Influencer marketing has become an important tool for brands seeking consumers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But as companies commit more money to creators, a crucial question remains: are they buying measurable business growth or simply visibility on social media?
The distinction matters in a region where creator-led content is becoming a significant part of the digital economy. A May 2025 analysis by Redseer Strategy Consultants estimated that the Gulf Cooperation Council’s creator economy included 1.5 million active creators generating $300 million in earnings. It also found that 80% of these creators had fewer than 10,000 followers, highlighting the market’s scale beyond celebrity influencers.
For marketers, however, a large creator ecosystem does not automatically translate into effective advertising.
The measurement problem
A campaign generating millions of views may look successful in a presentation, but those figures alone cannot establish whether consumers purchased a product, switched brands or remembered the advertiser.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s 2025 Creator Ad Spend and Strategy Report, based on a survey of 453 US advertising decision-makers, illustrates this tension. Return on investment was the leading creator-campaign performance indicator, cited by 40% of respondents among their top three metrics. Engagement rates followed at 34%, while impressions and views were cited by 26%.
For Gulf brands, campaign success needs to be defined before an influencer is hired. Awareness campaigns require measures of brand recognition and recall; sales campaigns need evidence of incremental purchases and revenue.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE
Saudi Arabia’s large consumer market and the UAE’s international business environment offer different opportunities for creator partnerships. Both, however, require brands to distinguish audience size from commercial influence.
Redseer’s analysis reported that creators were 1.5 times as impactful as celebrities in driving purchases, compared with 1.2 times two years earlier. This is a consultancy finding, not an independently established measure applicable to every category.
The choice between celebrities and smaller creators should depend on campaign objectives, audience relevance and costs. Celebrities can deliver broad visibility, while micro-influencers may offer specialised communities and closer connections with followers. Neither guarantees sales.
A 2026 study by Ipsos and TikTok analysed 42,579 creator collaborations involving 2,790 creators across 20 advertiser sectors and 122 product categories. It found that aligning creator size with campaign objectives improved efficiency by 32%.
The study offers a useful framework for Gulf marketers, although its findings should not be interpreted as proof that every partnership will deliver similar results.
From engagement to sales
A stronger measurement framework combines campaign tracking with evidence of commercial impact.
Unique links, discount codes, affiliate tracking and conversion data can help brands identify purchases associated with individual creators. However, these tools do not necessarily establish causation: consumers might have purchased the product anyway or encountered other advertising before buying.
To establish incremental impact, marketers can compare exposed audiences with control groups, conduct geographic tests or use econometric modelling to estimate additional revenue.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s influencer effectiveness research examined 220 campaigns from 144 brands across 36 sectors and 28 markets, representing more than £133 million in influencer spending.
Across 59 UK campaigns, influencer marketing recorded a short-term return-on-investment index of 99, against an all-channel average of 100. In a smaller sample of 18 campaigns, its long-term ROI index reached 151.
These findings suggest influencer marketing can contribute to sustained commercial growth. However, they are not GCC-specific results and cannot establish the returns achieved by Saudi or UAE advertisers.
Proving commercial value
For brands in both markets, the next step is to move beyond follower counts, views and likes when allocating budgets.
That means demanding transparent campaign costs, distinguishing organic reach from paid amplification, assessing audience authenticity and tracking performance across the customer journey. It also means comparing creator-led content with conventional advertising against equivalent objectives.
The decisive test is whether an influencer partnership delivers additional sales, strengthens brand preference or produces another measurable business outcome at a justifiable cost.
Until brands disclose more campaign-level evidence, the extent to which Gulf influencer spending delivers those results remains an open question.
