Free tool
Ad budget calculator for the UAE
Your ad budget is the clicks you need multiplied by what each click costs. Start from a revenue or lead goal, divide by order value and conversion rate to get conversions and clicks, then price those clicks for your platform. This calculator does it in AED and splits the result across prospecting, retargeting and a testing reserve.
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Your plan
Your plan
Recommended monthly budget
AED 52,083
≈ AED 1,713 a day, including a 10% testing reserve
- ProspectingNew audiencesAED 36,45870%
- RetargetingVisitors who didn’t convertAED 10,41720%
- Testing reserveNew creatives and audiencesAED 5,20810%
Projected ROAS 2.88x. Check it is above your break-even ROAS before you commit. Target CPA is AED 139. Find your break-even ROAS
- Clicks needed
- 18,750
- At 2% conversion
- Orders needed
- 375
- At AED 400 AOV
- Target CPA
- AED 139
- Budget ÷ conversions
- Projected ROAS
- 2.88x
- Revenue goal ÷ budget
- Cost per click
- AED 2.50
- Meta
- Media cost
- AED 46,875
- Clicks × CPC, excluding reserve
How this is calculated
- Conversions needed
Revenue goal ÷ AOV (or your lead goal)With your numbers: AED 150,000 ÷ AED 400 = 375- Clicks needed
Conversions ÷ Conversion rateWith your numbers: 375 ÷ 2% = 18,750- Effective CPC (CPM model)
CPM ÷ (1,000 × CTR)- Media cost
Clicks × CPCWith your numbers: 18,750 × AED 2.50 = AED 46,875- Recommended budget
Media cost ÷ (1 − Testing reserve %)With your numbers: AED 46,875 ÷ (1 − 10%) = AED 52,083- Retargeting
Recommended budget × Retargeting shareWith your numbers: AED 52,083 × 20% = AED 10,417- Prospecting
Recommended budget − Retargeting − Testing reserveWith your numbers: AED 52,083 − AED 10,417 − AED 5,208 = AED 36,458- Target CPA
Recommended budget ÷ ConversionsWith your numbers: AED 52,083 ÷ 375 = AED 139- Projected ROAS
Revenue goal ÷ Recommended budgetWith your numbers: AED 150,000 ÷ AED 52,083 = 2.88x
All figures are monthly and exclude VAT and agency fees. Conversions and clicks are rounded up. A month is averaged at 30.4 days.
How do you work out an ad budget from a revenue goal?
Work backwards through the funnel. Revenue comes from orders, orders come from clicks, and clicks cost money. Four numbers get you a defensible budget: your goal, your average order value (or lead goal), your conversion rate and your cost per click.
- Orders needed = revenue goal ÷ AOV. AED 150,000 ÷ AED 400 = 375 orders.
- Clicks needed = orders ÷ conversion rate. 375 ÷ 2% = 18,750 clicks.
- Media cost = clicks × CPC. 18,750 × AED 2.50 = AED 46,875.
- Budget = media cost ÷ (1 − 10% testing reserve) = AED 52,083 a month, or about AED 1,713 a day.
That plan implies a ROAS of 2.88x (AED 150,000 ÷ AED 52,083). Check it against your break-even with our ROAS calculator. If the goal needs a ROAS your margins can’t support, the goal or the funnel has to change, not just the budget.
What do clicks and impressions cost in the UAE?
The presets in the calculator are rough starting assumptions we use for first-pass planning. They are not published benchmarks, and your account can easily land outside them. Treat them as a placeholder until you have two to four weeks of your own data.
| Platform | CPC | CPM | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta | AED 1.5–4 | AED 15–35 | 0.8–1.5% |
| Google Search | AED 3–12 | AED 150–450 | 3–7% |
| TikTok | AED 1–3.5 | AED 10–25 | 0.5–1.2% |
| Snapchat | AED 1.5–4 | AED 8–20 | 0.3–0.8% |
| AED 18–40 | AED 100–220 | 0.4–0.8% |
- Season matters. Auction prices rise in Ramadan, Q4, White Friday and around DSF. Plan 20–40% higher CPMs in those windows.
- Language matters. Arabic and English audiences behave and cost differently. Plan them as separate campaigns.
- Industry matters. Real estate, finance, legal and healthcare keywords on Google can cost many times the preset.
How should you split budget between prospecting and retargeting?
Prospecting finds new people; retargeting brings back visitors who didn’t buy. Retargeting audiences are small and convert well, so they only absorb a slice of spend before frequency climbs and results fall. Most accounts sit at 10–25% retargeting.
- New brand or low traffic: 5–10% retargeting. There isn’t much of an audience to retarget yet.
- Established e-commerce: 15–25%, including cart and product-view audiences.
- Long B2B sales cycles: 20–30%, with content retargeting to nurture leads.
Why keep a testing reserve?
New creatives, audiences and landing pages need spend before they prove themselves, and Meta and TikTok campaigns go through a learning phase. A 10–20% reserve lets you test without starving the campaigns that already work.
What if the budget is more than you can afford?
Don’t just spend less and hope. The calculator shows the levers: each one changes the budget as much as the others.
- Lift conversion rate. Going from 1.5% to 2% cuts required clicks by a quarter. Page speed, trust signals, Arabic content and Apple Pay or Tabby at checkout often move it.
- Raise AOV. Bundles and free-shipping thresholds mean fewer orders for the same revenue.
- Lower CPC. Better creative and tighter targeting raise CTR, which cuts cost per click.
- Phase the goal. Reach the goal over three months as the account learns, rather than in month one.
Want a second opinion? We pressure-test plans like this against real account data as part of every engagement. See our pricing or talk to us.
FAQ
Ad budget questions, answered
Work it out from your goal rather than a percentage. Divide your revenue goal by average order value to get orders, divide by conversion rate to get clicks, and multiply by your cost per click. For example, AED 150,000 of revenue at a AED 400 AOV, 2% conversion rate and AED 2.50 CPC needs AED 46,875 of media, or AED 52,083 with a 10% testing reserve.
Many established businesses spend 5–12% of revenue on marketing, and growth-stage e-commerce brands often spend 15–30% while they scale. The right number is the one your contribution margin can support. Check it with a break-even ROAS calculation.
As rough planning assumptions, Meta clicks often land around AED 1.5–4 and Google Search clicks around AED 3–12, with competitive sectors like real estate and legal much higher. These are not benchmarks; your own account data will be more accurate after two to four weeks.
Use CPC for Google Search, where you pay per click. For Meta, TikTok and Snapchat, CPM plus CTR is more realistic, because those platforms mostly charge per thousand impressions and your click cost depends on how well your creative earns clicks.
Enough to get meaningful conversions, not just clicks. A practical minimum is enough budget for about 50 conversions a month per campaign, which is what Meta’s learning phase looks for. If that is out of reach, optimise for a cheaper event, such as add to cart, while you build volume.
Next step
Want us to pressure-test this plan?
Bring your goal and your numbers to a free 30-minute intro call. We’ll sense-check them against what we see in UAE accounts and tell you honestly whether the budget, the funnel or the goal needs to move.