Maximizing Online Advertising Returns for Saudi Brands
A few days ago, a restaurant owner in Riyadh expressed frustration that his business wasn't showing up in Google results despite being well-reviewed by customers. This is a common challenge I see with Saudi establishments across the Kingdom.
This involved:
- Clear showing of Saudi location address
- Featuring of trusted transaction options like local services
- Comprehensive refund procedures with regional specifics
- Local assistance availability
If you're building or improving a website for the Saudi market, I urge working with specialists who genuinely comprehend the complexities of Arabic user experience rather than merely adapting Western designs.
For a premium shopping customer, we developed a sophisticated bilingual system that seamlessly adapted layout, controls, and content flow based on the active language. This technique increased their visitor interaction by 143%.
- Shifted product photos to the left side, with product specifications and call-to-action buttons on the right-hand side
- Modified the photo slider to progress from right to left
- Added a custom Arabic typeface that maintained legibility at various sizes
Essential features included:
- Reversed designs for Arabic scanning
- Language-specific text presentation
- Culturally relevant visuals for each verbal identity
- Harmonious identity presentation across both versions
For a banking customer, we developed a website that carefully integrated global practices with locally relevant aesthetic features. This approach increased their user confidence by nearly one hundred percent and sign-ups by seventy-four percent.
With detailed Competitive landscape analysis for a food delivery client, we discovered that advertisements delivered between 9-11 PM dramatically surpassed those presented during traditional prime times, generating substantially higher purchases.
- Distinctly mark which language should be used in each input field
- Dynamically change keyboard language based on field expectations
- Locate field labels to the right side of their corresponding inputs
- Verify that validation messages appear in the same language as the intended input
Recently, a entrepreneur expressed frustration that his platform strategy was costing considerable sums of riyals with disappointing return. After reviewing his tactics, I identified several serious mistakes that are surprisingly common among Saudi businesses.
Unexpected discoveries:
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Temporary channels surpassing Visual platforms for particular merchandise
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Night advertising significantly exceeding afternoon efforts
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Motion content delivering superior ROI than fixed graphics
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Handheld performance exceeding desktop by significant degrees
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Redesigned the application process to align with right-to-left thinking processes
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Developed a bilingual form system with smart language switching
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Improved mobile interactions for one-handed Arabic typing
Last month, I was helping a major e-commerce business that had invested over 200,000 SAR on a beautiful website that was converting poorly. The issue? They had merely transformed their English site without considering the essential design distinctions needed for Arabic users.
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Place the most important content in the upper-right section of the screen
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Organize content blocks to progress from right to left and top to bottom
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Implement more prominent visual emphasis on the right side of equal designs
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Verify that pointing icons (such as arrows) orient in the correct direction for RTL layouts
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Shifting action buttons to the right-hand portion of forms and screens
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Rethinking content prioritization to move from right to left
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Adjusting interactive elements to align with the right-to-left reading pattern
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Use fonts specifically designed for Arabic digital display (like GE SS) rather than conventional print fonts
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Enlarge line leading by 150-175% for better readability
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Use right-justified text (never centered for body text)
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Avoid compressed Arabic fonts that diminish the characteristic letter structures
For a clothing retailer, we conducted a comprehensive platform efficiency evaluation that uncovered their best performing channels were entirely distinct from their worldwide patterns. This finding enabled a shift of spending that increased their complete ROI by over two hundred percent.
Essential components:
- Protracted decision periods in Saudi buying paths
- Group decision elements in conversion actions
- WhatsApp as a substantial but hard-to-measure effect platform
- Physical verification as the last conversion step
Essential adjustments:
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Relationship length modifications for Saudi clients
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Word-of-mouth impact weighting increases
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Occasional buying habits identification
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Prestige-motivated buying assessment
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Created a figure visualization approach that managed both Arabic and English numbers
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Reorganized charts to read from right to left
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Applied graphical cues that aligned with Saudi cultural meanings