I am Mubin Shaikh, an Instagram Ads freelancer in Dubai. Instagram advertising is paid promotion across Instagram, through Reels, Stories, the feed and Explore, run as a proper funnel that turns attention into leads and sales rather than just chasing followers. I run it for businesses across Dubai under UAE Trade Licence No. 1618922 and Social Media Advertiser Permit No. 475238. Dubai is one of the most Instagram-active cities in the world, which is an opportunity and a trap. The attention is there, but attention without a funnel behind it just buys you likes. The job is turning it into customers.
Want Facebook too? See my Meta Ads service.
Instagram and Facebook both sit inside Meta and share the same ad system, the same Pixel and often the same campaigns. This page focuses on Instagram specifically, but in practice I usually run it alongside Facebook because the audiences and data overlap and the combination performs better. If you want the full picture across both platforms, my Meta Ads service covers it. If Instagram is where your audience actually lives, which is true for a lot of Dubai brands in fashion, beauty, food and lifestyle, this is the right place to start.
Most people running Instagram ads in Dubai cannot show you a trade licence or a permit to advertise. I hold both, so you get proper invoices, a real contract, and no account risk landing on you.
I am also Meta Ads certified, which covers Instagram, so the platform mechanics are not something I am learning on your budget.
Each Instagram placement does a different job, and using the wrong one for your goal is where budgets get wasted. Here is how I use each.
Reels is where Instagram is pushing the most reach right now, so it is usually the cheapest way to get in front of cold audiences in Dubai. Short, native-feeling video that does not look like an ad performs best here.
Full-screen and immediate, Stories are strong for time-sensitive offers and retargeting. The swipe-up to a landing page or product works well when the creative earns the tap in the first second.
The classic placement, good for considered purchases where people want detail. Carousels in the feed are useful for showing a product range or telling a short story across cards.
These reach people in discovery mode, actively looking for something new. Useful for brand and product discovery with audiences who do not follow you yet.
It is the full account: audit, strategy, funnel build, creative testing, Pixel tracking and reporting, focused on Instagram. Here is what each part looks like.
I review your existing Instagram campaigns and find the waste: wrong objectives, overlapping audiences, placements eating budget without returning anything. Most accounts have recoverable spend before adding more.
Cold audiences, warm retargeting and lookalikes built around how people in Dubai actually discover and buy on Instagram. Targeting is where most of the result comes from.
Reels, Stories and feed creative designed to feel native to the platform, not a recycled banner. Tested against each other so you always know what is working before you scale it. This is where Instagram lives or dies.
Awareness through Reels and Explore, consideration in feed, conversion and retargeting through Stories. Most accounts that plateau only run one layer.
Proper event tracking so every lead and sale is attributed accurately, which matters more than ever since the iOS privacy changes.
Cost per lead, ROAS and what we are doing next. No follower-count vanity metrics, no jargon.
Instagram is a visual, discovery-driven platform, which makes it especially strong for these Dubai businesses.
Clothing, cosmetics, salons and clinics. Instagram is where these audiences in Dubai discover and buy, and strong visual creative does the heavy lifting.
Restaurants, cafes, hotels and experiences. Reels and Stories drive both awareness and footfall when the offer is clear.
Shoppable campaigns, catalogue and retargeting focused on ROAS, usually run across Instagram and Facebook together.
Coaches, consultants and service providers building an audience and generating leads through content-led campaigns.
Most underperforming Instagram accounts in Dubai share the same handful of issues. This is what I check first.
| The problem | Why it is costing you |
|---|---|
| Promoting from the app, not Ads Manager | Optimised for engagement, not leads or sales |
| Static creative in a video-first feed | Reels and Stories get the reach, you are ignoring them |
| Wrong campaign objective | Instagram chases the wrong action entirely |
| Pixel or Conversions API missing | No accurate tracking, no real optimisation |
| One funnel layer, no retargeting | Cost per lead climbs and plateaus |
| Repurposed TV-style video | Does not feel native, so people scroll past |
For most Dubai businesses I recommend at least AED 10,000 to AED 12,000 a month in actual ad spend, and closer to USD 5,000 a month for ecommerce. Below that there is not enough data to test creative and audiences and reach a stable result, and I would rather tell you that than take a retainer I cannot move. That figure is ad spend, paid to Meta directly, separate from my management fee. Instagram in particular rewards creative volume, so a budget that allows real testing matters more here than on most platforms.
The first 90 days follow the same shape. The order is deliberate.
I review your Instagram campaigns, tracking, audiences and creative to find what is wasting money and what is worth keeping.
The Pixel and Conversions API go in first, then the funnel, audiences and a Reels-first creative testing plan, built around your business.
The first 30 to 60 days are about finding winning creative and audiences. Test broadly, cut losers fast, scale winners. On Instagram, creative is usually the variable that moves the result most.
Once there are clear winners I scale them at a pace the account can handle, while keeping fresh creative coming so Reels and Stories do not fatigue.
It depends on your offer, your margins, your creative and your tracking. The patterns I see most often, as patterns and not promises:
Your ad spend is separate, stays in your own account, and is billed by Meta directly. I do not take a percentage of spend.
Instagram Ads management starts at AED 4,999 a month for a single channel with a focused scope. Most clients running Instagram and Facebook together, or Instagram plus another channel, sit on Gold at AED 7,499. Your ad spend is separate, stays in your own account, and is billed by Meta directly. I do not take a percentage of spend, so there is no reason for me to push your budget higher than it should be.
If your Instagram ads are running and the leads are not coming, message me on WhatsApp. Tell me what you sell and what you are spending, and I will review the account and tell you straight where it is leaking, whether or not you hire me. If you have only been promoting posts from the app, I will show you what proper campaigns would look like instead.
