English or Arabic Ads in the UAE and Saudi Arabia? What Search Volume and CPC Data Says (2026)

In the UAE, English ads reach more searchers but cost more per click. We pulled paired keywords from Semrush on 1 October 2026: “dentist dubai” shows 2,900 monthly searches at an estimated $12.21 per click, against 480 searches at $3.69 for the Arabic “dental clinic Dubai”. Saudi Arabia runs the other way for consumer services. Arabic carries the volume there, while English still leads agency searches.

So the honest answer is “both, in separate campaigns”, with a different lead language in each country. The rest of this piece shows the numbers, how Google now picks the ad language, and where the cheaper Arabic click stops being cheaper.

How did we compare English and Arabic keywords?

We matched English and Arabic keywords that express the same intent in the same city, then compared Semrush’s estimated monthly volume and cost per click. The pull covers 24 UAE keywords and 23 Saudi keywords across dental care, legal services and SEO services, taken on 1 October 2026 from Semrush’s September 2026 snapshot.

Semrush volume is a 12-month average, and its CPC figure is averaged over the same 12 months, according to the Semrush Knowledge Base. Neither number comes from a live Google Ads auction. Treat every figure as an estimate.

Pairing needed judgment, because Arabic searchers in Dubai rarely type a word-for-word translation of “dentist dubai”. The common phrase is the Arabic for “dental clinic Dubai”. We paired by intent, not by dictionary, because that is how a real campaign would be built. Arabic-language queries are shown as English translations and transliterations.

We kept city modifiers matched (Dubai with Dubai, Riyadh with Riyadh). Where one language had several close variants, we also report the whole cluster. That gives a second view that does not hang on a single keyword. All dollar figures are Semrush’s USD estimates.

What does the UAE data show?

In the three UAE keyword pairs we tracked, English carried 1.0 to 6.0 times the Arabic search volume and cost 1.5 to 3.3 times as much per click. The dental pair shows the widest gap: 2,900 English searches at $12.21 against 480 Arabic searches at $3.69, per Semrush’s September 2026 estimates for the UAE database.

Put in budget terms, 1,000 clicks on “dentist dubai” at the estimated CPC cost $12,210. The same 1,000 clicks on the Arabic phrase cost $3,690. Across the three pairs, English averages 2.1x the Arabic click price. That is the core finding.

Family law is the outlier, because Arabic personal-status (family law) searches match English volume exactly, at 590 a month each, and the Arabic click is 35% cheaper ($5.24 against $8.06). For a Dubai family-law firm, Arabic is a full second market, not a side campaign.

Some English legal niches cost far more: “criminal lawyers in dubai” shows an estimated $14.04 per click on 590 searches, the highest CPC in our UAE pull.

Why Arabic clicks cost less in Dubai: what we can and cannot say

The Semrush data shows a price gap but not its cause, and two facts frame it. The UN counts international migrants at 74.0% of the UAE population in 2024, and the UAE government names Arabic as the official language while shop and road signs run in Arabic and English. Our working explanation is thinner competition in Arabic auctions.

The UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024 puts the UAE’s migrant population at 8.16 million, or 74.0% of residents. Saudi Arabia sits at 40.3% in the same table. That gap matches the direction of our keyword data in both countries.

The UAE government fact sheet states that “the expatriate community outnumbers the population of UAE nationals”. It lists Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis as the largest foreign communities. For many of those residents, English is the practical language for finding a dentist or a lawyer.

Migrant share does not equal English searching, though. Many residents from other Arab countries search in Arabic, and many Emiratis search in English. Population data explains why English volume leads, but it cannot explain the price.

CPC reflects what advertisers bid, so a lower Arabic CPC means fewer or lower bids in those auctions over the past 12 months. Semrush does not show bidder counts, but your own Auction insights report in Google Ads does once both language campaigns are live.

Saudi Arabia: Arabic leads consumer searches, English leads agency searches

In Saudi Arabia, consumer service demand sits in Arabic. the Arabic “dental clinic Riyadh” draws 1,000 monthly searches against 390 for “dentist in riyadh”, per Semrush’s September 2026 data. Agency searches flip: “best seo company in saudi arabia” draws 1,900 monthly searches against 170 for the Arabic “best SEO company”, an 11.2x English lead.

The price pattern reverses too: in Riyadh dental searches, the Arabic click is the expensive one, at $1.77 against $0.84 (2.1x). Riyadh clicks are cheap in both languages. Both sit far below Dubai, where the English dental click is estimated at 14.5x the Riyadh English price.

Population helps explain the volume: GASTAT’s 2024 population estimates put the Kingdom at 35.3 million people in mid-2024, with Saudis at 55.6% and non-Saudis at 44.4%. Saudis form the majority of residents, which fits the Arabic-first volume in the dental data.

The English B2B lead rests on one keyword family, so read it narrowly. Arabic business demand exists under broader wording: the Arabic for “marketing company” draws 3,600 monthly searches in the same Saudi pull. If you sell to Saudi businesses, test both.

How does Google decide which language ad to show?

Google matches Search ads to a language the user understands, using the search term’s language, the user’s language settings and their activity. From September 2026, Google is removing the campaign-level language setting for Search campaigns. Ads now match on the language they are written in, with priority to ads that match the query.

The current wording on Google’s About language targeting page reads: “Search ads will automatically match based on the language of your ads.” The same page says Google prioritises “ads that match the user’s search term language”.

Three effects follow for Gulf accounts.

• Your ad text is now your language targeting: An Arabic ad group with Arabic headlines is how you reach Arabic searchers. The campaign setting no longer does that job on Search.
• Bilingual users cross over: Google’s keyword matching help gives the example of a Spanish query, “zapatos azules”, served an English ad for “blue shoes”. In Dubai, an English-only account already shows on some Arabic searches, with English copy.
• Performance Max splits: The language setting stops applying to its Search inventory but still governs YouTube, Display, Discover and Gmail placements, per the same Google page.

Google also checks whether the user understands the language of your landing page, not only the ad. An Arabic ad sending traffic to an English-only page fails that check.

Setting up bilingual campaigns that stay readable

Run one Search campaign per language per market, each with its own budget, keywords, ads and landing page. That split keeps cost per lead readable by language. It also stops cheaper Arabic traffic from hiding inside an English average, and it forces Arabic copy written for Arabic searchers instead of translated headlines.

• Separate the budgets: With a shared budget, the higher-volume English campaign absorbs spend and the Arabic test never gets enough clicks to judge.
• Write Arabic natively: The data already shows the phrasing gap, since English searchers type “dentist”, Arabic searchers type “dental clinic”. A translated “Best Dentist in Dubai” headline misses the query people actually use.
• Cover spelling variants: Semrush lists “car insurance” with the hamza (ta’min sayyarat, 22,200 searches) and without it (tamin sayyarat, 12,100) separately in Saudi Arabia. Hamza and no-hamza forms both carry demand, as our breakdown of how Arabic spelling variants split Saudi search demand shows.
• Match the landing page: Arabic ads go to a right-to-left Arabic page with Arabic form labels and an Arabic thank-you message.
• Keep negatives per language: An English negative list does nothing for Arabic queries.

VOCTOS’s starting split, a recommendation rather than a data finding: in the UAE, give Arabic 15 to 25% of the Search budget for the first 60 days. In Saudi consumer categories, reverse it and give English the smaller share. Then let your conversion data move it.

If you want this checked against your own category, show me whether Arabic is cheaper in my market.

Where does the cheaper click stop being cheaper?

A cheaper click is only cheaper per lead if its conversion rate holds up. Using the Semrush CPCs, the Arabic “dental clinic Dubai” campaign beats English on cost per lead as long as it converts at more than 30% of the English rate. For “lawyers in dubai”, Arabic needs 68% of the English rate.

The break-even is simple division: the cheaper CPC over the dearer CPC. Below that conversion ratio, the cheaper language costs more per lead.

Dental in Dubai leaves a wide margin, since Arabic can convert at a third of the English rate and still win. Legal work in Dubai leaves a narrow one, so a weak Arabic landing page or slow Arabic call handling erases the saving fast.

None of these thresholds is a forecast; they show how much conversion quality each language has to keep before the click price matters. Your conversion data supplies the rest.

Our read

Our position: in the UAE, keep English as the core and add Arabic as a cheaper long-tail layer, written natively and budgeted separately. In Saudi Arabia, build Arabic first for consumer services, then add English for expatriate, B2B and agency-type searches, where our data shows English volume leading.

We disagree with the common Gulf setup of one English campaign with Arabic keywords mixed in. That setup gives Arabic searchers English ads, blends two price levels into one average, and makes the Arabic opportunity invisible in reporting. Mixed accounts hide the saving.

We also disagree with “Arabic first everywhere” as a blanket rule. In Dubai, the Arabic dental and legal head terms offer 480 to 590 monthly searches, against 2,900 for the English head terms. That is not enough volume to carry a practice on its own.

The same bilingual logic applies beyond paid search. Our research on which Arabic pages AI engines cite and our guide to Arabic content for generative search cover the organic side. For clinics, our healthcare SEO strategy guide pairs with this paid view. If you also weigh a second search engine, see our analysis of whether Microsoft Advertising is worth testing in the Gulf.

What this data cannot tell you

This is a small, paired sample of Semrush estimates, not auction data from a live account. Volumes are 12-month averages, CPCs are modelled averages, and neither shows conversion rate, lead quality or how many competitors bid in each language. Treat the ratios as a starting hypothesis to test inside your own account.

• Sample size: 47 keywords across three service types, so categories such as real estate or e-commerce can behave differently.
• Estimates, not prices: Semrush CPC is a modelled 12-month average, while your own auction sets your real price as bids, Quality Score and competitors move.
• Rounded volumes: Semrush reports volume in fixed steps (480, 590, 720 and so on). Small differences between pairs sit inside that rounding.
• Missing CPCs: Semrush reported no CPC for the English Saudi SEO keywords, so that pair compares volume only.
• Spelling spread: Arabic demand splits across spellings and dialect phrasing. A single Arabic keyword understates total Arabic demand more than a single English keyword does.

FAQ

Are Arabic Google Ads cheaper than English ads in Dubai?

In our sample, yes: Semrush’s September 2026 estimates put English clicks at 1.5 to 3.3 times the Arabic price across three Dubai keyword pairs, with dental showing the widest gap ($3.69 against $12.21). Arabic volume is lower, though, at 480 to 590 searches a month per head term against up to 2,900 in English.

Do I need separate campaigns for English and Arabic?

We recommend it, because separate campaigns give each language its own budget, ads, negatives and landing page, and they keep cost per lead visible by language. From September 2026, Google matches Search ads on the language they are written in, so Arabic ad copy is what reaches Arabic searchers, not a campaign setting.

Can I just translate my English ads into Arabic?

Translation misses how people search. In our Dubai data, English searchers type “dentist dubai” while Arabic searchers type the Arabic for “dental clinic Dubai”. Write Arabic headlines around the Arabic query, cover hamza and no-hamza spellings, and send the click to a right-to-left Arabic landing page.

Which language should I use for Google Ads in Saudi Arabia?

For consumer services, start with Arabic, since Semrush shows the Arabic “dental clinic Riyadh” at 1,000 monthly searches against 390 for “dentist in riyadh” (September 2026). For agency and B2B services, add English early: “best seo company in saudi arabia” draws 1,900 searches against 170 for the closest Arabic phrase.

Is the Semrush CPC what I will actually pay?

No, because Semrush CPC is a modelled 12-month average, not the price from your own auction. Your real cost per click depends on your bids, Quality Score, competing advertisers and timing. Use Semrush to compare languages and pick test keywords, then judge on the CPCs and conversions your account records.

The better question to ask about language

“English or Arabic?” is the wrong frame for a Gulf Search account. The useful question is which language gives the lowest cost per qualified lead in your category. Only your conversion data answers that. The Semrush numbers tell you where to start and how big a conversion gap each language can absorb.

Seen that way, the UAE and Saudi results stop looking contradictory. Dubai offers a cheap Arabic layer under an expensive English core, while Riyadh offers a large Arabic core with a cheaper English edge. In both countries, the account that reports each language separately is the one that finds the saving.

If you already run English Search campaigns with working conversion tracking, launch a separate Arabic campaign with its own budget, run it for 60 days, and compare cost per lead against the break-even ratios above. If your conversion tracking is unreliable, fix that first, because a language test without conversions only compares click prices.

If you want a second pair of eyes on the structure before you spend, I’d like someone to review my bilingual account setup.