Yasser Ahmad | Independent Digital Marketing Consultant

The Art of Arabic PPC Management

1st April 201517th August 2020 Yasser Ahmad

The Arabic language becoming the 4th language on the Internet and the need for targeting the Arabic consumer is rapidly increasing. Marketers always believe that launching a paid search campaign is one of the most effective ways to generate online sales in as little as few days. Yet, the Arabic PPC management is technically not an easy task and could be sometimes very tricky.

To localize your search engine advertising campaigns, you will need to understand many factors such as the difference between Arabic slangs and popular keywords for each country, landing pages optimization for campaigns and Arabic copywriting for the ads.

How to Manage the Arabic Search Engine Advertising

There are several important tips and variables to consider before targeting the Middle East markets with Arabic search engine advertising campaign such as Google AdWords.

Outsource or In-house?

The first question that might get you confused; what is best option to run a campaign, professional agency or in-house? To answer this question, I have to declare some terrifying facts about this business.

I have seen some of the advertising agencies managing campaigns for two or three competitors and not telling about it. There is a conflict in this situation and it is not secure to share data with the agency.
Some of the clients don’t have KPIs and they don’t really screen the service provider carefully.
In-house teams are not having enough expertise with PPC practices or sometimes they are expats with no in-country experiences.
There are numerous PPC advertisers in the market and some of them claim to offer the best services, but not all of them live up to their own promises.

Practically, there is no ideal choice for this situation. My best advice for you is: Get involved! Don’t just hire an agency without understating the market or the results. Your marketing team should be involved in the process of keywords research, target segmentation and even the Ads copywriting. And most importantly, set your KPIs and ROI properly based on your research.

Study the Local Competition

It is no secret that the competition in Arabic AdWords is not highly competitive in many sectors. There is an open opportunity for businesses. The most competitive firms are limited to real estate, hotels, automotive, e-commerce, and electronics while there is no real competition in other firms. The good news about this, that with a small budget you can drive successful results in the local market. However, studying the local market might lead you to drop PPC and go with another approach. Based on the results you can determine even if you need an Arabic paid search or not. I had a B2B company tried Arabic PPC for a while but when I recommended an English campaign targeting the region, they were able to generate 300% increase in the leads. My recommendation was based on the market research that indicated English as the favorite language for business in the Middle East.

Arabic Keywords Research

The Arabic language has almost three times more words than English. The Arabic keywords may sometimes have multiple meanings which generate a major challenge for keywords and relevancy. Another problem with using the Arabic language online is that different regions within the Arab World use different words to explain the same thing. This might be tricky in finding and retrieving relevant keywords that help to target your consumer. For example, for the term “properties” could be “عقارات”, “منازل”, “مساكن” or “بيوت”. Each Arabic market is different; KSA is not using the same Arabic keywords like Egypt. Based on local search volume, consumer behavior, and market nature you have to determine which keyword would benefit your campaign.

Set the Right Settings

Don’t target the whole region as one big chunk. After you study the market and conduct a solid keywords research you will need to set different settings and bidding strategy for each country. Devices, Seasonal Occasions, demographics, and budget could be very different for each Arabic market. Pay attention to the local trends in the market and as well the public holidays and traditions. Target your local segmentations effectively with separate personalized campaigns. Make sure you use the extensions and you are ready with local salespeople to engage with customers. Pay attention to Mobile advertising as most of the market users are using mobile internet.

Original, not Translation

If you are translating your keywords and Ads into Arabic, then you are screwed. Trust me, don’t fall for such huge mistake. Remember always that you are paying for each click. Your list of keywords needs an advanced local research in order to generate the right leads. Invest money and time in researching the search volume for the local market and create original Ads with from the scratch.

Surprisingly, most of the Arabic paid Ads I see every day are too generic and trashy. Advertisers repeat the same Ads over and over with few tweaks. As well, some are just providing translated copies that make no sense. The quality of the Ad copy is a major step to win the competition.

Optimize the Landing Pages

Remember what we said about the original content? Now add to that the converting content. Don’t throw your money on clicks that don’t lead to a real action “hint; sale”!

If your Arabic Ads are leading to English landing page, don’t expect the right results. Your landing page is your sales desk, your display window, your sales numbers and your conversion hot spot. Optimize the Arabic SEO for each landing pages you are targeting in order to increase the quality score which would lead to better ranking and more cost-effective bidding.

Each group of Ads and keywords should lead to the relevant landing page with engaging content and call-to-action (CTA). Invest in creating compelling Arabic pages that would add a value and help in converting leads. Empty Arabic pages with just an image of the product and two lines, will not help your campaign. Optimize your landing pages for the Arabic user’s experience and step ahead of the competition. Always measure the pages analytics and the time spent on the page and don’t only rely on the PPC analytics.

Conclusion: Over the years, I have seen a lot of Arabic SEM throwing money on unworthy and irrelevant clicks. Having a budget for search engine marketing doesn’t mean you should simply launch one. There are many misconceptions regarding Arabic search advertising, which you have to fully address. The Middle East markets are very different in the terms of competition level, culture, and consumer behavior.

Get involved and do your homework to achieve successful sales results with your campaign’s budget. Put in mind that at the end of the day, ROI is what you’ll have to show to the investors and stakeholders.

Digital Marketing in the Middle East: Where is the Gap?

17th March 201517th August 2020 Yasser Ahmad

Digital marketing in the Middle East has been growing and expanding, but what about effectiveness? The Arabic consumers have changed. The digital experiences are no longer new in the local markets … They are expected to bring a value.

While there is a massive amount of digital campaigns in the region, the Arabic consumers are eagerly looking for something more specific, personalized and unique. The gap will increase between the consumer and the marketers if the digital experiences don’t adapt to these changing expectations.

I have spoken to a large number of brands in the Middle East region looking to increase their digital marketing and while there is a definite desire for investing into digital, there is an equal lack of understanding in critical objectives such as how to measure and track the results, or how to personalize content. In most of the cases, they are more convinced with quantities and the short-term results. I have been watching digital agencies running everywhere on social networks to just fill the plate with numbers.

So what is next? We all know that the market will certainly have to consider new expectations or to be more accurate “the right expectations”. To put digital marketing in perspective, you have to implement it in your overall strategy. It is not anymore something you can just assign it to an agency or team and expect it to work like magic. Yes, digital marketing not anymore a “plug-and-play” tool.

The Evolved Customer

It is clear to everyone now that the evolution of marketing is moving beyond the goal of creating new customers to the concept of creating an evolved customer. No wonder that the content-driven experiences are now the natural-selection process that moves the customer along.

To succeed in the Middle East, marketing departments must themselves evolve. They must not only advertise the brand by describing the value that has been created in the product but also to create differentiated experiential value that is separate from that product.

Personalized Digital Marketing

Personalized digital marketing is no longer a luxury. Some would even say it is the future. I believe that the consumers in the region are more interested in relevancy more than anything else. With those multiple social networks feeds and buzz feed at every corner, there is a major need for personalization. Arabic content is still suffering from the lack of quality and quantity. Companies and brands are still relying on translating their marketing messages from English into Arabic instead of creating original content. Products are not providing enough content targeting the behavior of the Arabic users.

Personalization is one of the major gaps that digital strategists and content marketers should work on to achieve better results in each market.

Conversion Optimization

Conversion metrics are not only helpful for setting the right expectations and ROI, but it’s very effective to learn more about your consumer. Understanding the audience is always the key to creating a targeted message and digital experience that appeals to that particular audience. Put in mind that every local market in the Middle East should have a different conversion and metrics. I always brought the conversion as the main topic for every campaign discussed with a client and with that I was able to set the right goals for the campaign.

Finally, digital marketing is not always about the top 10 practices or following the notes from speakers and gurus, it is all about innovation and testing. Middle East markets are not a major challenge if you get closer to your target segmentations and learn how to avoid the gaps.

If you want to start putting your Arabic digital marketing approach into the right action plan, contact me for consulting and discussing the opportunity.

Why the Arabic Digital Marketing Will Be Different in 2015

21st February 201517th August 2020 Yasser Ahmad

How is the Arabic digital marketing is changing? What is the major changes and how to indicate it?

In the past few years, all internet statistics point towards the Arab world as one of the most booming markets. The region had a massive rise in the numbers of Arabic-speaking people getting online (413 million in 2015).

However, this massive increase doesn’t have a major impact on the digital marketing in the Middle East region anymore. You’ll need to deal with the different facts that will have a greater impact on the market.

The majority are already onboard

The majority of Arabic-speaking people are already online, which means the real matter will shift from the high numbers of followers to the relevancy of your followers. Believe it or not, most of the brands in the region still focused on the hits and likes. RIP the numbers of fans.. It is the time for the real buyers. Show me the money!

Where is the sales? Where is the profit?

Goodbye, the role of “Purely branding” and let’s close some sales. Digital Marketers will have to start considering the profit for their online budgets since companies are not able to see the benefits in the region. The digital strategist should align with the sales in order to fill the gaps with more solid techniques like the relevancy of the content, improving conversion rate, optimizing landing pages and humanization. Digital marketing in the Middle East is not about branding only anymore.

Facebook pages are not effective anymore

The golden times of Facebook pages are gone. In 2014 we all felt it while managing campaigns over the Facebook pages and we all started to see how the numbers of reach are dropping down. Facebook news feed filter is working against you and there is nothing you can do about it.

Marketers will have to come up with new solutions like the Facebook store, optimized landing pages and call to action instead of only focusing on likes and replies.

YouTube is the King

YouTube is mainly considered as a traditional media channel for the marketers in the region. They are still not able to maximize their benefits from video marketing. I have seen some of the startups using video content effectively and promoting their solutions and gaining a lot of attractions and even sales.

Marketers should build more video content for their products and go beyond the mentality of using YouTube as a TV channel for TV Ads. YouTube is eager for more valuable content in Arabic. Let me give an example:

If you are selling electronics and you started to create some reviews videos in Arabic. I believe this will help you sell the product more than just promotional Ads. The Arabic users are more for such interactive solutions.

Instagram is the new trend

People in the region are moving with their pictures to Instagram. A lot of businesses such as fashion, hospitality, food are moving to Instagram and its working. Instagram is now one of the most engaging channels in the region and if you wish to gain more attraction to your images try investing onto Instagram. There are many benefits from Instagram such as hashtags but I believe the great opportunity with Instagram, that it is almost politics free.

The shifting mode of the Arabic audience on Social Media

The most important issue with the social media users in the region is politics. Social media evangelist used to believe that social media played a main role in the Arab Spring. Although, this relation between the Arabic audience and social media already changed over the last year. The Arabic users are now avoiding the political news and potential arguments with their friends on the social media. A lot of users consider it stressful especially with their beloved channels like Facebook. Facebook has turned into a political buzz in the Middle East and this started to drive a lot of people away from the timeline. The same thing started to happen with Twitter since the news channels started to invade it.

The mode of the Arabic user started to drive them away from the traditional social media channels to new channels like Instagram. The marketers should start to study the psychology of Arabic audience and keep on track with the recent changes.

The mobile experience is not a luxury anymore

Do you have your website optimized for touch experiences? Do your pages fit in mobile/tablet display? Do you have large text and touchable big icons and buttons?

Arabic users are now using smartphones and tablets to access the internet and it is a must to consider a fast and easy to navigate website. Dull websites with old design are easy to abandon no matter how competitive products or services you have. If you still an old fashion with an old website, believe me, you are missing a lot of your digital marketing efforts! Your website pages will not help you converting sales.

Humanization and Localization

Every market in the Arab region and the Middle East is different. What works in Dubai doesn’t work in Egypt. The region is not only about outing your content in Arabic and that’s it. Promoting a product for ladies in the Gulf region requires a local lady wearing the traditional clothes and not a lovely blonde model. You need to take each market in the region separately and build a different campaign based on the traditions and trends.

I had a makeup client in UAE who was super angry because we posted an image of a lady with UAE flag colors as a makeup during the Flag Day in UAE. They considered it an insult to the flag. In any other culture, this would be totally fine but certainly not in UAE.

Humanization is one of the main concerns for marketing in the region. In Egypt, a campaign with a sense of humor works better than a neat idea. In Lebanon try to focus on the luxury of the experience while in Dubai you better focus on the short-term trends and new products.

Certainly, the region is still eager for more ideas and you’ll need to stop taking your 2014 and 2013 strategies for granted. I hope that I was able to deliver some of 2015 predictions for the Arabic digital marketers or those who are focused on this market. If you have any thoughts, please shoot and let’s share the ideas.

Insights Into The International Social Media

3rd November 201417th August 2020 Yasser Ahmad

International social media marketing is one of the most important topics for global marketers. The impact of social media is currently changing how businesses conduct marketing, sales, retail and customer support.

International Social Media

With companies going global the need for international social media is increasing rapidly. Yet most of the digital marketing strategists still considering English as the main language for their social media marketing channels. The fact that social media is highly active in almost every local market and local social media users have their own behaviors, trends, culture, language and even social media networks sometimes. In China, QQ is the most popular social network and not Facebook. In Russia, top two most used social platforms are Odnoklassniki and VKontakete.

In order to reach your potential users, you always need to follow several key steps for your international social media campaigns.

Identify the local market

Identifying the local markets is the key to building a successful strategy for your social media strategy. There are several initial questions you need to answer in order to identify the local market properly.

What social media platforms do locals use? And which one of this platforms is the most effective for your business/services?
I know it is a tricky question, but in order to explain that properly let me give you an example: If Twitter and Facebook are the most active networks in your target market but you are manufacturing engineering company then those social networks will not be really effective for your products. You will need to focus on video marketing or LinkedIn groups instead.
What are the cultural traditions of local users?
The target culture is extremely important and you will always need to understand your target market in order to customize your communication and the content you are posting or sharing. You will also need to know their holidays’ calendar, seasonal celebrations, and religious traditions.

What are the languages used on the local social networks?
It is important to define what is the most effective language to use for communication on local social media. Some of the marketers would like to have fully localized content for social media while some marketers will choose to have bilingual content. For markets like UAE full of expats, the bilingual content strategy is the best tactic to follow.
What are social media behaviors for local users? What is the trending topics in the local market?
You must figure out where your offer will meet the great demand. You have to constantly research the behavior of social media users in the local market, their trending topics and what are the local market segments talking about.

Build an international content strategy

All the major brands now believe in content marketing. It is not a luxury anymore. If a company already has a presence in foreign social networks, multilingual content is essential.

Some marketers tend to focus only on their native content and forget to develop a multilingual content strategy for the local markets. There are several important tips for building a successful international social media marketing:

Create original content in the local language and don’t only consider English
Deliver the right message to the right audience by considering the culture, religions, and traditions of the market
Provide a personalized information for the targeted segmentation
Focus on the local trends and updates in the target market
Implement local holidays into your strategy and customize the content calendar
Optimize your social media profiles content and contact information for the local audience

Define your social media channels

Your website is always one of the most powerful online channels available to your organization to communicate effectively with your audience and provide your services. However, your customers are increasingly using their mobile phones and tablets to communicate through the social media platforms. You ultimately need to establish a solid presence on the social media channels where your global customers can find you, receive your updates and offers and communicate with your brand. A key element of your international social media strategy should be to define your channels and reach out to your customers and wherever they are.