Why your CAC on Meta is rising in Saudi Arabia, and how to bring it down

Check the number before you change the campaign

Shopify defines CAC as total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers acquired (1). If you count only ad spend, your CAC looks lower than it really is. In Shopify's illustrative example, CAC moves from $50 to $90 once agency fees and team time are included (2).

The opposite mistake is just as common: a blended average can hide an expensive channel. In Shopify's example, an $85 blended CAC looks fine, yet it combines $30 from organic search and $140 from paid social (3).

So calculate your Meta CAC separately from other channels, and use the same method every month. Part of the rise you see may come from a change in how you count, not from how the campaigns perform. If you are unsure which number to run your store by, read the difference between MER, ROAS, POAS and ROI.

Auction prices are rising, and that is outside your control

Meta reported that its average price per ad rose 14% year over year in Q3 2026 (4), while ad impressions grew only 10% (5). Price rose faster than supply.

In Q2 2026, impressions grew 14% and average price per ad rose 12% (6), so price growth sped up from one quarter to the next.

These are global figures, not Saudi ones (4). Still, they mean part of your CAC increase may come from the whole market rather than from your account alone. That is not a reason to accept it. It is a reason to focus on what you can change: getting more out of every impression you pay for.

Saudi peak seasons increase competition for the same shoppers

Google and Visa report that search interest in luxury apparel in Saudi Arabia rises 45% towards the end of Ramadan (7). That points to peak seasons when more advertisers compete for the same shoppers.

The Saudi audience is almost entirely online, with internet penetration at 99% in 2024 (8), and average mobile data use reaching 48 GB per person per month, three times the global average (9). Your growth will not come from new people going online. It will come from competing better for the attention of people who are already on their phones.

In practice:

• Compare peak-season CAC with the same season last year, not with the previous month.
• Prepare creative and budget before the season, not during it.
• Design your ads for mobile first.

Tired creative limits delivery

Meta says Andromeda, its ad retrieval engine, was built to handle the large growth in ad creatives coming from Advantage+ creative (10). That makes creative variety one of the inputs to delivery, not just a matter of looks.

If you have been running a handful of ads for a long time, you are giving the system fewer options to match with different parts of your audience. What is worth varying:

• The angle: the problem the product solves, the price, the experience, the gift.
• The format: short video, static image, carousel.
• The opening seconds of a video, because they decide whether someone stops scrolling.

Changing a colour or a background on its own is not real variety. Track cost per result for each ad, not only for each campaign.

Weak tracking makes every purchase more expensive

Meta says the Conversions API connects an advertiser's server or store-platform data to its systems to improve targeting, lower cost per result and measure outcomes (11). Advertisers with a Meta Pixel can set it up in one click from Events Manager (11).

If your store relies on the browser Pixel alone, Meta may see fewer purchases than actually happened. It then optimizes your campaigns on incomplete data, and your CAC looks higher than it is.

To check:

• Compare purchase events in Events Manager with the orders in your store for the same period.
• Make sure the Conversions API is switched on from your store platform, whether that is Shopify or another one.
• Make sure the same purchase is not being counted twice.

Sometimes the problem is the offer itself

If your measurement is sound, tracking works and your creative is varied, but CAC keeps climbing, look at what the customer sees after clicking the ad:

• Is the price still competitive against the alternatives the customer is seeing?
• Are shipping cost and delivery time clear before checkout?
• Are the payment options the customer expects available?
• Does the product page answer the questions that stop people from buying?

No Media Buying setting can make up for an offer that has stopped convincing people. Remember too that CAC alone does not tell you whether a customer is profitable. What matters is how it compares with your margin and your LTV.

What to fix first

Order your fixes by what is in your control and how quickly it pays off:

• Measurement: calculate your Meta CAC consistently, including all costs (1) (2).
• Tracking: switch on the Conversions API and check that events match orders (11).
• Creative: vary angles and formats so delivery has more options to work with (10).
• Offer: review price, shipping, payment and the product page.
• Seasons: plan for peaks in advance and compare against the same season (7).

You will not control auction prices (4), but each of these steps makes every riyal you spend work harder.

Sources

1. (1) Shopify · 2026-06
2. (2) Shopify · 2026-06
3. (3) Shopify · 2026-06
4. (4) Meta Platforms, Inc. (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1) · 2026-10-21
5. (5) Meta Platforms, Inc. (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1) · 2026-10-21
6. (6) Meta Platforms, Inc. (Form 10-Q) · 2026-07
7. (7) Think with Google (Google and Visa) · 2025-09
8. (8) Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), Saudi Arabia · 2025-05-12
9. (9) Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), Saudi Arabia · 2025-05-12
10. (10) Engineering at Meta · 2024-12-02
11. (11) Meta for Developers · 2026-09

Read also

• How to plan your Ramadan ad budget without rising CPMs eating your profit
• How to Choose an Agency or Consultant to Run Your Media Buying
• Why don't the sales in Meta Ads Manager match the sales in your Salla or Zid store?