“Transparency, collaboration, and innovation are clearly evident as key drivers of growth," says Ian Manning, Executive Director, IAB MENA.A new study by IAB MENA and Altman Solo, a global telecommunications, media, and technology consulting firm, reveals MENA’s digital ad channel and product investment priorities and suggests key steps for growth.
This joint study explores and compares the investment rationales and expectations of MENA-based digital ad buyers, advertisers, and suppliers. It found that 86 per cent of MENA advertisers surveyed believe the top challenge facing the industry is a lack of data transparency. A noteworthy 88 per cent of advertisers indicated a sub-standard in-house understanding of digital ad buys.
88 per cent of respondents to the Altman Solon 2025 State of Digital Advertising in MENA Study share concern over lack of data transparency. Digital advertisers also expect increased demand for inventory from emerging digital ad channels, such as digital out-of-home (DOOH), CTV and digital audio, improving advertiser education and access to broader campaign data. If met, these needs could amplify market growth through greater trust in the digital ad ecosystem.
“MENA has the audience scale and digital ad appetite to be a key market for growth,” said Daniel Weinbaum, Associate Partner, Altman Solon.
To steer this growth, the report outlines four points to support the evolution of the MENA digital ad market.
1. Improved transparency on digital ad measurement and inventory cost to power growth
According to the study, 31 – 35 per cent of MENA marketers expect to increase demand for DOOH, CTV and digital audio inventory.
Driving this demand is the transparency of impression delivery, the availability of MENA-based partners, the transparency of attribution data and a higher perceived rate of ROI.
Marketers share a growing consciousness of cross-channel relevance as well as challenges of unified media buys, the report finds.
“The market size and under-penetration of non-social digital ad channels presents an exciting opportunity for publishers and ad techs to evolve the MENA ecosystem through ad tech and advertiser education,” said Weinbaum.
2. Education to better enable buyer demand for unified buys
Marketers also expressed a need to upskill in-house capabilities to address the limited understanding around digital ad buys.
The region continues to grapple with a limited understanding among ad buyers of MENA’s digital advertising landscape beyond social platforms – undermining the perceived value of such inventory. Adding to the issue is a lack of clarity, and at times consistency, around what qualifies as premium inventory.
19 per cent of respondents shared that they are willing to invest in in-house team trainings, while 17 per cent said they would partake in new agency partnerships and enhance first-party data acquisition to mitigate the limited understanding of digital advertising.
“MENA is already one of the biggest and fastest growing digital ad markets in EMEA, but by strengthening partnerships throughout the ecosystem, from publishers to agencies, advertisers to tech providers, there is still significant headroom for growth,” said Ian Manning, IAB MENA Executive Director.
3. Addressing audience data and attribution gaps
Marketers believe that MENA ad suppliers can solve challenges with fragmented audience data and attribution gaps that obscure ad impact across channels.
86 per cent of marketers claim that data transparency is the biggest challenge affecting their company’s advertising media purchasing while 83 per cent chalk this down to challenges around cross-channel and cross-market measurement.
Marketers see a unique role for MENA publishers as broader educators for audience measurement and attribution data, the report finds.
4. Invest in emerging digital ad products
A key move to better digital ad growth in the region is facilitating a better alignment between ad suppliers and ad buyers perception of ROI from investments in emerging ad products.
33 per cent of respondents place full-funnel ROI or attribution measurement tools, automated workflows for campaign sales and execution, dynamic rate cards and improved forecasting and yield management as first priority from a planned internal investment perspective.
Therefore, the report finds that ad sellers in MENA prioritise ad product investments to reduce cost-to-publish campaigns and manage yield.
“Transparency, collaboration, and innovation are clearly evident as key drivers of growth,” said Manning. The survey included responses from approximately 300 MENA senior marketing leaders, ad agency executives, and digital ad suppliers. It was conducted from October 2024 to February 2025.
