Facebook is among the leading social media platforms in the UAE. The number of Facebook users in the UAE is estimated to reach 2 million by end of 2017 which implies you have a massive potential reach on this platform.

On Facebook, you can target your audience using powerful criteria such as location, age, income level, interests, marital status, and more. Facebook advertising can drive a remarkable increase in sales for all types of businesses. 

So, how can you use Facebook to promote your Dubai, Abu Dhabi or UAE brand?
 
Here are five key steps to keep in mind:

1. Create a Unique Facebook Page First of all, creating a Facebook page specific to your brand, product or service. A category for your page should be chosen to match your business type to help people find your page easily.

Don't forget to fill all your business information and upload an attractive profile and a cover pictures related to your business. After sorting all these details, make sure you write a unique text describing what you do and don't forget to mention your unique selling proposition.
Choose an appropriate call to action button to complete this first and basic step, such as: Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now, Sign Up etc.

1. Know Your Business Objectives You have to know what is your main goal before launching ads on Facebook.

Below is a list of possible goals you might be exploring right now, make sure you pick the right one based on your overall business objectives:

- Building an engaging brand that interacts with people
- Increasing awareness by reaching a maximum of users
- Generating leads & sales to help increase your top line

There is no right or wrong answer. It all depends on what you want to achieve.

2. Choose an Objective for Your Ad Campaign The three most common ad objectives on Facebook are:

- Increasing your page followers
- Promoting posts to increase engagement including more likes, clicks, comments and shares
- Driving traffic to your website
- Collecting leads on Facebook
- Generating sales and conversions

If you are unsure, we recommend you launch an always-on Page Likes campaign that increases your followers and tactical traffic and post engagement campaigns to increase engagement and direct response.

3. Target the Right Audience As mentioned earlier, you can target your ads using several variables including age, location, language, interest and many others.

You can also create your own audience by uploading a list of emails and phone numbers and then expand it into a lookalike audience where Facebook tries to find new users based on the uploaded data.

Make sure you test multiple audiences and remember that with a narrow targeting you increase the relevancy but also the higher your cost per click (CPC). So, make sure to balance audience size and bids.


4. Create Your Ad

This is the easy and fun part!

It includes choosing your images, headline, body text, as well as placement of the actual ad. Multiple type of ads exists such as Image Ads, Carousel Ads (Multiple images), Video Ads, Slideshow Ads...etc

We know for a fact that Carousel generate more engagement that single images.
Videos are also more popular than slideshows.
Make sure to write strong headlines and don't forget to mention your USP in the body of the ad.
Images and Videos should not include too much text (always less than 20% of the viewable area) otherwise your ad will have a low reach or none at all.

5. Monitor and Refine
 
Several metrics allow you to measure your ad's performance. Make sure you monitor the below key metrics on a constant basis:

- Reach: The number of people who saw your ad
- Impressions: The number of times your ad has been seen
- Clicks: The number of clicks on your ad
- Link clicks: The number of clicks on a link in your ad text / button
- Engagement metrics: The number of likes, reactions, comments, shares, video views...etc
- Conversions: The number of sales / leads generated by your ad

Always monitor your costs and CPCs. 
 
In the end, acknowledge that when you are creating a strategy for your Facebook Ads, make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T:
 
·        Specific,
·        Measurable,
·        Achievable,
·        Relevant,  
·        Time-bound.
 
Creating S.M.A.R.T. goals for your Facebook Ads will help you achieve a better return on investment and get the most out of your budget.

If you need professional support in creating your Facebook ads to promote your Dubai or UAE business, please do not hesitate to contact Clouds Media, we would be glad to help.

Over the previous decade, social media and online networking have significantly impacted our lives. It would be no surprise to say that social media has turned into a basic necessity in life.

Approximately 95% of the UAE’s population today are active internet users with 33% of them spending just under 30 minutes daily on social platforms, and a minority (5%) spending over 4 hours on a daily basis.

Several reasons push people to actively use social media; it connects people together so basically it shortens distances while also providing users with educational content as well as entertainment options.

The UAE population is mostly active on three main social media channels. What are these top social media channels and how are they used?

1-FACEBOOK

Facebook is the most used social media channel in the UAE. Every year Facebook has something new to offer. These new features are what make people come back and stay connected with friends and acquaintances.

Each novel feature provided by Facebook gives internet users the chance to share content with others in a creative and engaging way such as the innovative 360 photos and videos.

With the 360 degree photo option, users can share the beauty of a venue or place they love in an immersive way just with a phone.

The like button has also recently evolved by expanding into five different emojis/emotions. It is now called the "reaction button" and it gives Facebook users the opportunity to be more expressive.

On Facebook, users share, upload or like articles, videos or photos but others don’t always have the time to check them right away. Facebook has now given its users the opportunity to save these content for later checking.

All the above new features are what keep Facebook at the forefront of social networking in the UAE. But the most important addition to Facebook is undoubtedly the ability to stream live videos and also share ephemeral stories. These latest updates are extremely popular with UAE users who are now using their mobile phones as "TV stations" to broadcast regular clips and live streams via Facebook.

2-INSTAGRAM 

The second most popular social media platform in the UAE is Instagram. After being bought by Facebook a few years ago, the photo sharing app has witnessed a huge improvement in terms of features and design.

Living in the UAE gives you the opportunity to witness and share new concepts and unique sights which are prime content for Instagram posts. After copying the main features of Snapchat in 2016 (especially the "stories"), Instagram has seen a recent jump in number of users and time spent on the app. It has since widened the gap with Snapchat and is currently the number 1 mobile social app for both expats and Emiratis.

Instagram boasts more than 40% penetration rate in the UAE and its growth is very promising with thousands of new users joining every month.

Over the past years, we have also seen the rise of Instagram influencers in the UAE and these have become an integral part of any digital marketing campaign undertaken by companies and reputable brands.

3-TWITTER

Twitter has somehow lost its past popularity especially with the massive growth of Instagram. It is still widely used in the UAE especially among users who follow news, politics and other related topics.

An interesting trend specific to the UAE has seen Twitter become a prime tool for customer relationship management. In fact many local companies use Twitter to answer customer complaints. Just visit the Twitter account of key network operators in the UAE and you'll notice it is full of customer requests and comments.

While Twitter has constantly added new features to its platform, we believe it is currently less appealing to the younger audience who prefers to spend time on more entertaining social apps such as Instagram or Snapchat.

For more information of the different social channels available in Dubai and the UAE and how to make the most out of them, do not hesitate to contact the Clouds Media team. We will be glad to assist you with any digital marketing query.

Google search commonly known as Google, is the most used search engine nowadays.
It has a virtually unlimited number of pages and each page contains ten links pertaining to different websites. Many companies in Dubai and UAE have relied on Google to help them promote their websites and businesses; and this trend is set to continue for the coming years.

First, let’s talk a little bit about how Google works.

Imagine Google as a massive library with billions of books from around the world. Also imagine that each book is a website. Google’s library has a system that scans and registers a lot of information about these books in its database; It knows how those books relate to each other in order to give the best answers for users questions. This information is turned into useful search results thanks to some codes called algorithms which help ranking each page on the web depending on the content.
The more your website content is relevant to your Dubai based business, the higher your ranking which makes it easier for users and potential customers to find you.

To achieve that, you must optimize your website based on certain guidelines that will allow you to gain a higher ranking than other websites on Google search. This process is what we call Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
SEO allows you to increase your natural or organic ranking on Google. Another way to get top ranks on search is to use Google’s pay per click (PPC) advertisements also called sponsored search results or SEM which stands for Search Engine Marketing.
So what are the key differences between these 2 techniques and what does this mean for my Dubai or UAE based business?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)/ PPC Advertising / Paid Search

It’s basically paying for your high ranking on Google by showing an ad. Google won’t charge you when your ad appears which means the impression is for free. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad hence the term PPC (Pay Per Click).

To be able to create this type of search advertising in Dubai, you must first set a daily budget for your ad in a tool called AdWords and then choose relevant keywords that define your page so that each time a user in Dubai searches for something related to these keyword your website will appear on Google search.

The main advantages of paid search include fast results, free impressions, control over the budget and finally control over the text message appearing in the advert.

Organic Search or SEO

Getting your Dubai website on high rankings on Google organic or natural search relies on several key factors including:

- Having the relevant keywords present in your website title, headers, URLs and body text  
- Having original and relevant content on your website. Copy pasting is a big no no
- Interlinking the different pages of your website in a way that makes sense
- Structuring your website is an intuitive and user friendly way with clear sections and navigation  
- Improving your site loading speed
- Constantly publishing fresh and engaging content
- Having other websites and blogs referring or linking to you

SEO is a long and tedious process and we recommend you work with a leading SEO agency in Dubai and the UAE to achieve the best results. Feel free to contact Clouds Media for a free SEO consultation.

Other Important Search Ranking Opportunities

Make sure you benefit from ranking on Google Maps, Google Pictures and the Search Graph.
List your local business on Google and get on Google Maps. Make sure you optimize your pictures by adding the relevant keywords to the picture file names and filling the Alt Tag with the right descriptive keywords.

Finally, be active on Google + and social media in general as this will provide Google with additional info about your website which might potentially appear on the right hand side of Google search results, in the Search Graph.

We hope you find this article useful. If you need professional support on building a cost effective search marketing strategy for your website (SEO or SEM), please feel free to contact our Dubai based SEO and SEM consultants. Founded by an ex Googler, Clouds Media is a leading SEO and SEM company based in Dubai UAE.

With the beginning of each year, new trends make their way into the digital market. As we all know we are living in the digital era which means digital marketing is always evolving and you should always keep track.
Whether you are a Dubai based entrepreneur, employer or employee, this article will help you understand the latest digital trends relevant for your respective lines of business.

UAE is witnessing a surge in its experimental streak and embracing advancements in various fields. The year 2017 will end up being yet one more year that will propel the nation towards its creative digital objectives.

With the latest internet technologies, companies can enhance their website conversion rate, increase revenues and expand. Digital marketing will assume  a key part in developing and building up businesses, generating leads and raising brand awareness.

Here are the key trends we expect in 2017:

• Trend 1: Development of 'thinking' computer systems

Also called artificial intelligence, this year organizations will depend more on such type of marketing tendency. From outlining a site to advanced electronics applications, to data analytics that anticipate clients' conduct and their needs as they emerge, AI is the right tool to take care of every one of these issues. Despite the fact that artificial intelligence reasoning won't supplant people, it will serves as some assistance and enormously impact what we do in our occupations.
AI is the greatest transformation in the whole history of the digital market. Advertisers can leave the most tedious and sensible matters to digital reasoning and free up their valuable time to think innovatively while guaranteeing that AI endeavors are deliberately adjusted to their business objectives.

• Trend 2: User engagement

It is necessary than any time before, to form a connection with users and to also create an important substance to catch the attention of clients so they can like and share your materials. Make a complete content based on an advertising methodology, concentrate on quality, and connect pieces that can be simply used for another purpose. Blog entries, infographics, slide shares, are all great approaches to build a unique substance that can be reused in an unexpected way.
Curating content for your targeted people depends on the “client centricity”, that will be your top need. Create a powerful content strategy and editorial calendar to check what kind of substance works best for your image and your clients too.

• Trend 3: Influencers marketing

Influencer marketing is without a doubt the best approach to build brand awareness in the UAE, and this pattern is set to boom in 2017. Individuals manage and rely on social verification of brands and items. In the event that somebody's most loved blogger or superstar advances any brand, he/she will be more likely to believe the endorsement rather than any email or marketing campaign precisely from the brand. You can build up an associations with UAE based influencers And tap into the various audience segments including Emiratis and expats living in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other key emirates.

• Trend 4: Cross-platform marketing

Nowadays, individuals have no less than two portable devices: smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
Marketing efforts must be coordinated so they have a a consistent approach over various devices with various resolutions and screen sizes. Streamlining your web content for mobile is an essential objective as more than 60% of all web traffic in UAE is now on mobile terminals.

• Trend 5: Mobile optimization

Mobile phones will stay the number one device that people use for research in 2017, which truly comes as no big surprise. Everything from your business site to email advertising must be optimized for a smartphone experience.

• Trend 6: Video marketing

2017 will be the era of video and live streaming.
Facebook claims 100 million hours of videos are viewed through on its platform every day. YouTube claims 3.25 billion hours of videos viewed per month.
These massive numbers indicate the importance of using video as a cornerstone to any digital marketing strategy. Business owners must consider adopting video advertising as a basic piece of their online marketing efforts that can possibly develop people engagement and client devotion. You don't have to be fully knowledgeable if you want to adopt a video marketing strategy in your campaign. Just think of some creative concepts and keep an eye on your ROI.
​

• Trend 7:Storytelling

The most persevering rule of good written work is to tell everything in a fascinating way.
Always aim to build a story that draws in clients towards your brand.
Users love to be intrigued, captivated and entertained. Storytelling will make your marketing efforts much more compelling and engaging so feel free to be as creative as you possibly can!

We hope you enjoyed reading our article and wish you all the success in your business endeavors in 2017.
If you need professional assistance regarding your digital marketing campaigns, do not hesitate to contact our Dubai based digital consultants. We will be glad to help!

Digital advertising is booming in Dubai and the UAE and the majority of new and established businesses are going online to attract, promote and capture new leads and generate sales.
Nowadays, UAE business owners have to learn the secrets of creating and managing successful digital marketing campaigns and this article proposes to teach you the ins and outs of online advertising.
Before we dive into the detailed steps, we would like to stress that your digital content has to be compelling enough in order to grab users’ attention, trigger their curiosity to find out more about your products and services before converting them into a paying customer.
Since the UAE is home to a sizable number of expats, it is also important to create a digital communication that takes into consideration the wide variety of cultural interests and different languages spoken.
Let’s now dive into the different phases of a successful online strategy, follow these simple steps to reach digital excellence:

• Step 1: Advertise on relevant social media channels

Who said you need to be present on all social channels? It is actually better to focus on 1 or 2 social channels rather than spread yourself too thin and it all depends on the type of business you’re in.
As a rule of thumb, if your target audience is broad then we recommend you use Facebook because has more than 1.71 billion monthly active users. This platforms helps you create a community around your business, create brand awareness, engage with your audience and eventually sell.
If your business is in the publishing industry then we recommend you become active on Twitter and Linkedin. If you are into fashion, beauty, F&B and other visual oriented businesses, then Instagram and Pinterest are good options.
Instagram is particularly popular in the UAE especially with Arab and Emirati citizens. It is wise to devise a specific strategy to reach this important audience by also adding Arabic content to your mix.
Twitter can be used as platform to monitor conversations happening about your brand as they are happening. This allows UAE and Dubai based businesses to use it as a CRM tool to improve their customer satisfaction.

• Step 2: Target the right audience

Every brand, product or service is designated for a specific type of customers and as a marketing person you have to know your audience in order to target it effectively.
There are many targeting criteria available on social media allowing you to reach the correct audience for maximum ad engagement. You can target by geography, age, gender, interest, connection, job role, education and many others.
We recommend you put yourself in the shoes of your prospects: understand their needs, know what they like, what they dislike, understand their behavior, their buying trends and reflect those criteria while creating your ads on social media.
Having said that, four main methods are used to target your relevant audience and these are: Location targeting, demographics, interest-based targeting and behavior targeting. You’re not restricted to choosing amongst these parameter, you can create your own custom made audience by combining from the list above.
The location targeting allows you to target by location, based on countries regions, cities and even radius when it’s available. You can also use this option to exclude some locations.
As for the demographics, you can target people depending on their gender, age, education level, major, career and even their relationship status.
Regarding interest-based targeting, people are basically reached depending on topics and posts they like, the information written in their about section, and the content they have shared on their timeline.
Last but not least, behavior targeting is based on the customer’s behavior inside and outside the social platforms. For example, Facebook will also target users based on the devices they own, the sites where they get their news, the ecommerce platforms where they shop, their buying trends…etc.

• Step 3: Create effective ads

You can create ads on various platforms online including social media, Google search, third party websites, mobile and others. To activate these ads, a daily budget is usually set and is renewed as long as your online campaigns is active. You have multiple ad objectives to decide from: If your objective is branding and awareness, then we recommend you go for display ads and impression based ads on social media (on Facebook and Instagram for example).
If you objective is direct response, then we recommend you go for paid ads on Google search and conversion based ads on social media (on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for example).
Always keep in mind that a picture is worth a thousand words which means that the choice of you visual impacts a lot the performance of your ad. Add a strong call to action in your message and make sure to mention a compelling offer in your ad.
Always test 2 ads in parallel in order to compare their performance and improve your advertising activities.
Also don’t forget to direct the user to the relevant landing page after clicking on your ad. For example, an ad promoting a Handbag should direct to the Handbag page on your ecommerce website (and not the Homepage!).

• Step 4: Measure & optimize your performance  

 
After going through all these steps you should make sure that everything is going as planned. The Conversions rate (user to potential customer) has to be high, online ads has to be effective such as Google ads.
It all depends on the budget.
For Google there are few points to always check such as the traffic generation, who’s visiting, who’s coming back and where are they coming from. But more sophisticated measurement exist like CPC (calculated by dividing the total cost of clicks on your ad by the total number of clicks. The cost of each click is determined by the value of the keywords you bid on). CTR or KPI (key performance indicator) and CPL (Cost per lead that calculate your average cost to acquire one lead per channel) and so on.
 
As for social media platform, everything varies depending on the type of campaign you are adopting, but the main performance tools are the following: The impressions, the post engagement (likes comments shares) the number of reach and of course all sorts of clicks (regular or ctr) which is the most important point and video views if your boosted campaign includes a video.
And finally check the ROI.

Compute the ROI for each channel to understand which ones are the most effective and profitable. The higher ROI the better. 

If you are serious about taking your UAE business to the next level, then do not hesitate to contact us. Founded by a former Googler, Clouds Media is expert in creating and managing successful digital advertising campaigns in Dubai and the UAE. 

95% of UAE’s population has direct access to the Internet. According to the latest internet statistics, the UAE is one of the largest consumers of social media in the world. More than 50% of UAE’s population is active on social media.
 
Having a huge number of expats, social media is highly demanded in the UAE especially in Dubai. Emiratis and expats spend a lot of time using social media to contact their family and friends and to stay up to date on the latest happenings around the world.
 
In all countries, certain social media platforms are used more than others. In the UAE, Facebook Twitter and Instagram are the most popular social media platforms . They are used by Emiratis more frequently than the other social channels. Snapchat is also witnessing a massive rise especially with younger audiences.
 
Here are the most used social media platforms in the UAE:

• Facebook is the number one social media channel used in the UAE with a 46% share of internet population
• Twitter follows Facebook, with 30% share of the population.
• Instagram, Google Plus, and Linkedin all together occupy the fourth place in UAE’s most used social media platforms list with almost an equal percentage of 25% share of population for each.

Here are the most popular Facebook pages in the UAE:

• National Geographic Abu Dhabi has the largest audience in UAE. Currently National Geographic Abu Dhabi Facebook page has more than 56 Million fans.
• It is followed by عجائب و غرائب that has over 11 Million fans
• The fastest growing Facebook page in the UAE is “Zee Alwan TV”. Around 10 thousands new fans register every day on this page
• It is followed by “Dubai”, that registers around 7 thousands new fans per day
• The brand that has the largest audience in the UAE is Emirates Airlines with more than 5.6 Million Facebook fans
• It is followed by Just Falafel that has more than 1.9 Million fans on Facebook

Now let’s look at the latest Twitter stats in the UAE and identify the top 5 Twitter profiles that have the largest audience:

• @AlArabiya_Brk has the largest audience among all the Twitter profiles in UAE Currently @AlArabiya_Brk has more than 11.6 Million followers
• It is followed by @AlArabiya that has over 8.8 Million followers on Twitter
• @Ahlam_Alshami has more than 5.8 Million Twitter followers
• @HHShkMohd, the profile of Sheikh Mohammed, is the 4th profile that has the largest audience on Twitter with more than 5.8 Million followers.
• Finally, the 5th profile in our list is @mustafa_agha that has over 3.9 Million followers on Twitter

UAE has remarkably proved that its demand for social media is very high and that it is rapidly increasing day after day.
If you want to enter this market and boost your presence in UAE’s digital world, give us a call or contact us and Clouds Media will help you become a leader in the Emirati digital market.

Clouds Media offers digital marketing services and social media courses for all clients and individuals in the UAE, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

With the rapid growth of social media marketing, Dubai and UAE based businesses have been compelled to go social and take advantage of the power of social networks to promote their products and services.

It is imperative now more than ever to get training in social media marketing and even better, get digitally certified.
In order to understand and make the most out of social media marketing, we recommend individuals and companies to take social media courses and attend seminars to keep up with the fast paced world of digital marketing.
There are many options for digital academies in the local market, you just need to make sure that your instructors are the best in their fields.

At Clouds Digital Academy, a division of Clouds Media based in Dubai, we employ only the best digital experts in the world of online marketing and social media education.

Led by a former Googler, your social media courses in Dubai are offered over a period of 6 weeks at the pace of 2 courses per week. The program covers a wide range of topics and dives deep into each social channel such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin and others. The program ends with a multiple questions exam which you need to pass in order to become certified and receive the CSMM (Certified Social Media Marketer) certification from CDA (Clouds Digital Academy).

At the end of our extensive social media program, students will learn how to plan and execute a successful social media marketing campaign, how to communicate on social networks, how to create and manage cost effective social adverts on various platforms, how to create online engagement and convert followers into leads and how to read and interpret social analytics.

>> REGISTER FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA COURSES IN DUBAI

Our program includes both theoretical and practical sessions to make sure you apply what you learn. It is ideal if you are looking to start or evolve a career in the world of digital marketing and social media.

For more information on our social media courses in Dubai and CSMM certification, do not hesitate to contact us.

The UAE digital market is quite advanced in terms of internet penetration and usage. In fact research shows that one out of 3 people in the UAE has shopped online and the Emirati eCommerce market is valued at 10 billion dollars (37 billion AED).

Internet shoppers in the UAE actually prefer local websites to international ones. Online stores such as Souq.com, Namshi.com or Balloonshop.ae are quite popular and almost half of all online purchases in the UAE is made via local websites.

Although credit card payments are on the rise, payment via cash on delivery (COD) is still very common and account for at least half of all orders.

We believe that the UAE ecommerce trend is set to further grow in 2016 and Dubai will most likely cement itself as the leader in this space, not only on the country level but also on the Middle East level.

For more information about ecommerce in Dubai and digital services in UAE, feel free to contact us.