Facebook ads cost in the UAE and Saudi Arabia: two answers

Short answer: Superads charts the UAE median at about 8.20 per 1,000 impressions (ten months to July 2026, range 5.25 to 10.67), yet the written summary on the same page says about 15.8. Saudi Arabia has a chart only: a middle month of about 4.64, with one month at 20.53. No page states a currency. VAT is 5% in the UAE and 15% in Saudi Arabia unless your tax number is on the ad account. Size the budget from your own cost per lead times 50.

We looked for the one Gulf source that shows its working, and it contradicts itself. This guide prints both answers and builds the budget on what is certain. It sits alongside our Gulf small business advertising guide.

One page, two UAE prices

Superads runs the only Gulf benchmark for Meta ad costs we found that states its method: over $3 billion in Facebook ad spend from thousands of ad accounts that use Superads, reported as anonymised, aggregated medians, all industries. Meta publishes no rate card.

We read the UAE pages on 2 October 2026: the cost of 1,000 impressions, the cost per click and the cost per lead. Each has a chart and a written summary, and they do not match.

Metric	Chart on the page (monthly medians, Oct 2025 to Jul 2026)	Written summary on the same page (Jul 2025 to Jul 2026)
Cost of 1,000 impressions, average	8.20	15.8
Cost of 1,000 impressions, range	5.25 to 10.67	8.92 to 23.52
Cost per click, average	0.70	1.08
Cost per click, range	0.39 to 1.12	0.501 to 1.664
Cost per lead, average (series end in Jun 2026)	46.72	41.08
Cost per lead, range (series end in Jun 2026)	20.19 to 117.54	11.22 to 71.55

Source: Superads, all industries, medians, read 2 October 2026. No currency is stated. Chart averages are our arithmetic on the charted monthly values.

The summary window is three months longer, so the averages are not like for like. The same-month figures are:

• November 2025, impressions: summary 23.52, chart 9.26, about 2.5 times.
• November 2025, clicks: summary 1.664, chart 1.12.
• March 2026, leads: summary 11.22, chart 26.24. January 2026 is close: 71.55 against 78.67.

We do not know which series is right. Superads says the dataset updates as new data arrives, so one may be an older snapshot, but we cannot tell from the page. The tool’s all-countries pages split the same way: leads agree, impressions and clicks do not.

What the UAE chart shows, month by month

The chart averages are our own arithmetic on the charted monthly values. From October 2025 to July 2026 the cost of 1,000 impressions ran 6.95, 9.26, 5.60, 10.39, 9.70, 5.25, 10.67, 7.20, 8.42 and 8.62. The low was March 2026 and the high April 2026, about twice the low. Clicks ran from 0.39 in October 2025 to 1.12 in November 2025, about 2.9 times.

Cost per lead covers October 2025 to June 2026. The middle month is 29.94. The low was 20.19 in June 2026 and the high 117.54 in October 2025, about 5.8 times.

Against the all-countries chart for the same months, UAE impressions are level at about 8.20, clicks are roughly 49% above (0.70 against 0.47) and leads are level (46.72 against 46.53).

Saudi Arabia: a chart with no commentary and one wild July

On 2 October 2026 the Saudi pages showed “Analysis Unavailable” where other countries have a written summary. So there is only the chart: the cost of 1,000 impressions, the cost per click and the cost per lead.

Metric	Average	Middle month	Low	High
Cost of 1,000 impressions	6.50	4.64	2.89 (Oct 2025)	20.53 (Jul 2026)
Cost per click	0.58	0.38	0.26 (Feb 2026)	2.19 (Jul 2026)
Cost per lead (to Jun 2026)	77.56	78.42	19.57 (Dec 2025)	155.10 (Oct 2025)

Source: Superads chart, all industries, medians, October 2025 to July 2026, read 2 October 2026. No currency is stated. Averages and middle months are our arithmetic on the charted monthly values.

Month by month from October 2025, the cost of 1,000 impressions ran 2.89, 7.42, 5.18, 4.10, 3.42, 3.89, 5.97, 3.84, 7.78 and 20.53. July 2026 was about 2.6 times June. The nine months before July averaged about 4.94, so the middle month of 4.64 is a better guide than the average of 6.50.

A series that moves this much reads like a small sample. We say “reads like” because Superads does not publish the number of Saudi accounts. Agency-reported Gulf CPMs, including those we quote in our Gulf marketing statistics guide and label as agency data, run several times higher. None states a method.

Saudi leads cost more than Saudi clicks suggest

Against the global chart, Saudi impressions were cheaper in nine months and dearer only in July 2026. In the nine months before July, clicks averaged about 0.40 against about 0.45 globally. So Saudi Arabia is cheaper than the global figure to be seen and, before July, slightly cheaper to be clicked. Yet cost per lead averaged about 77.56 against about 46.53 globally, roughly 67% above.

These are three separate medians. Do not divide them into a conversion rate or read a reason into the gap. Judge Saudi campaigns on cost per lead, or cost per booking, never on a cheap cost of 1,000 impressions.

Dirhams, riyals or dollars? The page never says

The UAE impressions and lead summaries, and the chart axes, print dollar signs. The click summary prints none. No page states a currency. A sign proves little: in our UK guide the same tool printed one global baseline with a pound sign on its UK page and a dollar sign on its Australia page.

So we do not read the figures as dirhams or riyals, we do not call them US dollars, and we do not convert them. Every Superads figure here is a bare number, apart from the dataset size. The dirham and riyal are both pegged to the US dollar, covered in our Gulf marketing cost guide, so a conversion would at least be fixed. We still do not convert, because the source never says. Ratios hold in any currency.

Did Ramadan 2026 push prices up? Not on this chart

Ramadan began on 18 February 2026 in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and ran into the third week of March. UAE impressions cost 9.70 in February, 5.25 in March (the lowest of the ten months) and 10.67 in April (the highest). Saudi Arabia was 3.42 and 3.89, among its four cheapest months, then 5.97.

Agency advice, including a recommendation we quote in our Ramadan advertising guide, is to budget 30% to 40% more for paid social in Ramadan. This chart does not show a Ramadan premium in the price of impressions in 2026.

Caveats: these are monthly medians and Ramadan straddled two calendar months; it is one year of Superads accounts; and the chart prices impressions, not winning attention in a crowded evening window. So do not cut a Ramadan budget because of this chart, and do not treat the premium as a fixed percentage either. Measure your own.

Why there is no table by trade for the Gulf

Superads lets you filter by industry or by country, but not both. Choosing an industry drops the country: on 2 October 2026 the UAE e-commerce address took us to the all-countries e-commerce page. So its industry figures are not Gulf figures.

The other by-country and by-trade Gulf tables we found online state no dataset, sample or method, and they disagree: one puts Saudi cost per 1,000 impressions above the UAE’s, another below. We left them out. Two honest country tables beat ten unsourced rows.

VAT is 5% in the UAE and 15% in Saudi Arabia, unless Meta has your tax number

Under Meta’s Taxes on Meta ads placement page, from 1 August 2019 in the UAE, if the “Sold to” address is in the UAE and you have not added your tax registration number (TRN) to the ad account, Meta adds VAT at the applicable local rate. Saudi Arabia is the same from 1 September 2019 with your tax identification number. The page lists Bahrain and Oman on the same pattern. Qatar and Kuwait do not appear on it.

Meta’s UAE page and Saudi page add that you enter the number in Payment settings, and that once it is there Meta does not add VAT to your ad purchase. Without it, VAT is added whenever you are charged, whether you buy for business or personal purposes.

The UAE standard rate is 5%, introduced on 1 January 2018, with registration mandatory above AED 375,000 of taxable supplies and imports, per the UAE Ministry of Finance. Saudi Arabia’s standard rate has been 15% since 1 July 2020, per PwC Tax Summaries.

Meta’s pages say the VAT sits on top of your ad charges, so with no tax number on the account the bill is higher than the ad spend itself, and by three times as much in Saudi Arabia as in the UAE. What a registered business then owes or reclaims on its own return is for its accountant. Meta says it cannot give tax advice. This is general information, not tax advice.

Two countries and two languages make four ad sets

Meta says ad sets leave the learning phase once they deliver stably, usually after about 50 results in the week after the last significant edit. An ad set short of results shows “Learning limited”. Meta advises against high ad volumes.

So one ad set needs your own cost per lead times 50, every week.

Our Gulf advertising guide recommends separate campaigns per country and separate Arabic and English creative. Each split is another ad set needing its own 50 results a week. UAE and Saudi Arabia, Arabic and English: four ad sets, four times the weekly spend. We are not telling you to abandon the split, only to count it. If the budget cannot feed four, start with one country and the language most of your customers use.

On the benchmark, as bare numbers and in whatever currency that is: the UAE middle month of 29.94 times 50 is 1,497 a week. The Saudi middle month of 78.42 times 50 is 3,921 a week.

To run this sum on your own numbers, use our free Meta ads budget calculator. Enter your cost per lead and it shows the leads your budget buys and whether it reaches 50 a week for each ad set.

Worked example (hypothetical): AED 6,000 a month in Abu Dhabi

This example is hypothetical. The numbers are assumed, it is not a client or a measured result, and the cost per enquiry is an assumption, not a benchmark.

A home cleaning company in Abu Dhabi spends AED 6,000 a month on one Meta lead campaign. Assume its own cost per enquiry is AED 60.

• 6,000 divided by 60 is 100 enquiries a month, about 23 a week.
• 50 a week would take 60 times 50, which is AED 3,000 a week, or about AED 13,000 a month.
• So the ad set sits in “Learning limited”. That is not failure. Expect cost per enquiry to swing week to week; judge it over a month, on bookings, not clicks.
• Split in Arabic and English and each ad set gets about 50 enquiries a month, roughly 12 a week.
• Add Saudi Arabia and four ad sets get about 25 a month each, roughly 6 a week.

With no TRN on the account, VAT is added on top of the AED 6,000.

Four things to take into your next budget meeting

1. Print both UAE figures and plan on neither. Replace them with your own cost per lead after a few weeks.
2. Multiply your own cost per lead by 50 per ad set, then count your ad sets.
3. Put your TRN or tax ID on the ad account, or budget for VAT on top.
4. Measure your own Ramadan. Do not borrow a percentage.

For the break-even sum, see Facebook and Instagram ROAS. Our digital advertising service can run the account once the sum works.

Frequently asked questions

How much do Facebook ads cost per 1,000 impressions in the UAE?

The one Gulf benchmark with a stated method gives two answers. Its chart of monthly medians averages about 8.20 per 1,000 impressions from October 2025 to July 2026, ranging from 5.25 to 10.67. The written summary on the same page says about 15.8. No page states a currency, so treat neither as a price.

What does a Facebook lead cost in Saudi Arabia?

Superads charts Saudi Arabia’s monthly median cost per lead averaging about 77.56 from October 2025 to June 2026, with a middle month of 78.42. The range runs from 19.57 in December 2025 to 155.10 in October 2025, about 7.9 times. A series that moves this much reads like a small sample. No currency is stated.

Why does the same benchmark page give two different UAE figures?

We cannot tell from the page. Each UAE page shows a chart and a written summary, and they clash on several of the same months. For November 2025 the summary gives 23.52 per 1,000 impressions and the chart 9.26. Superads says its dataset updates as new data arrives, so one may be an older snapshot, but that is a guess.

Are Meta ads more expensive during Ramadan in the Gulf?

Not on this chart. UAE impressions cost 9.70 per 1,000 in February and 5.25 in March, the lowest of the ten months, then 10.67 in April, the highest. Agency advice is to budget 30% to 40% more for paid social in Ramadan. Do not cut a budget because of this chart, and do not treat the premium as fixed. Measure your own.

Does Meta add VAT to ads in the UAE and Saudi Arabia?

Yes, unless your tax number is on the ad account. The UAE standard rate is 5% and Saudi Arabia’s is 15%. If the Sold to address is in either country and you have not added your tax registration number or tax identification number in Payment settings, Meta adds VAT whenever you are charged. This is general information, not tax advice.

How many ad sets can a small Gulf budget support?

Fewer than you might expect. Meta says an ad set usually leaves learning after about 50 results in the week after its last significant edit, so each needs your own cost per lead times 50 every week. UAE and Saudi Arabia in Arabic and English make four ad sets. If the budget cannot feed four, start with one country and the language most of your customers use.

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