Why Snapchat in the Gulf?
In Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Snapchat reaches a wide base of young people and families, who use it to keep in touch every day and follow creators. That makes it a great fit for personal care, perfume, fashion and food, and any product bought on a quick decision.
In Egypt its presence is much smaller, so we rarely start with it for Egyptian brands and focus on Meta and TikTok there instead. Choosing a platform always starts from where the customer is, not from how popular the platform is.
What a winning ad looks like
An ad on Snapchat should look like a snap from a real person, not a TV commercial: vertical video shot on a phone, opening fast, with the product in the first two seconds. Over-polished content usually gets skipped.
- A short vertical video, 6 to 15 seconds
- A person speaking the market's dialect and using the product
- The product or the result in the first two seconds
- A clear call to buy with the offer or the key benefit
That is why we rely on UGC and creators who suit the audience, and test several versions at the same time. Learn more about our approach to ad creative.
Snap Pixel and server-side tracking
Without correct tracking, Snapchat cannot see who bought, so it shows your ad to people who only watch. We connect the Snap Pixel to the store, send events from the server where possible, and check that add-to-cart and purchase events arrive with the right value.
Then we pick the right campaign objective. A campaign optimised for views will bring views; a campaign optimised for purchases will look for buyers. It sounds obvious, but it is one of the most common mistakes we find in the accounts we review.
A launch story from Saudi Arabia
When we launched Givago perfume in Saudi Arabia, the goal was a strong start in sales, not just visibility. We defined the segments and the angles that work, designed sales-focused landing pages, produced UGC, and launched campaigns on TikTok and Snapchat.
The result: 1,404 orders and 413K SAR in sales in the first 30 days, at a 5.6x return. To compare the two platforms, read our TikTok ads guide.
Common Snapchat ad mistakes
Running the same Instagram ads on Snapchat, judging the platform after a few days, targeting so narrowly that the algorithm has no room to learn, and ignoring the landing page the customer reaches after the tap.
We avoid all of that in paid ads management: we test patiently, measure by orders rather than views, and improve the landing page alongside the ad. If you sell in Saudi Arabia, also read our e-commerce marketing in Saudi Arabia guide.