Hiring a marketer · Dubai
The 90 days at a glance
Build
Profile, website, tracking, content bank.
Test
Small ad budget, reviews, consistent posting.
Decide
Scale the winners, drop the rest, plan next quarter.
Before day one: three decisions
The plan only works if a few things are settled first. Who is the customer you most want in the next three months? What's the one offer you'll lead with? And what counts as a result: a booking, a WhatsApp enquiry, a sale? Write the answers on one page. If you're working with a marketer, that page is your brief.
Days 1 to 30: foundations
This month is about building things that keep working after you stop paying attention to them. It feels slow, but skipping it is the reason so many launch campaigns produce clicks and nothing else.
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. Here's how to set it up in Dubai.
- Launch a fast, simple website or landing page with a clear offer and a WhatsApp button. See website design in Dubai.
- Set up tracking: Google Analytics 4, Search Console and your ad pixels. See conversion tracking setup.
- Write down your 20 most common customer questions. They're your first content and FAQ.
- Pick two channels where your customers actually are. Not five.
How to pick the two channels
Start from how people look for what you sell. If they search, Google (your profile, website and possibly search ads) is one channel. If they discover by browsing, Instagram or TikTok might be. For B2B, LinkedIn usually is. The second channel should support the first rather than compete with it. A café might pair Google Maps with Instagram. A consultancy might pair LinkedIn with a simple website.
Days 31 to 60: first customers
- Run a small, tightly targeted ad campaign with one offer and one landing page.
- Ask every early customer for a Google review, without incentives. More in getting Google reviews the right way.
- Post consistently on your two channels, even if it's just three times a week.
- Reach out personally: partnerships, local communities, LinkedIn for B2B.
- Reply to every enquiry fast. Early customers judge you on response time as much as on the ad.
Keep the ad campaign simple enough to learn from. One audience, one offer, one page. Ad platforms need data before they settle: Meta, for example, says an ad set usually leaves its learning phase after about 50 results in the week after its last significant edit. With a small budget you may not reach that, which is another reason to avoid constant changes. Let a campaign run long enough to tell you something.
Days 61 to 90: measure and decide
- Look at cost per enquiry and per customer for each channel.
- Put more budget into what works, cut what doesn't after a fair test.
- Turn your best-performing content into a repeatable format.
- Plan the next quarter around the UAE marketing calendar.
What to measure each month
Hiring a marketer · Dubai
Numbers worth tracking from day one
| Number | Where to find it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries (forms, calls, WhatsApp clicks) | GA4 and ad platforms | The main sign that marketing is working |
| Cost per enquiry by channel | Ad spend divided by enquiries | Shows where to move budget |
| Google profile actions | Business Profile performance | Calls, directions and website visits from Maps |
| Reviews gained | Business Profile | Trust for every later customer |
| Enquiry to customer rate | Your own records or CRM | Shows whether lead quality is good |
Dubai timing to plan around
The UAE calendar can help or hurt a launch. Ramadan shifts browsing and spending patterns and changes business hours. The summer months are quieter for many local businesses as residents travel. Events like Dubai Shopping Festival bring busy periods and more competition for attention. None of these mean you should delay, but your 90 days should account for them. If month two lands in Ramadan, plan content and offers for it rather than running your standard campaign. See Ramadan marketing in the UAE.
Common mistake
Spending heavily on ads before tracking works. You end up with activity but no way to tell which dirham brought which customer.
Other mistakes in the first 90 days
- Opening accounts on every platform and abandoning most of them within weeks.
- Changing the offer, the page and the audience at the same time, so nothing can be learned.
- Paying for a logo and brand film before the website and tracking exist.
- Judging social media on followers instead of enquiries.
If you're launching a product rather than a local business, the same order applies, with a sharper launch moment in month two. I cover that in product launch marketing in Dubai.