Running Snapchat ads in Saudi Arabia: a guide for brands

A media plan written for the UAE and then copied across to Saudi Arabia tends to give Snapchat too little. In the Kingdom, the platform works at a scale few apps reach anywhere. Speaking in Riyadh in October 2025, Snap's chief executive Evan Spiegel said its Saudi community had grown to 26 million people, in a country of roughly 33 million.

Snap has described that audience in more than one way, so quote it with care. In November 2024 it reported 25 million monthly active users in Saudi Arabia, reaching 90 percent of 13 to 34 year olds, and opened an office and creator hub in Riyadh. Before that, in July 2024, it cited a monthly addressable reach of more than 22 million. Community size, monthly actives and addressable reach measure different things. When a figure goes into a plan or a board paper, use the one that fits the point being made.

What you can buy

• Snap Ads, which Snap now labels Single Image or Video: full-screen vertical ads that appear between Stories and in Spotlight. Most campaigns are built on these.
• Story ads: a branded tile in the Discover feed that opens into a sequence of Snaps.
• Collection ads: an image or video with product tiles beneath it, made for shopping.
• Commercials: shown within premium content, up to 3 minutes long, and non-skippable for the first 6 seconds.
• AR Lenses and Filters: camera effects people play with and send to friends.
• Sponsored Snaps: full-screen ads delivered to the Chat inbox, a format with rules of its own.

Two newer options arrived in 2026. In March Snap launched Total Snap Takeover, which gives one brand the first ad slot across the Map, Chat, the camera, Stories and Spotlight. It has also been testing an Offers format in Spotlight and Stories.

Technical specs for Snap Ads

Build Snap Ads at 9:16, 1080 by 1920. Video should be MP4 or MOV, encoded in H.264, and no bigger than 1 GB. Snap's help pages accept lengths from 3 seconds up to 30 minutes, and anything shorter than 3 seconds loops. A still image (JPG or PNG, at least 720 by 1280 and no more than 5 MB) is shown as a 5 second video.

• Brand name: a maximum of 32 characters, although 25 is the length that displays safely. It appears top left, and a tap on it opens the brand's public profile.
• Headline: a maximum of 34 characters, placed below the brand name, and it must differ from the brand name.
• Safe zone: on a 1080 by 1920 frame, keep anything important out of the top 150 pixels and the bottom 330 pixels.

Snap's button labels are not Meta's

The call to action sits as a pill at the foot of the ad, and the wording options differ from Meta's. Website ads can use Apply Now, Book Now, Buy Tickets, Get Now, Listen, More, Order Now, Play, Read, Shop Now, Show, Showtimes, Sign Up, View or Watch. Learn More is not on the list; More is the closest match. App install ads draw on a separate list that includes Install Now and Download. Snap's Dynamic CTA can also change the style and position of the button for each viewer, and that version does not appear in the ads preview.

Snap's research on the region

Two Snap studies are worth reading when you decide the mix. The first, an attention study run in Saudi Arabia with Lumen and published in September 2025, found that AR Lenses held about eight times the attention of the social media average, and Commercials about 5.7 times. The second, a market-mix study for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait published in May 2025, recommended putting most of the budget into Snap Ads, a large share into Story ads and a smaller share into AR. Both are a platform grading its own ads, so treat them as ideas to test, not a verdict.

What it costs to start

Ads Manager has a minimum spend of 5 US dollars a day, and Snap recommends 20 to 50 dollars a day to give a campaign enough room to learn. Smaller businesses can use Snap Promote instead. It boosts a Spotlight post, a public Story or saved content directly from the brand's public profile, with goals that include more followers, views, website visits, and calls and texts. Snap does not publish a minimum budget for Promote.

Creative that suits Saudi Snapchatters

• Design for a vertical, full-screen view from day one. A feed ad that has been resized always looks resized.
• Get the brand and the message on screen in the first second or two, because people tap past quickly.
• Use sound, and shoot for a phone screen, not a television.
• Write the Arabic creative as Arabic from the start, and keep every word inside the safe zone.
• Set up the brand's public profile before any ads run. A tap on the brand name opens it, and Sponsored Snaps need one.
• Before anything goes into Ads Manager, preview each cut full screen with its brand name, headline, Snap's button label and the safe zone in place.

Planning a push into Saudi Arabia, or wondering whether your current plan gives Snapchat its due? Speak to ALXO, and we can go through the formats and the creative that suit your brand.