How to Choose a PPC Agency in Riyadh: A Saudi Buyer's Checklist (2026)

Choosing a PPC agency in Riyadh means testing it on points a sales pitch rarely covers. Who writes the Arabic? Which channels get budget besides Google? Will a sale on your Salla or Zid store show up in every ad platform? Is the invoice in riyals? Who watches the account during Ramadan, or on a Friday? This checklist turns each point into questions you can put to any agency, whether its team sits in Riyadh, Dubai or elsewhere.

Start with the language your buyers search in

Most Saudi buyers search in Arabic. The 13 Riyadh cost posts on this site use Google Keyword Planner data for Saudi Arabia, pulled on 26 September 2026. Their keyword tables show:

• Law firms: about 90% Arabic, with 5,620 monthly searches against 650 in English, per the Riyadh law firm keyword table.
• Car rental: about 99% Arabic, with 389,900 against 4,400.
• IT services and software: about 73% Arabic, with 1,470 against 550, the highest English share of the 13 tables. See the Riyadh IT services keyword table.

Across all 13 tables, the Arabic share ran from 73% to 100%.

So ask to see the Arabic keyword list before the English one. Ask who writes your Arabic ad copy and page text, and whether they write it for Saudi readers or translate it. A translated ad can be correct and still sound foreign in Riyadh.

Good agencies also read what the Arabic terms ask for. In the law firm table, searches for a lawyer (محامي or محاميه) totalled 3,540 a month, against 1,270 for an office and 810 for a firm. That points to ads built around named lawyers. Ask each agency what it noticed in your own search terms; the answer shows whether anyone looked.

English keeps a place, mostly in B2B and technical services. Give it separate campaigns and its own budget, so you can see what each language returns.

Give every channel a job

A plan that covers only Google and Meta leaves out two channels many Saudi consumer brands rely on: Snapchat and TikTok. Not every account needs all four, but the agency should explain what each one does for you and how it will be judged.

Search is normally judged on the cost of a lead or a sale. Snapchat and TikTok may need to build an audience before they sell, which calls for a different report. Ask how the agency would decide to cut a channel. Without an answer, every channel tends to keep running.

Then ask about creative. Snapchat and TikTok need vertical video made for each app, in Saudi Arabic, with faces and places Saudi viewers know. Ask who films it, who writes the script, and how often new pieces arrive.

Last, ask how the account is split across the country. Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province behave differently, and one national target spreads budget into cities you may not serve. If you only sell in Riyadh, ask whether targeting reaches people in or near the city, not anyone merely interested in it.

Check that a Salla or Zid sale reaches every platform

Many Saudi online stores run on Salla or Zid. Both can connect to the ad platforms, but a connection alone does not prove tracking works. Before spend grows, the agency should connect and test the pixels, the Conversions API and the product catalogue. Ask:

• Will you place a test order and show me the purchase arriving in Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, counted once, with the value in SAR?
• How do you stop one order being counted twice?
• Will the catalogue match the store's prices and stock, and will Merchant Center carry SAR prices and Saudi tax settings?

Service businesses face a different gap. Many Saudi leads arrive by WhatsApp or phone, not a form. Ask how those are counted, and how a lead that became a sale is passed back, so the platforms learn from real customers.

Settle the money before the first campaign

Billing questions are easier before launch than after it. Ask:

• Which currency will the ad accounts bill in? Google Ads does not let you change an account's currency after it is created, so pick SAR at setup if you want platform bills in riyals.
• Whose name is on the ad accounts? They should belong to your company, with the agency added as a user, so the history stays with you if you part ways.
• What will the agency invoice show? Check the currency, whether tax is included, and whether you pay before or after each month.

Fees usually come as a fixed monthly retainer, a percent of spend, or a base fee plus a percent. Any can be fair if the quote lists what it covers: platforms, new creative, tracking, reports and meetings. On a percent of spend deal, ask what the agency would do if your budget should shrink.

Click prices also vary widely by trade. In the same Keyword Planner pull, shown in AED, the main lawyer search in Riyadh had top of page bids up to AED 49, while no car rental keyword in its table passed AED 4.38. Ask any agency to price your own keywords in SAR before you agree a budget.

Plan for the Saudi calendar and working week

Saudi demand moves with the calendar. Ramadan changes when people browse and what they buy, and its dates move every year with the lunar calendar. Eid follows the end of Ramadan. Saudi National Day brings a rush of competing offers. White Friday, Riyadh Season and back to school matter to many retailers too. Ask the agency:

• When does Ramadan creative get written, filmed and approved, and how will budgets and ad schedules change during the month?
• What is the plan for Saudi National Day, and will offers be live before competitors launch theirs?
• Is each ad account set to Saudi time? The account time zone decides when a day starts for budgets, ad schedules and reports.

The Saudi weekend falls on Friday and Saturday. Ask who watches your campaigns on those days, and who you call if ads stop or a store link breaks on a Friday.

Dubai based or Riyadh office: different questions for each

Where an agency sits does not decide your results by itself, but each setup has its own weak spot.

If the agency is based in Dubai or elsewhere outside the Kingdom, ask

• Which Saudi accounts in my industry have you run, and what did they achieve?
• Who on your team writes Saudi Arabic, and where are they based?
• Do you work Saudi hours and cover the Saudi weekend?
• Will you invoice in SAR?
• Can you arrange shoots inside the Kingdom when we need Saudi settings?
• If our tenders require a supplier registered in Saudi Arabia, can you meet that?

If the agency has a Riyadh office, ask

• Is my account run from Riyadh, or is the office mainly sales, with the work done elsewhere?
• Can I meet the person who will build and manage my campaigns, not only the person presenting?
• How deep is the team on each platform, and who owns tracking?
• What does being local add, such as shoots, meetings or market knowledge, and where would I see it in the results?

What the first month proposal should spell out

Before signing, ask for the first month in writing. A useful plan names:

• the Arabic and English keyword lists, split by city if you sell in more than one
• a tracking test, with a test order or test lead shown to you
• the channels to start with and the measure for each
• the first Arabic creative to test
• the report you will receive, in SAR, and on which day
• your main contact and the days they work

An agency that only offers a launch date is selling setup. One that shows what it will measure, and when, is ready to be held to its numbers.

Who wrote this guide

This guide was written by Big AL Consulting, a Dubai based agency that runs paid ads for Saudi brands. It is one of the agencies you could test with these questions, and they all apply to it. See how it handles Google Ads in Riyadh and PPC management in Riyadh, or send your questions.