Ramadan 2027 is expected to start on Monday 8 February 2027, with Eid al-Fitr on about 9 March 2027. For Ramadan PPC in the Middle East, this means building your Google Ads and Meta Ads plan in December and January. During Ramadan, people fast during the day and are most active online in the evening and late at night. Many consumer brands also raise their ad budgets during the month. Budgets, ad schedules, bidding and creative all need a plan for the month. This guide gives one, from the weeks before Ramadan to the end of Eid.
Ramadan 2027 Dates for Campaign Planning
Saudi Arabia's Umm al-Qura calendar expects the first day of Ramadan 2027 on Monday 8 February. Eid al-Fitr is expected on Tuesday 9 March, or on 10 March if the month lasts 30 days. The official dates depend on the sighting of the new moon, so they are confirmed only a day or two before. Build your plan around the expected dates and keep a few days of flexibility at the start and the end.
| Phase | Expected dates | PPC focus |
|---|---|---|
| Before Ramadan | Mid-January to 7 February 2027 | Check tracking, build audiences, test Ramadan creative and prepare offers |
| First weeks of Ramadan | 8 to 26 February 2027 | Move ad schedules to the evening and watch CPC and CPM daily |
| Last ten nights | About 27 February to 8 March 2027 | Raise budgets for Eid shopping, such as clothes, gifts and electronics |
| Eid al-Fitr | From about 9 March 2027 | Travel, entertainment and family occasions, with lower B2B demand |
For the cultural side of the month, see our Ramadan marketing guide.
How Ramadan Changes Search and Social Media Use
- Activity moves to the evening. People are online the most after iftar, the meal that breaks the fast at sunset, and late into the night until suhoor, the meal before dawn. Daytime activity is usually lower.
- Working hours are shorter in many countries in the region, which changes B2B search during office hours.
- Demand follows the month. Food, groceries and home products are in demand from the start. Clothes, gifts and electronics rise towards Eid.
- Auctions get more competitive. Many consumer brands raise their budgets in Ramadan, so CPMs on Meta and CPCs on Google Ads usually rise.
How to Plan a Ramadan PPC Budget
A flat monthly budget does not match how demand moves in Ramadan. Plan the budget by phase instead:
- Before Ramadan, spend on audience building: video views, website visitors and engaged social media users you can retarget later.
- In the first weeks, keep budgets steady and move spend into the evening hours.
- Keep a reserve for the last ten nights, when Eid shopping is strongest and competition is highest.
- Plan a separate budget for Eid, then return to normal budgets after the holidays.
Raise budgets in steps over several days. On Meta, a large budget change can send an ad set back into the learning phase, and on Google Ads a sudden large change makes Smart Bidding harder to predict. For B2B campaigns, keep brand and high-intent search campaigns running and reduce the rest, because B2B demand usually falls during the month.
Ad Scheduling Around Iftar and Suhoor
The best hours for Ramadan ads are usually after iftar and late at night. Iftar is at sunset, so its time is different in each city and moves a little each day. Set your schedule per country, and check the account time zone first. Saudi Arabia is on UTC+3 and the UAE on UTC+4, so one schedule for both countries will be one hour wrong in one of them.
Use your own data before you set rules. Open the hour-of-day and day-of-week reports for Ramadan 2026 in Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager, and build the schedule from the hours that converted. Avoid switching off daytime completely, because some searches, such as urgent services and B2B, still happen during the day.
If you use Smart Bidding in Google Ads, bid adjustments by ad schedule are not applied, because Smart Bidding sets a bid for each auction. The schedule still controls when your ads can show. With manual bidding, you can raise bids for the evening hours as well as changing the schedule.
Smart Bidding and Seasonality Adjustments
Google's Smart Bidding already adapts to seasonal changes such as Ramadan. Google recommends seasonality adjustments only for short events of one to seven days, when you expect a large change in conversion rate. Do not use one for the whole month. A short Eid offer or a two-day sale before Eid is a better fit.
Before Ramadan starts, check that conversion tracking works on every Arabic landing page, and for calls and WhatsApp clicks. Smart Bidding can only adapt to Ramadan if it sees the conversions. If tracking breaks during the month, add a data exclusion for those days so the wrong data does not affect bidding.
Meta Ads During Ramadan
- Prepare Ramadan creative in Arabic, with respectful images and copy written for the month. Have several versions ready, because creative tires quickly when the same audience sees an ad many times.
- Use Reels and Stories to reach people in the evening hours.
- For e-commerce, run catalog ads with an Arabic product feed, so the offer and the price show in the ad.
- Some brands schedule food and drink ads for after iftar instead of during fasting hours. Decide this before the month starts, because it changes the creative plan.
- Use first-party audiences, such as customer lists and website visitors, in the last ten nights. They usually convert at a lower cost than cold audiences when competition is high.
For platform setup, see our guides to Meta advertising in MENA and Google Ads in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, also plan for Snapchat.
Eid al-Fitr Campaigns
Eid al-Fitr is a holiday of family visits, gifts and new clothes. The days before Eid are often the busiest shopping days of the month, so plan your strongest offers and delivery messages for that period. Tell shoppers the last order date for delivery before Eid, in Arabic, in the ad and on the landing page. During the Eid holidays, travel and entertainment searches rise and B2B searches fall. Our Eid marketing guide covers the creative side.
Ramadan PPC Checklist
- Confirm the expected dates and plan budgets by phase.
- Test conversion tracking on Arabic landing pages, forms, calls and WhatsApp.
- Build retargeting audiences in January.
- Write Arabic ad copy and creative for Ramadan and for Eid, with several versions of each.
- Set ad schedules per country and per time zone.
- Add Ramadan and Eid keywords in Arabic and English, and update your negative keywords.
- Prepare Eid delivery cut-off messages.
- Review CPC, CPM, CPA and ROAS daily during the last ten nights.
Conclusion
A Ramadan PPC plan follows the month: audience building before it starts, evening schedules during it, extra budget for the last ten nights and clear offers for Eid. GOTOMENA plans and manages Ramadan campaigns through our Arabic Google Ads and PPC services and Arabic social media advertising. To start planning for Ramadan 2027, contact our team.