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Important Dubai/UAE information
Dubai communicates many languages; Arabic and English resources must be produced side by side, not later translated. For local lead gen, use the “Presence” location ad setting so your ads serve up before people in—or often in—your target locations. WhatsApp is a real conversion channel: Make it straightforward, clickable, and trackable with UTMs and server-side events. Page speed matters; mobile loads of less than three seconds and slim forms translate into lower CPAs. Privacy standards continue rising, meaning client-side pixels underestimate; server-side events and Enhanced Conversions close the gap.
Step 1 — Complying and preparing
Get your basics correct before you launch campaigns. Display your legitimate business name, a working UAE phone and address, and a working website with a prominent terms and privacy policy. Make your offers truthful and evidence-based—testimonials, case excerpts, certifications—and incorporate required disclaimers for highly regulated verticals such as healthcare, finance, law, and real estate. Write truthful ad copy matched to landing pages, and initiate identity or domain verification promptly when Google requests. Display cookie consent prominantly and enable Consent Mode v2 so measurement respects user choices and models conversions when suitable.
Step 2 — Arabic/English campaign structure
Keep English and Arabic separate from the start. A functional ad structure includes one Search campaign for Dubai/UAE for English, one Search campaign for Dubai / الإمارات for Arabic, and one Performance Max campaign, which may draw from each set of assets; add YouTube (skippable) for remarketing and demand generation if you can afford it. Make ad sets by intent within Search—service and Dubai, price, near me, and their Arabic counterparts—so searches match up with the right message and landing page. Start with Exact and Phrase match; Broad only testing when you have strong negative lists and good conversion data. Make two or three responsive search ads for each ad group and localize them fully rather than using cumbersome machine translation. Use sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, and a UAE call extension, and set up Arabic versions of each.
Localize by using the default of Modern Standard Arabic unless a specific dialect is needed. Localize date and number formats and the AED currency and right-to-left layout by language for Arabic landing pages. Conduct negative keyword lists for both languages and exclude cross-language noise such as misspelling, job seek, and “free/training” intent. Make your landing pages mirror each other by language, simplify forms—name, phone, and eMail, with one qualifier typically sufficient—and include WhatsApp as the parallel call-to-action for fast response.
Step 3 — Server-side tracking and measurement
Clean data makes learning happen faster and reduces CPA. Deploy a Google Tag Manager server container onto a subdomain (e.g., gtm.yourdomain.com), enable Consent Mode v2, and send Google Ads conversions from the server for server-side events like lead, purchase, and appointment booking. Enable Enhanced Conversions so hashed phone or email data improve match rates. Utilize GA4 for analytics/audience development and import your prime conversions back into Google Ads for bidding. Make your UTMs consistent across campaigns so all the clicks include source, medium, campaign, content (adgroup and asset), and keyword.
For WhatsApp click-to-chat, use a special-purpose link with UTMs, fire a client-side event when the button gets clicked, and send a matching server-side event with gclid and UTM parameters. When a conversation becomes qualified later in your CRM, upload offline conversions or send server-side events with the new lead status. Optimize all the way through qualified outcomes—MQLs, SQLs, and revenue—rather than raw form fills, and send those quality signals back into Google so automated bidding captures more of the right people.
Step 4 — Budgets and bidding
Develop budgets based on economics, not guesses. Define a target CPA or CAC from unit economics—margin, close rate, and lifetime value. Make an estimate of your anticipated CPCs and necessary clicks per day for meaningful learning at the ad group or campaign level. One easy place to begin is budgetdaily ≈ expected CPC × necessary clicks per day, and check against your target CPA. If your target CPA is X AED and your conversion rate is Y percent, budget around X ÷ Y% AED of spend for each expected conversion and fund enough volume for several conversions a week. Begin with Maximize Conversions (with values if you have them) once you’re confident in your signals for conversion, and switch to target CPA or target ROAS once you’ve had enough data—typically a few dozen conversions over a 30-day period for each campaign. Redistribute spend weekly to the intents, questions, and creative assets generating qualified leads at or below target CPA.
Step 5 — A 90-day rollout.
Schedule your fourth quarter into four phases. During days one to ten, conduct full compliance checks, complete Arabic and English creative and landing pages, fix page speed issues, and deploy sGTM, Consent Mode v2, Enhanced Conversions, UTMs, and basic dashboards. During days eleven to thirty, deploy Search for both languages with Exact and Phrase match and introduce Performance Max; provide two or three RSAs against each ad group and six to nine creatives total, turn remarketing audiences on and switch call and WhatsApp assets. During days thirty-one to sixty, refine: introduce negative keywords, test hooks and offers, tune locations and schedules, shift budgets based on qualified lead rate instead of raw CPL, and conduct a CRO sprint against forms, trust indicators, and load time. During days sixty-one to ninety, scale: expand keywords, test Broad with strong negatives, introduce YouTube, start importing offline conversions to account for lead quality, and script bilingual content to complement the search intents you uncover from query reports.
Launch checklist and operating rhythm
Before you launch, ensure policies and your business information are prominent; Arabic and English campaigns and landing pages are mobile-ready and fast; server-side tagging and Enhanced Conversions are active; GA4 and Google Ads conversions are tracked; UTM and naming conventions are consistent; negative lists and brand-safety terms exist. Make bidding strategies deliberate and maintain a weekly optimisation calendar and KPI dashboard so your team quickly and openly knows what steps to take.