What the evidence says
IAB MENA’s public summary, released on 8 June 2026, estimates 2025 regional digital adspend at US$8.185 billion, up 17.8% year on year. It reports social-video growth of 23.6%, CTV growth of 31% and retail-media growth of up to 40.5%. These are regional channel-spend estimates, not advertiser returns or Saudi-only figures.
The Metrix-360 interpretation
The strategic question is not which growing channel to copy. It is which customer moment a channel can serve better than the alternatives. Retail media may be worth evaluating where product availability and transaction measurement align. Video may help explain a proposition, but completion alone does not prove persuasion. Connected TV requires a credible audience and measurement plan before a team assigns it performance expectations. Our recommendation is to make every test compete for budget on an explicit role, not a fashionable label.
A proposed 90-day action plan
Our implementation recommendations—not findings from the source study.
- Days 1–30: Define the audience gap or customer moment the current plan misses. Ask prospective partners about inventory, targeting, fees and measurement access.
- Days 31–60: Run a bounded test with a named learning objective and a stop condition. Keep creative quality and audience differences visible when comparing channels.
- Days 61–90: Evaluate contribution alongside the existing mix. Where feasible, use holdouts or geographic comparisons; document limitations where randomisation is not practical.
What to measure
- Incremental qualified reach where measurement supports it
- Cost per relevant action and downstream customer quality
- Frequency, inventory quality and fee transparency
- Contribution margin or qualified pipeline—not platform ROAS alone
Risks to avoid
Fast channel growth can reflect a small starting base, classification changes or spending shifts. The complete IAB report is member-only; this analysis uses the public summary and does not reproduce unavailable country or channel breakdowns.
A growing channel earns a test only when its role and success criteria are clear.
Methodology & limitations
Secondary analysis of public IAB MENA estimates. No channel-level recommendation here is a forecast or a universal budget allocation. Validate suitability against your sector, customers and measurement capabilities.
Source dates may precede this analysis. No new fieldwork was conducted, and recommendations are not performance guarantees.