Holiday season advertising in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa: Key considerations for all advertisers

The year-end holiday season, no matter where you are in the world, means one thing for advertisers—opportunity. It’s the time when consumer activity peaks, shopping lists grow longer, and retail stores and restaurants bustle with excitement.

From sale days to important occasions like Christmas, brands have a unique chance to deepen their connections and drive action with meaningful, emotion-led storytelling and smart promotions.

Diving deep into how advertisers can make the most of these moments in the META region, Microsoft Advertising and InMobi Advertising have released a new festive season report, The ultimate guide to holiday season marketing, Middle East, Turkey, and Africa 2025.

While our insights focus on the META region, the report offers valuable takeaways for marketers everywhere on how to drive relevance and results during this critical season.

Welcome to the season of peak consumer activity

Across countries and categories in the META region, consumers are united in their lift in search intent and spend. 

Let’s look at some of these consumer trends:

• Apparel in Nigeria led with 32% and 10% spikes in searches and clicks, respectively.
• Beauty and Personal Care ruled in Saudi Arabia, with a 20% and 38% increase in searches and clicks, respectively.
• Food and Groceries saw the greatest demand in South Africa, with a 19% and 48% spike in searches and clicks, respectively.
• Computers and Consumer Electronics​ was the category that witnessed the most interest among consumers in Türkiye, with a 64% rise in clicks.
• Besides categories like Food and Groceries and Beauty and Personal Care, Occasions and Gifts saw a surge in the UAE, with a 37% lift in clicks.

For most categories, searches and clicks soared around major sale periods, indicating the heightened intent to spend around these seasonal sales. Seasonal spikes show that activity peaks during specific periods.

Step into the season with marketing agility

Winning the holiday season requires a blend of creativity, agility, and smart use of technology. 

Here’s a deep dive into what this looks like…

1. Focus on the fundamentals: Serve holiday-themed communication and creatives, leverage the right keywords across brand and non-brand search categories, and explore low-effort avenues such as feed-based ads and static image ads.
2. Consider changing seasonality and drive real-time optimization: Ensure you use AI and marketing technology to make the right seasonality adjustments that make your campaign optimization efficient and effective.
3. Stay present all season and tap into spikes: Build consumer anticipation by starting early, but be sure to amp up your budgets and marketing activity around major sale events.
4. Diversify your tactics and media mix: Engage consumers on the various channels and platforms they use each day for professional and personal activity with a mix of ad types. From Search ads, Audience ads, and Dynamic Search ads to dynamic remarketing ​for audience targeting, you have a variety of options to go omnichannel.
5. Make the most of technology with power-packed features: Try automating your campaigns across funnel stages and experiment with ad formats and placements with the power of technology. Use AI through Performance Max and capitalize on seasonal spikes with​ automated bidding.

Captivate consumers during the holidays in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa

While these strategies are a blueprint for seasonal success across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, they provide a compass to advertisers all around the world. Brands that are ready to meet consumers where they’re at are the ones that win.