
- Makkah
- Madinah
- Dammam
- Al Khobar
- Dhahran
- Buraidah
- Abha
- Tabuk
Reporting by region. Every monthly report shows cost per qualified lead for each region in riyals, so budget moves follow results rather than city size.
From the first search to a qualified lead in your CRM
Lead handling & AI
- An AI assistant on WhatsApp that greets every ad enquiry in Arabic or English, seven days a week
- The details your sales team needs, such as city, budget and timing, collected before the hand-over
- Leads your team marks as qualified reported back to Google Ads as conversions
Campaigns
- Search campaigns per region and per language, each with a budget you can read on its own
- Performance Max and YouTube once conversion tracking is trustworthy, not before
- Weekly search-term checks in both scripts, with negatives added as waste appears
Set-up and tracking
- Account opened or cleaned up in your legal name, in riyals and on Riyadh time
- Advertiser verification prepared with your CR, so names match the payments profile
- Form, phone-tap and WhatsApp conversions in Tag Manager, since Google forwarding numbers are not available in Saudi Arabia
The tracking method, step by step, is in our guide to counting WhatsApp and phone leads from Google Ads.
Sectors that need a licence before the ad runs
Property
One licence number per advert
Saudi property adverts need a real estate advertisement licence from REGA, issued under the Real Estate Brokerage Law, and the licence number must be shown in the advert (Sources: REGA; LexisNexis summary).
- Ads and landing pages built around the licences you already hold
- Listings paused when a licence lapses or the unit sells
Healthcare
MOH rules come first
Clinics and hospitals advertise under Ministry of Health rules, and offers have their own approval route. We plan the campaign around that, not the other way round.
- Treatment keywords chosen to match what the facility is licensed for
- No offer goes live without the approval it needs
Online stores
Shopping ads that match the checkout
Product ads only pay off when the store accepts the cards and wallets Saudi shoppers use and shows prices with VAT included.
- Merchant Center feeds in riyals, with Arabic titles where they help
- Delivery areas in the feed that match your courier’s coverage
Financial products sit under Google’s financial services policy as well as the Saudi regulator that licenses the firm. Our forex broker marketing page explains how we handle both.
When to move budget during the Saudi year
| When | What changes | What we do in the account |
|---|---|---|
| Every week | Friday and Saturday are the weekend; Sunday is a working day | Ad schedules follow your opening hours; the WhatsApp assistant covers the days your team is off |
| Founding Day, 22 February | A national holiday | Decide early whether to run an occasion offer, and get the copy approved in good time |
| Ramadan 2027, expected from about 8 February | Daily routines move, and so do the hours people search and buy | Re-timed ad schedules, refreshed copy, and budget held back for the last days before Eid |
| Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha 2027, expected 9 or 10 March and 16 or 17 May | Businesses close or run reduced hours for several days | Pause or switch to holiday messaging, depending on whether you trade through the break |
| National Day, 23 September | A national holiday | Plan any national-day campaign weeks ahead, with copy your team signs off |
Islamic holiday dates for 2027 are astronomical estimates; the final dates follow the moon sighting.
Running a Saudi account from Kerala, plainly
Saudi accounts are already on our desk
We manage Google Ads for clients in Saudi Arabia now. We keep their names and results private unless they agree in writing; on the audit call we will walk you through how we would set up yours.
Owned by your company
The account carries your company’s legal name, matching your CR, and your card pays Google directly. We work through a user login that you can remove at any time.
The Sunday gap, stated up front
Kerala is two and a half hours ahead of Riyadh. Our team works Monday to Saturday, which covers most of your week but not Sunday. The WhatsApp assistant keeps answering your customers on Sundays; anything for us waits until Monday.
Google, or another channel
Google Ads captures people who are already searching. For discovery, Saudi audiences also spend a lot of time on Snapchat, and we will tell you plainly if your budget would work harder there.
What Saudi business owners ask about Google Ads
Book a free Google Ads audit
for your Saudi business
Send us your website and the cities you sell in. We check the account or the plan, test how enquiries are tracked, and within one working day send back what we would fix first. Our team works Monday to Saturday, 6:30am–3:30pm Riyadh time.
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