It is not accidental that ads spike every Ramadan and businesses compete to be top of mind—especially within the GCC and Arab countries. This can be due to several business reasons, such as generating more revenue, getting more attention, and so on. It has been recorded that shopping sessions within the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar reached 682 million in 2025. Hence, businesses compete every Ramadan to actually win the season.
However, winning the season is not by chance or luck. It requires thorough planning, strategy, and analysis. That’s why we’ve created this blog post to help you plan your ads to succeed this Ramadan. We’ll go through the keys to a successful marketing plan, tips for planning ads for Ramadan audience, and how pre- and post-testing your ads could help you attain success this Ramadan.
How Pre-Testing Can Boost Ad Performance in Ramadan 2026
Pre-testing your advertisements before airing them is critical to making sure your investments—both time and money—don’t go to waste.
So, what do we mean by pre-testing? In simple terms, pre-testing an advertisement is the process of evaluating it before its live launch. Pre-testing is essential because it helps businesses predict how target audiences will respond to copies, messages, or visuals.
Pre-testing your ads using methods such as attention tracking and behavioral analysis can help reduce risks at launch and increase the likelihood of success. It ensures that the messages and copies with the highest performance potential are the ones that move forward into production and media spend.
So, why should you pre-test your ads prior to launching them in Ramadan?
1. Steer Clear of PR Issues
At times, advertisers realize their ad messages are problematic only when it’s too late. This can dramatically affect brand identity. That’s why it is crucial to test your ads before publishing to avoid such risks. There are plenty of examples of firms that didn’t do their research well and suffered adverse consequences.
2. Pick the Winning Version of Your Ad
You may produce several versions of the same ad. In this case, deciding on the best one can be challenging. By pre-testing your versions, you can pick the winner more easily.
By comparing your versions and evaluating metrics like believability and likelihood to purchase, it becomes much easier to choose the best-performing version of your ad.
3. Is Your Ad Good? Why Not Make It Great?
While planning your next Ramadan advertisement, your commercial might already be strong. Nonetheless, this does not mean that a few tweaks won’t result in noticeable improvements.
A few adjustments can enhance overall messaging and engagement, which supports revenue growth and minimizes overall costs—because data-driven changes can lead to remarkable results.
Why Post-Ad Testing Is Crucial for Tracking Ramadan Ad Metrics
As the name indicates, post-ad testing is the process of measuring an advertisement’s efficiency in terms of execution and achieving intended objectives.
Post-ad performance analysis shows what actually lived up to the promise and what didn’t—such as message liking, message comprehension, and impact on consumer behavior. Post-ad testing is essential for businesses planning ads for Ramadan audiences, as it helps them:
Measure the Campaign’s ROI
Analyzing advertisements after launch allows businesses to get a closer look at the impact it made. Evaluating ads post-launch helps measure ROI through analysis of achieved objectives like brand awareness, conversions, message retention, and more.
This helps businesses understand whether to repeat the same tactics, use alternatives, reuse the same copies or visuals, or replace them—supporting both current and future campaigns.
Amend Future Promotions
Evaluating advertisements after Ramadan can help businesses improve future communication efforts by adjusting messaging and removing elements that don’t move the needle.
Furthermore, this evaluation helps businesses modify active campaigns, change elements, or maintain certain aspects if desired results are achieved. This makes current campaigns more efficient—and future ones too.
Feedback & Competitive Analysis
Testing advertising efficiency after airing is crucial for businesses aiming to analyze real feedback from their audience. By analyzing the advertisement post-airing, businesses can answer key questions such as: What actually worked? What didn’t? Did the message get through? Do people remember our brand?
Not only does testing provide critical feedback, it also provides insights into how ads performed in comparison to competitors—allowing businesses to benchmark based on data, not assumptions. This is done by comparing advertisements aired during Ramadan (if any), and from there, businesses can benchmark their efforts and understand how they performed relative to competitors.
Factors To Consider In Your Ramadan Plan 2026
Ramadan offers unique opportunities for key decision-makers looking to achieve business goals such as connecting with their audience, generating more sales, or enhancing customer relationships. Thus, it is integral for businesses to put these factors into consideration. Here are some of the factors to consider in your upcoming Ramadan plan.
Use Of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
It is integral for any key decision-maker to consider the active use and deployment of AI and machine learning to stay competitive within the market. The use of artificial intelligence in your upcoming Ramadan plan is worth consideration, as these tools could aid in delivering more personalized messages to your customers, automate routine tasks, and allow decision-making in real time. Using artificial intelligence in your Ramadan plan is helpful, as it could actually help you with more precise segmentation, predictive analytics, and tailoring your messages more to align with your consumers.
Data First Mindset
Data necessity cannot be overstated in 2026 and years to come. A data-first approach is the recipe for success to win in Ramadan or any season of the year. Data is becoming more and more accessible day by day. With the availability of data, key decision-makers have to consider gathering actionable insights from data, such as consumer behaviors and recurring patterns, which would allow these decision-makers to actually conduct strategies that are data-driven, not ambiguous ones. It is essential for key decision-makers to consider using data and applying data within an ethical framework to avoid any regulation breach and to form a good customer relationship with audiences who are becoming more aware as the clock goes by and technology advances. Avoiding data breaches is crucial, as businesses who fail to comply would suffer sanctions up to USD 1.33 million in KSA & USD 2,600 in Bahrain.
Laser-Sharp Focus On Customer Experience (CX)
Customer experience is and will remain a key factor in any successful business plan. In 2026, customer experience necessity cannot be stressed enough. This is due to the sudden and notable explosion of digital and offline touchpoints , which resulted in the need for businesses to actually maintain a customer journey that is holistic across all channels and ensure customer satisfaction and positive experiences across the touchpoints. For instance, key decision-makers should have actually considered optimizing user experience on websites, phones, and across all platforms. It is critical for businesses to actually make sure that their audience has a good experience online and offline in stores. Methods such as loyalty programs and customizing packages would actually help businesses in establishing rapport and good relationships with their customers.
Factors To Consider In Your Ramadan Plan 2026
Ramadan offers unique opportunities for key decision-makers looking to achieve business goals such as connecting with their audience, generating more sales, or enhancing customer relationships. Thus, it is integral for businesses to put these factors into consideration. Here are some of the factors to consider in your upcoming Ramadan plan.
| Factor | How to Apply It in Ramadan Planning | Benefit | Risk If Ignored |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning | Deploy AI and machine learning to stay competitive within the market. Use these tools to deliver more personalized messages to your customers, automate routine tasks, and allow decision-making in real time. Leverage AI for more precise segmentation, predictive analytics, and tailoring your messages to align with your consumers. | Enhanced personalization, automated routine tasks, real-time decision-making, precise customer segmentation, predictive analytics, and messages tailored to consumer preferences. | Loss of competitive advantage, inability to personalize at scale, missed opportunities for real-time engagement, and falling behind competitors who leverage AI effectively. |
| Data First Mindset | Adopt a data-first approach for success in Ramadan campaigns. Gather actionable insights from data, such as consumer behaviors and recurring patterns. Conduct strategies that are data-driven, not ambiguous ones. Use data within an ethical framework to avoid any regulation breach and form good customer relationships with audiences who are becoming more aware as technology advances. | Data-driven strategies, actionable insights into consumer behavior, identification of recurring patterns, ethical compliance, stronger customer relationships, and informed decision-making. | Data breaches and non-compliance leading to severe sanctions up to USD 1.33 million in KSA and USD 2,600 in Bahrain. Loss of customer trust, regulatory penalties, and ambiguous decision-making without data backing. |
| Laser-Sharp Focus On Customer Experience (CX) | Maintain a holistic customer journey across all channels due to the explosion of digital and offline touchpoints. Optimize user experience on websites, phones, and across all platforms. Ensure customer satisfaction and positive experiences across all touchpoints, both online and offline in stores. Implement loyalty programs and customize packages to establish rapport and good relationships with customers. | Holistic customer journey, enhanced satisfaction across touchpoints, optimized user experience on all platforms, stronger customer relationships through loyalty programs, and increased customer retention. | Fragmented customer experience, lost sales due to poor UX, diminished customer loyalty, negative brand perception, and inability to compete with businesses offering seamless omnichannel experiences. |
Tips for Planning Ads for Ramadan Audience
Planning promotions for Ramadan audiences should be done with caution and sincere effort. Businesses that rely on chance or luck in their strategies have very little to no chance of success. This is due to a multitude of reasons, like changes in behavior, fierce competition, and plenty of other factors that influence ad efficiency.
As a result, brands should be proactive in their approach in planning ads for Ramadan audience early to ensure success and achieve desirable results. Here are some tips to keep in mind or implement when planning your Ramadan ads:
Consider Using One of the Popular Ramadan Symbols (If Relevant)
For decades, firms worldwide have used certain symbols in their Ramadan advertising efforts. This is helpful for businesses to consider, as it can make the ad resonate more and fit better within a Ramadan context.
These symbols include the crescent moon and star, lanterns, dates, and Arabic calligraphy. Using these symbols makes the ad more aligned with the month and can also help create a deeper connection with the audience.
Use Stories to Connect With Your Audience
It has been recorded that 92% of consumers prefer ads that feel like a story. This statistic shows that we, as humans, tend to enjoy stories more and find more joy in messages supported by a good narrative.
That being said, it is essential to think about using stories in your upcoming Ramadan advertisement. Stories help because they connect, intensify emotions, and build trust. So, it is important to consider storytelling in your next campaign during the holy month.
Collaborate With Influencers Strategically
Many businesses have used this strategy before, and many feel it is overused. However, influencer collaboration is still popular and remains one of the most efficient ways to deliver your message.
As a consequence, it is critical to consider collaborating with influencers—not only the popular ones, but those who actually align with your brand’s message and tone. Influencers can help promote your brand authentically during Ramadan and can enhance engagement and overall perception of your advertisement. Keep this collaboration strategic.
How Marketeers Research Pre- & Post-Ad Evaluation Can Boost Your Ramadan Performance in 2026
Now that you have an overview of why it is paramount for businesses planning to air advertisements during Ramadan 2026 to pre- and post-test their ads, it’s time to show you how MarketeersResearch can help you win this Ramadan.
We do this by offering insights that help you make decisions based on factual data—not assumptions or opinions. Our research services help you identify market trends and consumer preferences. They also help you optimize your overall message and ensure it resonates with your target audience.
Moreover, our pre- and post-ad evaluation services help you measure campaign success across performance metrics—and gain a noticeable competitive upper hand with actionable, specific insights that remove ambiguity and vagueness.