Ahmed Ghazi, Marketing Consultant at Thabet Investment Company. The current environment in Saudi Arabia has pushed both public and private organisations to move from expansive, visibility‑driven campaigns to more accountable, performance‑driven marketing, and 2026 is starting with a clear focus on efficiency, specialisation, and talent pressure across the industry.
2025 budgets and spending reset
In 2025, overall advertising and agency revenues in Saudi Arabia continued to grow, but spending behavior shifted toward tighter control and clearer justification of every riyal. Industry reports place the marketing and advertising agency market in the low‑to‑mid $2bn range, growing at roughly 5 to 6 per cent annually — healthy, but well below the more exuberant expansion of the early Vision 2030 years.
Government entities and large corporates remained the primary spenders, yet their internal controls became stricter. Ministries and state‑linked institutions tied budgets to transformation KPIs and citizen outcomes, while private firms demanded stronger business cases and more granular tracking of ROI, especially in banking, telecom, entertainment, and tourism. This created a climate where marketing departments had to defend budgets with data, not just creative ambition.
Scale and type of projects
Project scale in 2025 became more polarised: fewer blockbuster, reputation‑driven campaigns and more mid‑size, performance‑oriented initiatives alongside a growing layer of small, always‑on digital work. Large enterprises still accounted for the majority of spend, but their retainers increasingly focused on digital, analytics, and content operations rather than singular “big idea” bursts.
At the same time, SMEs accelerated their use of agencies for social media, performance campaigns, and e‑commerce enablement. This generated a high volume of smaller briefs—social content, tactical activations, influencer work—that demanded agility from agencies but offered lower average project value. Across both segments, digital formats—social, search, programmatic, and online video—captured the majority of share, while traditional media was used more selectively for national events, tourism pushes, and religious seasons.
From excessive to disciplined advertising in 2026
Between roughly 2021 and 2024, Vision 2030 momentum encouraged many organisations to invest heavily in awareness‑led campaigns, sometimes with limited performance discipline. By 2025, economic uncertainty, rising media costs, and intense competition for attention forced a reset: organisations began to prioritise effectiveness, negotiation, and optimisation over sheer scale.
This translated into new expectations for agencies and in‑house teams. Contracts increasingly linked remuneration to measurable outcomes, with pressure to demonstrate tangible impact through conversions, leads, or behavioral shifts rather than only reach and impressions. Ministries tightened procurement and compliance requirements, increasing scrutiny of content, brand safety, and cultural fit, which made scatter‑shot advertising less viable and pushed teams toward targeted, insight‑led campaigns.
2026 early outlook
As 2026 begins, forecasts for the Saudi marketing and advertising sector point to steady, not explosive, growth supported by digitalisation, tourism, and SME activity. Market analyses suggest the agency space will continue to expand at around 5 to 6 per cent per year over the medium term, with SMEs expected to contribute roughly $1bn in additional annual media spend by the early 2030s.
For marketing departments and agencies, three themes define early 2026. First, major public and private players are likely to maintain or slightly increase budgets, but with stricter tendering, consolidated rosters, and higher expectations on analytics and reporting. Second, specialised capabilities — social, influencer, mar‑tech integration, data analytics, and vertical expertise in sectors like fintech, tourism, and healthcare — are becoming more valuable than broad, undifferentiated creative services. Third, the market is rewarding partners that can deliver integrated, compliant, and performance‑driven work at various scales, from flagship programs down to always‑on digital operations.
Talent inflation and capability gaps
One of the most persistent constraints across 2025, and a central risk in 2026, is the inflation and scarcity in marketing and advertising talent at all levels. Reports on the Saudi agency market highlight a shortage of advanced mar‑tech, data, and performance skills, particularly in Riyadh and other major hubs where both government initiatives and private enterprises compete for the same profiles.
To secure these scarce capabilities, organisations are paying wage premiums, offering retention incentives, and engaging in aggressive talent poaching, which raises the overall cost base of marketing and advertising operations. Experienced strategists, marketing technologists, and senior performance marketers are especially expensive, while junior and non‑skilled roles — such as content support, community management, and production coordination — are required in greater numbers to sustain always‑on digital activity, pushing total payroll budgets upward even when individual salaries are more modest.
For leaders planning 2026 and beyond, this combination of budget discipline, evolving project mix, and talent inflation means success will depend less on spending more and more on building focused capabilities, tightening execution, and proving measurable impact in a market that is no longer impressed by scale alone.
By Ahmed Ghazi, Marketing Consultant at Thabet Investment Company
