What marketing costs in the UAE

Most of our monthly services start from AED 12,000 a month, excluding VAT, with the price set by scope. We can't give a verified market average, and an average would hide what sets the fee: how many channels, how many people, how many hours and which languages. Budget two separate bills, the agency's fee and your ad spend, and ask every agency to show both.

Agencies usually charge a monthly retainer, a fixed price per project, an hourly rate or a percentage of ad spend. Pick a retainer for work that never stops, such as SEO and ads, and a fixed price for work with an end, such as a website or an audit. Avoid percentage-of-spend fees, because they pay the agency more when you spend more, whether or not results improve.

Usually because the cheaper quote buys fewer hours, less experience or a template. Ask each agency to turn its fee into hours and people: how many hours a month, who does them and what else they're working on. A salaried marketer in Dubai also brings visas, insurance, leave and gratuity on top of salary, so a fee below one person's real cost can't be buying a team's attention.

No. Ad spend is what you pay Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn or the property portals, and it should be a separate line from the agency's fee. At Magnetic Keys you pay the platforms directly, so we never hold your ad budget, and the ad accounts stay in your name. Whoever you hire, make sure you can log in to every ad account and watch the spend yourself.

Ad spend, VAT and anything needing outside production or paid software are the usual omissions, so ask for them in writing. In our plug-in marketing department, for example, ad spend, VAT, professional shoots beyond site footage and software you choose to own, such as a paid CRM, are charged separately, and the price page says so. Also ask about setup fees, minimum terms and how extra requests are billed.

Our websites start from AED 35,000 excluding VAT. Our fixed-price Conversion Site Build starts from AED 48,000. It covers up to 12 page templates. The price moves with the number of page templates, whether the site is bilingual with properly built right-to-left Arabic, and integrations such as payments, CRM and WhatsApp, so ask any developer to price those three separately.

Four, all excluding VAT. The Growth Audit Sprint costs AED 18,000 and gives you a written diagnosis of where your marketing leaks money plus a costed plan. The Conversion Site Build starts from AED 48,000. The AI Content Engine costs AED 65,000 and the Pipeline Install, for tracking and lead routing, costs AED 42,000. Scope is fixed before work starts, so the bill doesn't move.

Work backwards from the sales you want, not forwards from a percentage. Divide your target number of new customers by your close rate to get the leads you need, then multiply by the most you can pay for a lead. Say you want 10 new customers a month, close 1 lead in 4 and can pay AED 200 a lead: that's 40 leads and AED 8,000 of ad spend, before any agency fee.

We don't have a verified UAE benchmark, and any single figure would be a guess, because a lead's value depends on what you sell. Work out your ceiling instead: average sale value multiplied by gross margin multiplied by the share of leads that buy. Say a sale is worth AED 5,000, your margin is 40% and 1 lead in 10 buys: the ceiling is AED 200 a lead, and you want to sit well below it.

Add everything you spent on marketing in a period, meaning agency fees, ad spend and tools, and divide by the new customers won in the same period. Say you spent AED 30,000 in a month and won 12 customers: your acquisition cost is AED 2,500 each. Compare that with the gross profit on a customer's first order and, if repeat buying is real, their first year.

Nobody can honestly quote a fair price per click or lead in advance, because ads are sold in auctions that move with competition, season and audience. What you control is the budget: set it so it can buy at least 30 conversions in the period you'll judge it over, which matches Google Ads Help guidance on Smart Bidding, or 50 for Target ROAS. Multiply your affordable cost per lead by 30 for a minimum monthly budget.

Most sites see movement in 3 to 4 months, and competitive terms take 6 to 12, which is our published guidance rather than a guarantee. Payback arrives after that movement, so budget for at least six months before judging SEO on revenue. In the first three months, judge it on earlier signs: pages indexed, rankings for target terms and enquiries arriving from search.

Yes, but free channels cost time. The dependable ones are a complete Google Business Profile, a WhatsApp Business number answered quickly, regular posts on your own accounts and referrals from customers. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that you can't pay for a better local ranking. The shortcut to avoid is messaging a list nobody agreed to join: TDRA says marketing texts need prior explicit consent.

A short call, then a written answer within 72 hours. You tell us what you're spending and what it produces, and the written answer says where the money is going and what we'd do first. It's yours whether you hire us or not, and we reply to messages within one business day.