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posted on May. 21, 2025 at 10:00 amMay 21, 2025

Isolation to integration: How lifting Syria sanctions will reboot digital marketing

posted on May. 21, 2025 at 10:00 amMay 21, 2025

Syria-based Sawad Consultation Group's Alber Makhoul outlines the immediate implications for digital marketing in Syria following the lifting of sanctions, including restored ad buying, universal analytics and streamlined payments.

Alber Makhoul, Founder and Principal, Sawad Consultation Group

Despite fourteen years of crippling sanctions, marketers in Syria have built ingenious workarounds using Facebook groups, Telegram channels, and encrypted chats — to keep commerce alive.
On May 13, 2025, President Donald Trump announced the lifting of all US sanctions on Syria, signaling a seismic shift: brands and agencies can finally deploy paid ads, leverage global analytics platforms, and reconnect Syria to the SWIFT banking system.
his article outlines the immediate implications for digital marketing in Syria—restored ad buying, universal analytics, streamlined payments — and provides a three-phase playbook for agencies and in-market brands to seize this historic moment.

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Tags:ad-spend Ads Alber Makhoul Analytics banking system channels digital marketing digital wallet direct billing drip campaigns DSPs Facebook global analytics platforms go-to-market Google integration LinkedIn measurement media buys META multi-touch attribution paid ads paid campaigns programmatic reintegration reporting sanctions Sawad Consultation Group storytelling SWIFT Syria Telegram website visitors

the authorAnup Oommen

Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.