Every marketer asks the same question at the start of a new campaign: “is that CPM normal?” The honest answer is usually “compared to what?” — and the comparison set most agencies use is North America or Western Europe, where the GCC’s competitive dynamics, audience density, and content costs look nothing alike.
This post compiles the benchmarks we use internally when scoping engagements, building forecasts, and judging whether a campaign is on track. The numbers come from AED 38M+ of paid spend we managed across 90+ accounts in 2025, weighted toward the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar.
Meta Ads — Feed and Reels
CPM range (UAE): AED 38 – AED 220, depending on audience and vertical.
- Real estate: AED 110 – AED 220 (the most competitive category)
- F&B / delivery: AED 45 – AED 95
- E-commerce (D2C): AED 38 – AED 75
- Healthcare: AED 60 – AED 120
- B2B SaaS / professional services: AED 85 – AED 180
Click-through rate: 1.1% to 3.4% across all verticals, with Reels-format ads consistently outperforming feed by 1.8-2.3x in our 2025 data.
Cost per result: Don’t benchmark this without specifying the objective. Lead-gen campaigns optimised for form-fills in real estate average AED 65-180 per lead. E-commerce purchase events average AED 85-240 per purchase (depending on AOV).
Google Ads — Search and Performance Max
Search CPC ranges (AED):
- Real estate (transactional queries): AED 22 – AED 90
- Insurance: AED 18 – AED 70
- Healthcare: AED 15 – AED 55
- Legal: AED 14 – AED 80
- E-commerce branded: AED 1.20 – AED 4.50
Performance Max ROAS targets: 4x is achievable for established D2C brands with clean creative and feed. 6-8x is achievable for branded campaigns. Sub-2x is a red flag — usually means audience signals are off or tracking is broken.
TikTok Ads
The GCC is one of TikTok’s fastest-growing ad markets. CPMs are still 30-50% lower than Meta for equivalent reach, but the gap is closing.
CPM (UAE): AED 22 – AED 95.
Engagement rate: 5-12% on Spark Ads. 2-6% on In-Feed.
What works: creator-style content (UGC, founder-led, behind-the-scenes) consistently outperforms studio production. Multiple GCC brands have built their entire growth model on TikTok-led acquisition over the past 18 months.
LinkedIn Ads
Most expensive channel in the mix, but still indispensable for B2B in the GCC.
CPM: AED 145 – AED 380.
CTR: 0.6% – 1.4%.
Cost per lead: AED 320 – AED 850, depending on job-title targeting depth.
What these numbers mean for your forecast
Use them as the floor of a plausibility check. If your agency is forecasting AED 18 CPMs in real estate, ask why. If they’re forecasting a 12x ROAS on a brand with no historical paid data, ask harder.
If you want to see how your specific campaigns compare to these benchmarks, book a call. We do free 30-minute account audits.