Google Ads · Gulf
Google Ads Without a Percentage of Your Spend
Fixed-fee Google Ads management for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf. The account stays in your name, every edit is logged in Google’s own history, and this page shows you where budget leaks so you can check it yourself.
Fixed fee
never a share of spend
Raising your budget does not raise our invoice, so we have no reason to suggest it.
Your account
in your name from day one
Campaigns, conversion data and history stay with you if we part ways.
14 days
to the first structural fix
Negatives, brand exclusions and tracking, before anyone touches a bid.
Two languages
two sets of campaigns
Arabic and English never share a campaign here. The reason is budget control.
What this page says
Key takeaways
- We charge a fixed monthly fee. A percentage of spend pays an agency more for spending more, which is the wrong incentive to sit beside your budget.
- Most wasted spend is structural. Loose match types, missing negatives and broken tracking waste more than a weak headline will.
- If the landing page is the problem, better ads will not fix it, and we will tell you to stop spending until it is.
- Performance Max takes credit for searches on your own brand name unless it is explicitly stopped from bidding on them.
- We publish no performance figures. An agency quoting a cost per click before reading your account is guessing.
What is on this page
Why we refuse a percentage of your spend
The usual way to charge for Google Ads in the Gulf is a percentage of media spend. It sounds like shared risk. It is not. It is a fee that rises with your budget whether the budget works or not.
Consider what it rewards. Revenue becomes a function of your spend rather than your enquiries, so raising the budget becomes the standing recommendation and nothing argues against it. Worse, efficiency turns self-harming: every negative keyword added and every losing campaign paused lowers the invoice. The work we think most valuable is the work a percentage fee punishes.
Scale is the second problem. Managing a large budget well is not proportionally harder than a small one; the search terms report has to be read either way. The fee grows with the media while the work stays flat.
A fixed fee has an honest disadvantage. At a small budget it is the largest part of what you pay, which is a real reason to ask whether paid search suits you yet. If it does not, we will point you at SEO or the rest of your marketing.
Fee models compared
Read the second column first. What a fee model rewards tells you what it will do to your account over a year.
| Fee model | What it rewards | At a low budget | At a high budget | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed monthly fee what we charge | Making the account cheaper to run; cutting waste costs us nothing | The largest share of your outlay, and we say so plainly | A shrinking share; the work does not scale with the media | Budgets that may move either way, and predictable invoices |
| Percentage of media spend | Raising the budget; revenue tracks spend, not enquiries | Looks cheapest here, which is why it is sold this way | Grows with the media although the work stays flat | The agency |
| In-house specialist | Whatever that person is measured on internally | No fee, but a salary and most of one person’s attention | Efficient once the budget justifies a full role | Enough volume to occupy a specialist |
| Pay per lead | Volume of anything countable as a lead | Cheap until you audit what was counted | The definition of a lead becomes the argument | Almost nobody |
No model is without a trade-off. A fixed fee means you carry the risk of a slow month; a percentage means the answer is always to spend more. Build prices are on the pricing page; the management fee is quoted after we read the account, because unpicking a neglected one is real work.
How we work with your budget
Media spend is paid by you, directly to Google, on your own card. It never passes through us, so you see the real number and no markup is possible.
There is no minimum commitment, but there is a practical floor. Below roughly a few thousand dirhams a month a Gulf search account does not produce enough clicks to tell a pattern from noise, and we will say the money belongs in the website instead. Build costs are set out for Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
Inside the budget we allocate rather than average. Brand takes the smallest defensible share, sometimes none. Non-brand, split by intent, takes the bulk. Performance Max gets a share only once the conversion signal is trustworthy.
Where the spend actually goes
Five steps sit between an impression and an enquiry. You pay at step two, so every failure below it is money already gone.
Read it from the bottom up and the priorities invert. An obvious enquiry route protects spend you have already committed; a higher bid only buys more traffic into whatever the rest of the funnel already does. So we fix the bottom first, which is why clients who arrive asking for better ads often leave with a page fix.
Where budget leaks, and how to spot it
Six leaks account for most of the waste in the accounts we are asked to review. The middle column is the useful one: you can check every row yourself, without us.
| The leak | How to spot it in the account | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Broad match with no negative list | The search terms report fills with other cities, other services, job hunters and people wanting something free. If it reads unfamiliar, the match type is deciding for you | Negative lists at account level, not buried per campaign. Phrase and exact where intent matters |
| Performance Max swallowing brand traffic | Your brand name shows in its search terms insights, and its results improve while the brand Search campaign loses impressions. One lot of demand, counted twice | Brand terms as an account-level negative for it, brand in its own campaign, Performance Max judged on non-brand only |
| No conversion tracking, or tracking that counts page views | Check each conversion action’s type. If one fires on a page load, or the count tracks sessions, it is measuring traffic and calling it demand | A conversion means a submitted enquiry, a connected call or a WhatsApp conversation. One primary, the rest observing |
| Ads pointing at a slow or English-only landing page | Click your own ad on a phone, on mobile data. Time how long until you can read something, then check an Arabic ad has not landed on an English page | Fix the page before raising the bid, against Core Web Vitals thresholds. Match ad language to page language |
| Bidding against your own brand for no reason | Search your brand name. If you hold the first organic result and nobody appears in Auction Insights, you are paying for a click you already had | Bid on brand only where competitors or resellers appear. Its own capped campaign, never mixed in |
| Geo and language targeting left on the defaults | Check the location setting. Presence or interest also shows ads to people merely interested in the country, which here means traffic from outside it | Presence only, unless you sell to visitors. Target the languages your pages are written in |
None of these are creative problems, and none are fixed by new ads. That is why the first fortnight on any account is structural: there is no point improving the message while the plumbing leaks.
The account structure we build
One account, three campaigns, and non-brand split by how ready the searcher is to buy. Simple enough to explain on a call, which is the test we apply to any structure.
The intent tiers are the part most accounts skip and the part that does the most work. Someone typing a service, a city and the word price is ready to act; the same service with the word versus is comparing; asking how it works is reading. Put all three in one ad group and a single bid and page must serve them all, so it serves the largest and wastes the rest. Separated, each tier gets a bid matching what the click is worth, and you see which tier moved instead of a blended figure.
What managing an account actually means
Six habits, not six deliverables. If an agency cannot show you these in the change history, the account is being reported on rather than managed.
Reading the search terms report
The highest-value hour of the week. Every unfamiliar query is either a negative keyword or a new ad group, and deciding which is the job.
Negative lists at account level
Shared lists across campaigns, so a query excluded once stays excluded. Per-campaign negatives rot as campaigns get duplicated.
Intent tiers with separate budgets
Ready-to-buy, comparing and researching never share a budget, or the cheapest clicks win it by default. Those sit furthest from an enquiry.
Brand kept in its own pen
Capped, separated, sometimes switched off. Demand you already had is never mixed into a report about demand we created.
Conversion definitions kept honest
One primary conversion meaning a real enquiry, tested by us submitting the form. Secondary actions observe; they do not train bidding.
Ad and page written as one thing
The headline promises something and the first screen has to repeat it. Written separately, the click is bought and then wasted.
Search or Performance Max?
Performance Max spans Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display and Gmail, handing targeting to Google’s bidding in exchange for your creative and your conversion signal. The question is whether your account can give it a signal worth following.
The mechanism is unforgiving. Nominate a page view as the conversion and it will reliably find cheap page views, and the report will look excellent. Nominate a genuine enquiry and it has something real to aim at. It is not clever or stupid; it is obedient.
It earns its place in retail with a clean product feed, where the inventory carries the targeting. That makes feed quality a build question as much as an ads one, and is why our store builds and Salla work treat product data as a deliverable. It does not earn it in lead generation with weak tracking.
The first 90 days
Every engagement opens with read-only access and a fortnight of reading, not a rebuild. Below is what changes in each phase and what to hold us to at the end of it. If a phase passes and its third column has not happened, ask why before the next invoice.
| Phase | What changes | What to hold us to |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–14 read, then stop the bleeding | Audit of tracking, search terms, structure, targeting and pages. Negative lists built. Brand excluded from Performance Max. Conversion actions corrected | A written list of what we stopped and kept, with a reason for each, and a conversion you can trigger and watch appear |
| Days 15–30 structure | Campaigns rebuilt where the audit justified it. Brand separated. Non-brand split into intent tiers with their own budgets. Copy rewritten per tier | A structure you can draw on one page, with campaign names that make each purpose obvious |
| Days 31–60 message and page | Ad variants tested per tier against the query, not each other in the abstract. Pages matched to intent and language. Blocking pages flagged | A plain statement of which tier produces enquiries, and a recommendation that includes stopping something |
| Days 61–90 bidding and reallocation | Bidding moved onto the corrected conversion signal. Budget shifted between tiers on evidence. Remarketing where the audience is large enough | A recommendation naming where money should leave as well as where it should go, and a change history backing every claim |
Note what is missing there: a promised cost per enquiry, a percentage improvement, a position. We do not know your auction, and neither does anyone quoting a figure in a pitch.
When the landing page is the problem, not the ads
We look for this first, because it is common. The pattern is specific: the ads match queries you would gladly pay for, the clicks arrive, the enquiries do not. Or they arrive and leave before the page finishes rendering, which on mobile data takes longer than anyone in the office believes.
More ad testing is the wrong instinct there. If the page loads slowly, demands a form when the buyer wants WhatsApp, is in English behind an Arabic ad, or buries the answer the ad promised, the ad was never the constraint. Check the tag at the same time: Google’s tag platform documentation is explicit about what a working conversion needs, and a half-installed tag looks exactly like a page that cannot convert.
We handle it three ways, in order of budget at risk. A focused landing page inside your existing site for the campaign spending most. Fixing the page traffic already reaches, usually cheaper than expected. Or pausing the campaign until the page is ready, which we have recommended more than once.
If it becomes a build, that is a separate quote from the web design and UI and UX side of the studio. We will tell you which problem you have rather than selling the one we are already paid for.
Arabic and English: separate campaigns, every time
It comes up in almost every first call as a budget-saving idea: can Arabic and English keywords share a campaign? They can. We will not do it, and the reason is control rather than tidiness.
A campaign is where the budget lives. Put two languages in one and the auction decides the split between them, not you. Whichever language returns cheaper clicks absorbs the money, and cheaper clicks are not better buyers. You have handed a commercial decision to a bidding system that was never told you care which language your enquiries arrive in.
The keywords differ too. Arabic needs its own negatives, its own match types and its own handling of spelling variants, the definite article and the forms of alef and hamza. Transliterated brand names behave differently again, and an English negative list does nothing for any of it.
Finally the page must match the ad, or the click is wasted after you have paid for it. The Arabic campaign points at Arabic pages written in Arabic, not translated at the end, the standard we hold on Arabic SEO and every bilingual build. Google’s language targeting is a signal about the user, not a filter, so it is no substitute for separating campaigns.
How to check the account yourself
01
Open the change history
Tools, then Change history, then last month. Every edit carries a date and a name. A detailed report over an empty history means the account is written about, not worked on.
02
Read the search terms report
Sort by cost and ask one question of each row: would I pay for this query? Anything you would not, send to us. You have found a negative keyword in five minutes.
03
Check what a conversion counts
Look at the type and counting rule of each conversion action. If any fire on a page view, every number built on them describes traffic and calls it demand.
04
Click your own ad, on a phone
On mobile data, away from the office. Right language? Can you read something before losing patience? Is the enquiry route visible without scrolling?
05
Separate brand from everything else
Filter the report to your company name, then look at what is left. That is the part we are responsible for. Demand that already existed is not a result.
When not to hire us
Say no if any of these fit
- Your budget is small enough that our fee would be most of what you spend. Do SEO and fix the website first.
- You want a cost per enquiry guaranteed in writing. Nobody controls the auction, your competitors’ budgets or your own sales team.
- You want the agency to hold the ad account. We will not. Opacity about spend is why most accounts we audit are in the state they are in.
- You need someone in your Dubai or Riyadh office weekly. We are a studio in Istanbul working Gulf hours, with no Gulf office and no local landline.
- You want campaigns live this week with the page as it is and the tracking untouched. We will not spend into a page that cannot convert.
“A percentage of spend pays us more for spending more. We are not putting that incentive next to your budget.”
Related reading
If you are working out where paid search fits:
- SEO services — the channel to build when the ad budget is too small to learn from
- Digital marketing — how paid search sits beside content, social and email
- E-commerce development and Zid store design — feeds are what make retail campaigns work
- Website costs in Qatar and our published prices — fixed quotes before you commit a budget
- A Dubai tourism case study and the blog — how we write about this market
- Riyadh, Jeddah and Doha — city pages, for tightly targeted campaigns
For the page-speed thresholds we hold landing pages to, Google’s guidance on Largest Contentful Paint is the reference, and everything we claim about a page can be checked against it.
Google Ads questions
Do you charge a percentage of ad spend?
No. A fixed monthly fee. A percentage pays an agency more for spending more and penalises it for cutting waste, which is the opposite of the job.
What is the minimum budget worth starting with?
A few thousand dirhams a month or the equivalent. Below that there are not enough clicks to tell a pattern from noise, and we will point you at SEO or the website instead.
Who owns the ad account?
You do, from day one. We work inside your account, not a reseller account of ours. Campaigns and conversion history stay with you, and you can revoke our access yourself.
Which platforms do you manage?
Google Search and Performance Max primarily, plus YouTube and Display where they suit the goal, and Meta or LinkedIn where the audience genuinely is. Two channels run properly beat five run badly.
Can you take over an existing account?
Yes, and we audit before touching anything. Pausing everything on day one throws away learning you paid for. We stop the obvious waste and rebuild only what loses money.
How quickly will we see a difference?
Structural waste usually comes out in the first fortnight, since negatives, brand exclusions and tracking fixes need no data. Reliable optimisation takes six to eight weeks, because it depends on accumulating conversions.
Do you write Arabic ad copy, or translate ours?
We write it. Arabic campaigns get their own keyword research and copy written in Arabic, not run through a translator at the end. Machine-translated ads read wrong, and the mismatch shows in quality scoring.
Should Arabic and English run in the same campaign or separate ones?
Separate, always. The campaign holds the budget, so combining languages lets the auction split it rather than you, and the language with cheaper clicks quietly takes the money. Separation also gives each its own negatives and a report you can act on.
What do you do when the landing page, not the ads, is the problem?
Say so in writing and stop optimising the wrong thing. Then three routes: a focused landing page for the campaign spending most, a fix to the page traffic already reaches, or a pause until it is ready.
Do you run Performance Max, and how do you stop it taking brand traffic?
Yes, once the conversion signal is trustworthy, because it optimises faithfully towards whatever you nominate. Brand terms go on as an account-level negative before it gets budget, and we judge it on non-brand only.
How do we verify you are actually working on the account?
Google’s change history, which we do not control. Every edit carries a date and a name. If the monthly report is narrative and the history is empty, you have your answer.
What is not included in the management fee?
Media spend, paid by you to Google directly. VAT where it applies, five per cent in the UAE and fifteen in Saudi Arabia. Website work is quoted separately.
Do you have an office in Dubai or Riyadh?
No. We are a studio in Istanbul working Gulf hours, with no Gulf office, address or landline, and we will not pretend otherwise. Everything runs on scheduled calls and WhatsApp.
Will you guarantee a cost per lead or a number of leads?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. The auction price is set by your competitors’ budgets, your landing page and seasonal demand, none of which an agency controls.
Want a second opinion on your account?
Give us read-only access and we will tell you where the money is going, on a fixed fee with no share of your spend. If paid search is the wrong channel for you right now, we will say that instead.