Clinic marketing across the GCC starts with one question: who approves the ad?

Saudi Arabia — approval first, and mind Article 10

The Saudi Ministry of Health has stated that all medical advertisements require prior formal approval, and it has applied that position to media and social-media content. Two laws sit underneath: Article 31 of the Law of Private Health Institutions confines a facility’s self-advertising to limits that do not conflict with professional ethics, and Article 10 of the Law of Practicing Healthcare Professions strictly forbids practitioners from advertising or promoting themselves except as the implementing regulation allows — including claiming titles or specialties they have not earned.

The content rules ban the things Gulf clinic marketing leans on most: guarantees of cure, claims of superiority over other practitioners, and unapproved titles. MOH has also prohibited publishing images and videos of surgical and cosmetic procedures for promotional purposes. Penalties are real — facility fines in the tens of thousands of riyals, closure, and licence action for repeat violations. Product advertising is a separate SFDA regime with its own pre-approval.

What we run there: Arabic-first campaigns — most Saudi patient search is in Arabic — with treatment-page SEO for Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam searches, paid ads submitted for approval before a riyal is spent, and clinic websites built in Arabic and English. No superlatives, no outcome promises, no procedure footage.

Qatar — a circular regime, not a permit counter

Qatar works differently from its neighbours: instead of a per-advertisement licence counter, the Ministry of Public Health’s Department of Healthcare Professions governs advertising through circulars — currently Circular 01/2022, amending Circular 1/2021. Before any social-media advertisement is published, its content must be approved in writing by both the facility’s medical director and the practitioner involved, and every party is liable for non-compliance. A clinic may only advertise services and equipment that already hold MOPH approval, and practitioner credentials must appear exactly as registered with the DHP — licence number, type, specialisation — without embellishment.

The circulars also prohibit content that violates professional dignity or Islamic culture and societal traditions, using patients’ pictures or videos without consent, and filming patients during procedures. Enforcement is active: MOPH reported action against dozens of violating advertisements in a single year.

What we run there: the sign-off workflow built into the campaign itself — nothing scheduled until the medical director’s written approval exists — plus Doha-focused clinic SEO and Google Ads in one of the least contested clinic-advertising markets in the Gulf. The intersection of clinic, paid search and Qatar is close to empty; a compliant clinic that shows up wins by default.

Kuwait — licence before publishing, since 2023

Kuwait rewrote its rules with Ministerial Decision No. 87 of 2023: practitioners and health-facility owners may not advertise before obtaining a licence from the Ministry of Health, with applications going to the MOH Health Licensing Department, which decides within thirty days. The decision explicitly reaches social media — official accounts, commercial accounts, influencer accounts and practitioners’ personal accounts alike — and defines “advertisement” broadly enough to cover promoting services, prices, products or devices in any form.

Two content rules surprise clinics most: prices may not be advertised outside the facility’s own premises, and discounts or free-service offers are restricted to inside the facility or licensed charitable campaigns. Violations are punished under Kuwait’s health-professions law, and enforcement is not theoretical — dozens of facilities have been referred to the Medical Liability Authority for advertising breaches.

What we run there: licence-first campaign plans — the creative is prepared to what the Health Licensing Department expects, the licence is obtained in the clinic’s name, and the media plan respects the price-and-discount rules that most imported ad templates break on day one.

Oman — the clearest process in the Gulf

Oman’s Ministry of Health, through the Directorate General of Private Health Establishments, runs the region’s most transparent system: a Health Advertisement Licence, applied for through the MOH e-Health portal at a published fee of 150 Omani riyals, with same-day processing — and the DGPHE approval number must be displayed on the advertisement itself. The licence explicitly covers social-media publishing, and the directorate monitors clinic websites and accounts, referring unlicensed advertisements to a violations committee.

The content rules ban superlatives outright — “the best”, “the newest”, “the first”, “the only place” — along with imagery offending public morals, and discount advertisements need Ministry of Commerce approval on top. Muscat clinic search is far less contested than Dubai or Riyadh, which makes tracked, licensed campaigns unusually efficient there.

What we run there: licence applications prepared with the ad itself, approval numbers placed on every asset, and clinic SEO and ads for Muscat and the wider Sultanate — written clean of the superlatives the DGPHE rejects.

UAE — four authorities, one federal licence

The UAE splits clinic regulation between the federal MOHAP and emirate authorities — DHA in Dubai, DoH in Abu Dhabi, SHA in Sharjah, with MOHAP directly licensing clinics in Ajman and the Northern Emirates. The advertisement licence is a federal MOHAP service; the content standard depends on your emirate. It is the most layered regime in the Gulf, and we cover it in full depth — emirate by emirate — on its own page.

Clinic marketing in the UAE — the emirate-by-emirate guide →