Updated 3 October 2026.
We are an agency in Noida, India. We do not have a Dubai office or a team based in the UAE, and any agency that says it does should be asked to show you its trade licence. If that is a dealbreaker for you, you can stop reading, and you will have lost nothing.
If it is not, this guide is for a Dubai or UAE business weighing an agency in India. It covers what working across the border looks like day to day, what to settle before you sign, and what proof to ask for. It also says plainly what we have and have not done in the UAE, because a page that implied more would be the first thing worth distrusting.
What an agency in India can do for a UAE business
An agency in India can run almost all of the work that happens on a screen. That means search and AI-answer visibility, paid media on Google, Meta and LinkedIn, social content, video, websites and reporting. It cannot stand in your showroom, attend a Dubai trade show for you or shoot on location in Dubai unless someone travels.
Our work for UAE and wider Middle East brands has all been delivered from India. Our performance marketing page states that we run active campaigns for brands across India, the USA, the UK, Europe and the Middle East, with multi-currency budgets and reporting that works across time zones. It does not list a UAE campaign result, so we are not going to invent one.
The best digital marketing company in Dubai is not the one with the best Dubai address
An office on Sheikh Zayed Road tells you what the agency pays in rent. It does not tell you whether it can bring you qualified enquiries. Judge on proof you can check, on how the work is measured, and on whether the people who will do the work are named in the proposal.
We cannot tell you an Indian agency is cheaper than a Dubai one, because we have no data on what Dubai agencies charge. Our own prices are published in rupees, and the starting points are on the pages for each service. What we can say is that a published price list lets you compare before anyone has booked a call.
What to settle before you sign
These are the things that cause friction in cross-border engagements, usually in the second month, when nobody has set expectations. Agree each in writing.
| Topic | The question to ask | What we can tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Time zones | Which hours overlap, and who is on the weekly call | India is UTC+5:30 and the UAE is UTC+4, so the gap is 1 hour 30 minutes. Neither country uses daylight saving, so it never changes |
| Working week | Which days does your team work, and which do the agency’s | UAE government entities moved to a Saturday and Sunday weekend with a Friday half day from 1 January 2022. Ask your own team what they follow, and agree public holidays on both sides in advance |
| Fees and invoicing | Which currency, which legal entity, how often, and what tax applies | Our published prices are in rupees plus GST. We have no dirham price list, and Middle East engagements are quoted as a custom proposal after a short discovery call |
| Ad spend | Whose card, whose account | Media runs through your own ad accounts and is billed by the platform, so it is paid in the currency your account uses and never passes through us |
| Language | Who is the native Arabic reviewer, and are they named | We produce Arabic video and creative for Metso’s Middle East operation. We would still ask for a named native reviewer on any new account |
| Local proof | Which UAE results can I check, and with whom can I speak | See the proof section below. It is thinner than a Dubai agency’s would be |
| Rules for creators | Who handles permits and disclosure | That is yours and your legal adviser’s to settle. See the section on influencers |
Invoicing, currency and tax
Keep two money flows apart in your head. One is the agency fee, which is invoiced to you. The other is ad spend, which you pay straight to Google or Meta from your own account. On a performance engagement our fee is the higher of 15% of monthly media spend or ₹50,000 plus GST a month, with the rate falling to 10% from ₹20,00,000, 8% from ₹50,00,000 and 4% from ₹1,00,00,000 of monthly media. That figure is how we price in India. For a UAE business we would quote a custom proposal, because international engagements are scoped differently.
On tax, do not rely on us or on an article. If your company is VAT-registered in the UAE and receives services from a supplier outside it, the UAE reverse charge rules can apply, and the Federal Tax Authority has issued a public clarification on imported services[1]. How that interacts with the GST on an Indian invoice is a question for your accountant and ours, and neither should be guessed at over email.
Arabic and English content
Decide early whether you need Arabic at all. A B2B enquiry for industrial equipment from a UAE buyer may be searched in English. A consumer offer aimed at Arabic-speaking residents will not work if it is a translated English ad.
If you do need both, give each language its own page address, link the versions together and mark them with hreflang. Google asks that each language version lists itself and every other version[2]. Arabic reads right to left, so layouts, forms and ad creatives have to be built that way, not flipped at the end. Have a native reader approve the copy before it goes live, and ask the agency who that person is.
Video is easier to multiply. One film can be versioned for several languages without a fresh shoot each time, which is what we do with AI video production. We made a full ad film for Naman Super Basmati Rice, a rice and foods brand selling into the Middle East, without a location shoot.
Local proof, and what we have
This is the thinnest part of our case for the UAE, so here it is without dressing.
For search, our SEO page shows RadiantBiz, a Dubai business setup consultancy, with organic sessions up 41% and 90,953 impressions, in what we describe as one of the most competitive local markets. That is one client, and it is search only. On video, we produce Arabic creative for Metso’s Middle East operation and made the Naman film above. For paid media, we run Middle East campaigns but have no published UAE case study to point you to.
Our larger evidence is from India and not from the UAE, and it shows how we work rather than how Dubai buyers behave. The Fund Abroad case study is an example of measuring leads by quality: the qualified-lead ratio went from 5% to 15% and the cost per qualified lead fell 67%. It is an education loan platform, not a UAE business. Whether our method carries over to your category in the UAE is something we would test with a small first phase, not claim.
Influencers and creators in the UAE
The UAE Media Council introduced an Advertiser Permit, and from 1 February 2026 individuals who advertise on social media from within the UAE need one, whether they are paid or not[3]. Visitor permits exist for non-residents. If you plan creator work in the UAE, settle who checks permits and disclosure before a brief goes out. We run influencer campaigns, and our influencer marketing page has the fee ranges, but we are not the right people to advise on UAE rules, and your lawyer is.
What to ask any agency, including us
Ask for the names of the people who will do the work, and whether any of them have run a UAE account before. Ask for one result from the UAE that you can verify yourself, such as a live search result, an ad account screenshot you can compare with the client’s own, or a client willing to take a call.
Ask how conversions are measured and whether you will be given access to the accounts, so that ad accounts, analytics and the website stay in your name. Ask what happens at the end of the contract. And ask how they would tell you if the plan was not working in month two. Our guide to choosing a digital marketing agency in India has the longer checklist, and our digital marketing agency in India page shows the full range of what we handle and what we publish on price.
Where an India-based agency is the wrong choice
If your category depends on someone being in a Dubai room, such as events, in-person retail activations or on-ground sampling, hire locally for that part. If you need Arabic copywriting in a particular dialect of Gulf Arabic and your agency cannot name its writer, hire a specialist for the words.
For the rest, a tracked paid and search programme, a website and a flow of video, geography matters less than reporting. For paid media the starting point is performance marketing, and for search we would begin with SEO, AEO and GEO. Neither is a Dubai-specific product. Both would be scoped to your market in a proposal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have an office or team in Dubai?
No. We are based in Noida, with an office in Delhi, and work for UAE and Middle East clients from India. We run discovery calls, reviews and reporting remotely, and we would plan travel only if it clearly helped the project.
Why would a Dubai business hire an agency in India?
For specialist work that is done on a screen, such as search, paid media, video and websites, when you want a published price list and a named team, and you do not need anyone physically in the UAE. We cannot say it is cheaper than a Dubai agency, because we do not have their prices.
What is the time difference between India and the UAE?
1 hour 30 minutes. India is on UTC+5:30 and the UAE on UTC+4, and neither observes daylight saving, so the gap is the same all year. Most agency calls fit into the overlap in the working day.
Can you create content in Arabic?
Yes. We produce Arabic video and creative for Metso’s Middle East operation. For a new account we would ask for a named native Arabic reviewer to approve copy before it goes live.
How do we pay you, and does ad spend go through you?
Our published prices are in rupees plus GST, and a Middle East engagement is quoted as a custom proposal. Ad spend does not go through us. It runs through your own Google or Meta account and is billed by the platform to you.
Which services are the best starting point for a UAE business?
It depends on what you sell and how buyers find you. A B2B business with a long sales cycle usually starts with search and a tracked paid programme. A consumer brand usually starts with video and a small paid test. We would recommend a short paid or content phase before a long contract, so you can judge the working relationship as well as the results.
References
- Andersen UAE, VAT on imported services in the UAE: FTA clarifies reverse charge rules (VATP044), 20 June 2025.
- Google Search Central, Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites.
- Gulf News, New UAE law: Advertiser Permit now mandatory for influencers and creators for social media, on the UAE Media Council permit.
- Time zones: Wikipedia, Time in India and Time in the United Arab Emirates. Weekend: Gulf News, UAE Saturday, Sunday weekend.
- DigiStreet Media case study: Fund Abroad performance marketing.
