Your customers are on social media. So is everyone else.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have some of the most connected audiences in the world. According to DataReportal's Digital 2026 reports, the UAE had 12.5 million social media user identities in October 2025, equal to 110% of the population, and Saudi Arabia had 38.6 million, or 111%. Many people run more than one account, which is why both figures top 100%.
That reach cuts both ways. Your customers are on social media every day, but so is every competitor. Posting more doesn't fix that. What works is a plan built around who you want to reach, where they actually spend time, and what makes them act. This guide covers how to build one for Dubai and the wider GCC.
Start with who you're trying to reach
The GCC isn't one audience. Most of the UAE's population are expatriates from dozens of countries, while most of Saudi Arabia's are Saudi nationals. A post that works for young Saudis in Riyadh may miss Indian professionals in Dubai or British families in Abu Dhabi.
Segment by nationality, language and life stage, not just age. In the UAE especially, language and home country shape which platforms people use and which messages land.
Build personas from real data. Use your CRM, website analytics and platform insights to see who actually buys, then write for those people.
Plan for Arabic and English. Write Arabic content natively rather than translating it from English, and decide early which segments get which language. In Saudi Arabia, Arabic-first content is usually the safer default.
Choose the platforms your market actually uses
Platform use in the GCC looks different from Europe or the US, and different again between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Here is the audience each platform's ad tools reported in both markets in late 2025.
TikTok: the biggest reach in both markets
TikTok reported the largest ad audience in both countries: 12.5 million adults in the UAE and 38.6 million in Saudi Arabia. Both figures are higher than the adult population, likely because of multiple accounts, so read them as reach rather than people. Use TikTok for short, native video and creator content.
Snapchat: essential in Saudi Arabia
Snapchat reached 25.3 million people in Saudi Arabia, about 89% of adults, compared with 5.13 million in the UAE. If Saudi consumers are a priority, Snapchat belongs near the top of the plan, not at the end of it.
Instagram and Facebook: the core of paid social
Instagram reached 8.05 million people in the UAE and 18.2 million in Saudi Arabia; Facebook reached 9.7 million and 17.7 million. Meta's ad tools, catalogs and lead forms make them the workhorses of most paid social campaigns, especially in the UAE.
YouTube: research and longer stories
YouTube's ad reach was 8.37 million in the UAE and 27.5 million in Saudi Arabia. It works for tutorials, product explainers and longer stories, and for people researching bigger purchases.
LinkedIn and X: B2B and live conversation
LinkedIn has 10 million registered members in the UAE and 12 million in Saudi Arabia, and is the default for B2B, recruitment and thought leadership. X reached 15 million people in Saudi Arabia, far more than the 2.85 million in the UAE, and is where news and public conversation move fastest.
Pick two or three and do them well. For a Dubai consumer brand that might be Instagram, TikTok and Meta ads. For a Saudi consumer brand, Snapchat and TikTok. For B2B in either market, LinkedIn alongside search.
Create content that fits the region
Mix your content
Balance posts that educate, entertain, inspire and sell. A feed that only promotes gets ignored; a feed that never sells doesn't pay for itself.
Lead with video
Short vertical video drives most reach on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Show real people, real places in the city and the product in use.
Plan around the regional calendar
Ramadan and Eid, UAE National Day, Saudi National Day, White Friday, Dubai Shopping Festival and back-to-school all change what people watch and buy. Plan creative and budgets for these weeks well ahead, and adjust your tone during Ramadan.
Work with creators the right way
Creators carry real weight in the GCC, but the rules have tightened. In the UAE, anyone promoting products on social media now needs an advertiser permit from the UAE Media Council. It became mandatory in late October 2025, and fines start at AED 20,000. Check that any creator you work with holds one.
Turn reach into customers with paid social
Organic reach on most platforms is limited, so paid social does most of the work when you want growth.
Give each campaign one goal. Awareness, traffic, leads or sales each need a different objective, audience and creative.
Use your own data. Upload customer lists to build lookalike audiences, and exclude existing customers and unqualified leads.
Make it easy to respond. Many people in the GCC would rather send a message than fill in a form. Click-to-WhatsApp ads and instant forms often capture more leads than sending people to a website.
Track through to the sale. Install each platform's pixel and conversions API, and connect leads to your CRM so you can see which campaigns bring in customers, not just clicks.
Stay consistent and keep listening
Post on a schedule. A content calendar keeps you consistent through busy periods and makes approvals easier, especially when every post needs Arabic and English versions.
Reply fast. Comments and direct messages are customer service in the GCC. Quick, polite replies in the customer's language build trust in public.
Measure what matters. Track reach and engagement, but judge social media on what the business needs: leads, sales, bookings or app installs.
IPS: 31,000 registrations at half the cost
The International Property Show is a Dubai real estate exhibition that connects developers with investors and home buyers. For 2025 it wanted 25,000 registrations, up from 16,000 the year before, but it was struggling with high drop-off, expensive leads and confirmed guests who didn't turn up.
We mapped the registration journey to find where people dropped off, ran campaigns across Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google Search and Performance Max, and produced 80 creative assets in English and Arabic. We also set up automated text message, WhatsApp and email reminders so registered guests actually came, and held daily stand-ups with the IPS team to adjust as results came in.
IPS finished with 31,000 registrations, beating its target, with 50% cost savings. Read the full IPS case study.
The takeaway
Reaching customers on social media in Dubai and the GCC comes down to a few choices made well: know which audience you're targeting, use the platforms they use in your market, make native content in the right language for the right season, and use paid social and tracking to turn attention into sales.
AlCaz Media runs social media and paid social for brands across the UAE and Saudi Arabia as part of our social media services. If you want a plan built for your market, get in touch.
