To launch Google Ads in the United Arab Emirates, target the country, an emirate or a city such as Dubai or Abu Dhabi, write ads, keywords and landing page in the language of each audience, Arabic and English, one campaign per language, and check billing: Google says it does not charge VAT outside the European Union. The sourced facts are in the facts table at the top of the page.
Key takeaway: Launch separate campaigns in Arabic and in English, choose the location (country, emirate or city) based on where your customers are, read the Google results page of the UAE for each keyword before you bid, and have an accountant check the VAT.
| Fact | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Official languages | Arabic: Article 7 of the Constitution states that the official language of the UAE is Arabic | Constitution of the United Arab Emirates, Article 7 (official legislation portal, uaelegislation.gov.ae) |
| Languages Google Ads supports | Arabic (code ar) and English (code en): Google Ads supports both languages. It also supports, among others, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Persian, Malayalam, Turkish, Russian, French and Chinese (simplified and traditional) | Google Ads API, language codes |
| Currency | UAE dirham (AED), divided into 100 fils, pegged to the US dollar: 1 USD = AED 3.6725 | Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae), Fact sheet |
| Search engines (share of searches) | Google 93.47%, Bing 3.96%, Yandex 1.8% (September 2026) | StatCounter Global Stats |
| Mobile vs desktop | Mobile 60.04%, desktop 38.91%, tablet 1.05% of page views (September 2026) | StatCounter Global Stats |
| Google Ads billing entity | Google Ireland Ltd. serves the account; Google cannot charge VAT when the billing address is outside the European Union | Google Ads Help, “Taxes in your country” |
| VAT on Google Ads | Google does not add VAT outside the European Union: the advertiser must check with the local tax authority whether it has to self-assess VAT, with its tax advisor. Google cannot advise on tax matters and provides a monthly statement | Google Ads Help, “Taxes in your country” |
| Country VAT rate | 5%: the VAT rate, introduced in the UAE on January 1, 2018, applied to taxable supplies of goods and services at each step of the supply chain | Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae), Register for VAT |
| Country-specific Google surcharge | No UAE-specific surcharge in Google's list, which names Austria, France, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom | Google Ads Help, “Jurisdiction-specific surcharges” |
| Online gambling | Allowed for lotteries, internet gaming and sports wagering, and only for an operator holding a license from the GCGRA, the commercial gaming authority. Google also lists the UAE among the countries where promoting offline gambling is prohibited | Google Advertising Policies, “Gambling and games” |
| Public holidays (public and private sectors), including National Day | January 1, National Day on December 2 and 3, and Islamic holidays whose dates follow moon sighting: Eid Al Fitr, Arafah Day, Eid Al Adha, Hijri New Year, the Prophet's birthday. A holiday that falls on a weekend or coincides with another holiday is not moved | Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae), Public holidays |
| Ramadan: private-sector working hours | During the holy month of Ramadan, private-sector working hours are reduced by 2 hours every day (normal hours are 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week) | Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae), Working hours and overtime |
| Public-sector working week | Federal sector: official weekend on Saturday and Sunday, with a half day on Friday (7:30 am to 12:00 pm). Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah adopted a similar system; in Sharjah, employees work Monday to Thursday and the official weekend lasts three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) | Official Portal of the UAE Government (u.ae), Working hours in the public sector |
Data verified on . Each value was read on its source on the date shown. It may have changed since: the source prevails.
One campaign per country and language keeps budgets, bids and reports readable. In the settings, pick the United Arab Emirates as the location, or an emirate or a city if your offer is local: Google's list includes each of the seven emirates and cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
On Search, Google recommends Presence or interest, which also reaches people interested in the location without being there, and keeps Presence for sensitive sectors or offers that only concern people on site. A service delivered in Dubai only falls under the second case; a trip, an investment or a relocation researched from abroad falls under the first.
For the Arabic-speaking audience, write ads, keywords and landing page in Arabic; for the English-speaking audience, in English, in a separate campaign or ad group. Google now matches ads based on their language. The facts table at the top of the page lists the languages Google Ads recognizes.
Start from Keyword Planner set to the UAE and to each language, not from a translation. Our guide on how to choose Google Ads keywords covers the method, and Vision generates keyword ideas from a product or a page.
For each keyword, open the Google results page from the UAE, in the language of the search, and look at the ads, the pages that rank and the local block. The Should I Bid intent analysis does this reading keyword by keyword and returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict.
Have the ads and the landing page written, or at least reviewed, by a native speaker of Arabic or English. Test the right-to-left display on mobile: the facts table shows that mobile weighs more than desktop.
Check your account's billing address: Google's page on taxes says that Google Ireland Ltd. serves the account and that Google cannot charge VAT there outside the European Union. Ask your accountant whether you must self-assess. The rate is in the facts table.
Some sectors have country-specific rules: gambling, for example, requires a license from the local authority. Read Google's policy page for your sector, run a capped test budget, read the search terms report and add negatives language by language.
In the UAE, language is decided by your ads and your keywords: write them in the language of each audience. Google removed the language setting from Search campaigns: ads are now matched based on their language, and Google gives priority to ads that match the language of the search term. To reach your audience, you keep the geographic location. One campaign, or at least one ad group, per language remains the most readable structure.
Arabic is the official language, but English is also visible in public space. The facts table at the top of the page cites Article 7 of the Constitution for Arabic. According to the "Fact sheet" page of the official portal u.ae, road signs and commercial signs are written in Arabic and English, and other languages are widely spoken: Bengali, Farsi, Malayalam, Turkish and Urdu. Google Ads recognizes several of them: the table lists them, and they only matter if you have a precise audience to talk to in that language.
An Arabic-speaking audience and an English-speaking audience do not necessarily overlap: do not assume the split, measure it. Your customers may type the same request in Arabic, in English or in another language. Open Keyword Planner set to the UAE, one language at a time, then read in the search terms report which languages really trigger your ads before you split the budget.
Arabic is written from right to left, and its letters change shape depending on their position in the word. According to Wikipedia's article on the Arabic alphabet, the script is cursive and a letter can take up to four forms: initial, medial, final or isolated. A text translated word for word and pasted into a template designed for a left-to-right language may display badly: check the ad preview and the landing page in a right-to-left layout, on mobile as well as on desktop.
Choose the register of your Arabic before you write. According to Wikipedia's article on Emirati Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, the so-called high language, coexists with the dialect, the so-called low language: this is diglossia. A machine translation does not settle that choice for you. Have the ads written by a native speaker of Arabic, then check in the search terms report the form your customers really type. The list below sums up the variants to test.
Google lets you target the whole country, but also each of the seven emirates and many cities. The location list of the Google Ads API files the United Arab Emirates as a country and classes Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain as provinces. It also contains cities, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, as well as neighborhoods and airports. Google's help notes that the available location types vary by country.
For a local offer, go down to the emirate or the city; for a national offer, keep the country. A clinic, a restaurant or a home service that only operates in Dubai has no reason to pay for clicks elsewhere. Conversely, an online shop that delivers across the country is better off keeping the country, then comparing results by location in the reports of your account. A keyword can name a city ("Dubai") or the country: treat them as two lists and read the search terms to see which ones bring you customers.
Google recommends Presence or interest on Search, except for sensitive sectors and offers limited to people on site. According to Google Ads Help on geographic targeting, broad targeting also reaches people who have shown an interest in the location without being there, whereas Presence fits when you only want the people who are there. In the UAE the difference matters: a relocation, investment or travel offer may be researched from abroad, a home service in Dubai may not. Choose based on where your customer is at the time of the search, then check in your reports where your clicks come from.
A Should I Bid analysis can target the country or a large city. Reading the Google page of Dubai rather than the one of the country can bring up other ads and other local results: the setting is optional, and comparing the two readings helps you choose the location. Our guide on search intent in Google Ads explains how to read that page.
Google dominates search in the UAE: the facts table at the top of the page shows a very clear share for Google, far ahead of Bing and Yandex. A Google Ads campaign only reaches searches made on Google. It covers neither Bing nor Yandex, whose weight is small in the source cited by the table. So the first test happens on Google, before you think about a second channel.
Mobile weighs more than desktop in page views. The table shows it: do not design your landing pages for desktop only. Open them on a phone, in Arabic from right to left as well as in English, and check that the call button or the form stays visible without scrolling.
These shares describe all internet users in the country, not your customers. After the first days, look at the device report of your own account, language by language: an English-speaking audience and an Arabic-speaking audience may behave differently, and only your own data will tell.
Google says it serves UAE accounts from its Irish entity, without being able to charge VAT there. In Google's page on taxes by country, the section that applies to the UAE says your account is served by Google Ireland Ltd., and that Google cannot charge VAT when the billing address is in a country outside the European Union. The page adds that Google provides a monthly statement and that it cannot advise on tax matters.
Self-assessing means declaring the VAT yourself on a purchase made abroad: it is up to you, with a tax advisor, to know whether you are required to. Google invites you to check with the local tax authority whether you must ("self-assess"). The federal VAT decree-law provides, in its Article 48, that a taxable person who imports concerned goods or services for the purposes of the business is treated as making a taxable supply to himself. We read it in an unofficial translation, published by the Federal Tax Authority and listed in the sources: do not rely on it alone. The VAT rate is in the facts table, according to the official portal u.ae.
Google announces no regulatory surcharge specific to the UAE. Google's list of jurisdiction-specific surcharges names several countries, and the UAE is not one of them. So your test budget needs no local markup, unlike what you would see in some countries on that list. Read the page again before a big spend: it can change.
The dirham is pegged to the US dollar, which simplifies budget conversions. The official portal u.ae gives the currency and its fixed parity, repeated in the facts table. If your budget is set in dollars, the conversion does not move: show prices in dirhams on the landing page for the local audience, and manage your spend in the currency of your account.
Google regulates gambling country by country: in the UAE, the list of allowed products is short. Google's page on country-specific rules lists, for the UAE, lotteries, internet gaming and sports wagering, provided the operator holds a GCGRA license. According to the GCGRA guide, this authority (General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority) issues and renews commercial gaming licenses, and carrying out such an activity in the UAE without the relevant license is strictly prohibited. Other forms of online gambling are not listed there as allowed.
Offline gambling cannot be promoted where advertising it is illegal. The same Google page prohibits the promotion of physical gambling in places where it is illegal to advertise it, and names the UAE among its examples. So do not count on a campaign to promote a physical gaming venue.
Google's rules vary from one country to another and from one sector to another. Health, finance, alcohol, regulated products: open Google's advertising policy page for your sector before you write. For anything that falls under local law (advertising, regulated sectors, consumer protection), have your message validated by a local lawyer: this page cites Google's rules, not legal advice.
To see who already advertises from the UAE, read competitors' ads before you choose your messages. Our guide to the Google Ads Transparency Center explains how to filter ads by country, and the one on who bids on your keywords compares the other methods. Have what you find translated if you do not read Arabic: an ad you cannot understand teaches you nothing.
During Ramadan, the private sector reduces its working hours: your customers, your teams and your customer service may be less available at the usual times. The official portal u.ae states that private-sector working hours are reduced during the holy month, and the facts table gives the size of the reduction. Do not guess the effect on your searches: measure it. Open Google Trends set to the UAE, compare your keywords before, during and after Ramadan over several years, and note whether demand rises, drops or moves to other moments of the day.
Islamic holidays follow the moon: their dates are not fixed in the usual calendar. The official list of public holidays states that these holidays are set by moon sighting, and that a holiday that falls on a weekend or coincides with another holiday is not moved. Check the list of the year before you set budgets and schedules, and do not copy last year's calendar.
National Day is the other fixed date to watch. It falls in December, and the facts table gives the days. Like the other holidays on the list, it applies to the public and private sectors: your providers, your carriers and your customer service may be away.
The official weekend is not the same everywhere: the federal sector and most emirates have Saturday and Sunday, and Sharjah is the exception. The page of the u.ae portal on public-sector working hours describes a Saturday and Sunday weekend with a shorter Friday for the federal sector, a similar system in six emirates, and a three-day weekend in Sharjah. It describes the public sector: do not assume that your customers or your private suppliers follow the same rhythm. If your offer targets Sharjah, check who you are talking to before you set your customer service hours.
Do not mix Arabic and English in a single campaign. Google now matches ads based on their language, and a budget shared between two audiences hides what works for each. Keep one campaign, or at least one ad group, per language, with its own keywords, ads and landing page.
Do not confuse targeting Dubai with targeting the UAE. Choosing a city narrows the reach, choosing the country widens it. Decide based on where you deliver or receive your customers, and do not leave Presence or interest on by default if your service is only delivered on site.
Do not copy the structure of a campaign from another country. Here, the location (country, emirate or city) adds itself to the language as a third axis: name your campaigns so that each report reads without ambiguity, and compare them with each other before you move a budget.
Do not confuse the Google page of the UAE with the one from your home country. Ads, ranking pages and local results change with the country and the language: open the results page from the UAE, in the language of each search, before you bid.
Reading the Google page of the UAE keyword by keyword is the job of Should I Bid. Its intent analysis reads the Google results page in the country and language you choose, among 50 countries, including the United Arab Emirates in Arabic or in English, then returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100, and recommends negatives. An analysis can also target a large city of the country, such as Dubai or Abu Dhabi (optional setting). The tool works with credits, one credit per analyzed keyword: see pricing.
Create a dedicated campaign that targets the UAE, or an emirate or a city such as Dubai if your offer is local, with Presence or Presence or interest depending on whether your customers are on site. Write ads, keywords and landing page in Arabic and in English, one campaign or ad group per language, check billing and VAT, then run a capped test.
It depends on your audience, not on the country alone. Arabic is the official language, and English appears on signs and shopfronts according to the u.ae portal. Google matches ads based on their language: write ads, keywords and landing page in each language, in separate campaigns, then read the search terms report to see which language brings you customers.
Yes. Google Ads' location list contains the United Arab Emirates as a country, each of the seven emirates as a province, and cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Choose a local location if you only operate there, the country if you deliver everywhere, and read the search terms: a keyword can name the city, the country, or both.
According to Google's page on taxes, the account is served by Google Ireland Ltd., and Google cannot charge VAT when the billing address is outside the European Union. Check with the local tax authority whether you must self-assess VAT. Google does not give tax advice: ask your accountant. The rate is in the facts table at the top of the page.
The official portal u.ae states that private-sector working hours are reduced during Ramadan, and Islamic holidays follow the moon. Do not assume whether demand rises or drops: compare your keywords in Google Trends set to the UAE, before, during and after the holy month, then adjust budgets, schedules and customer service.
Only within a narrow frame: Google allows lotteries, internet gaming and sports wagering, for an operator holding a GCGRA license, and prohibits promoting offline gambling where it is illegal. Read Google's whole page before you launch, and have your project validated by a local lawyer.
Yes. Should I Bid reads the Google results page for the country and language you choose, among 50 countries, including the United Arab Emirates in Arabic or in English. It checks that page against your offer and returns, for each keyword, a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100. You can try it with free analyses, no credit card: see pricing.