Skip to main content

Issue October 2026

Saudi Arabia ad rules in 2026

Creator advertising in Saudi Arabia runs through Mawthooq, a licence issued by the General Authority for Media Regulation (GAMR) that lets individuals provide advertising content on social media for three years. When it launched in 2022 the licence cost SR15,000. Paid partnerships must be disclosed, and foreign creators who advertise to Saudi audiences need to work within the same system. For brands, the licence check is now a standard step before any creator booking.

Executive findings

  1. 1

    GAMR’s Mawthooq service licenses individuals to provide advertising content through social media platforms, with a licence duration of three years.

    Documented: official source. Scope: Saudi Arabia; GAMR e-services, as of . [1]

  2. 2

    When the Mawthooq rules were published in 2022, the three-year licence cost SR15,000 and allowed creators to work with any number of private entities.

    Secondary source. Scope: Saudi Arabia; Arab News, October 2022, as of . [2]

  3. 3

    Advertisers, influencers and endorsers paid for marketing must disclose the paid partnership, and approval applies to local and foreign influencers.

    Secondary source. Scope: Saudi Arabia; peer-reviewed legal analysis, 2025, as of . [3]

Method and limitations
Question
What changed in advertising rules and platform options in Saudi Arabia during 2025 and 2026, and what should an advertiser do about it?
Written for
Marketing leads and founders planning paid media in Saudi Arabia.
Decision at stake
Which compliance steps to complete before launch, and which channels deserve a test budget this year.
Sources
GAMR’s Mawthooq e-service page, Arab News reporting on the 2022 rules and a 2025 peer-reviewed analysis of Saudi social media marketing law.
Period
Official and professional sources as published on 18 October 2026.
Markets
Saudi Arabia, national rules and the platform policies that apply there
Definitions
  • Mawthooq: the GAMR licence that allows an individual to provide advertising content on social media in Saudi Arabia.
Limitations
  • This briefing is not legal advice. Confirm current licence fees and conditions on the GAMR portal before booking creators.
  • The Personal Data Protection Law is outside the scope of this briefing.

Mawthooq in practice

Documented: official source

GAMR, formerly the General Commission for Audiovisual Media, issues the licence through its e-services portal. The licence is personal to the creator and lasts three years. Brands do not apply for it, but working with an unlicensed creator exposes the campaign to removal and the parties to penalties.

Disclosure and content standards

Secondary source

Paid partnerships must be disclosed. Content also has to respect Saudi media rules, which restrict some themes and imagery. Agencies should review scripts and visuals before filming rather than after, because rejected content is the most common cause of delay in creator campaigns.

Opportunities this year

FOCUSADS view

Brands that build a licensed creator roster and pair it with paid social and search can scale faster than those booking creators one by one. This briefing does not cover the Personal Data Protection Law, which should be reviewed separately for CRM and audience data.

How this connects to our method: How market rules enter the plan

References

  1. Licensing for providing advertising content through social media platforms (Mawthooq), General Authority for Media Regulation (GAMR), accessed
  2. Saudi GCAM lists new Mawthooq advertising license rules, Arab News, accessed
  3. Saudi Arabian legal framework on the use of social media in entrepreneurial marketing, Social Sciences & Humanities Open (ScienceDirect), accessed

Related reading

  1. Cross-industry, Global

    Channel and measurement choices by market

    A multi-market plan fails in two predictable ways. It buys channels that are unavailable, ineligible or unmeasurable in some markets, and it spreads the budget so thinly that no market produces a readable result. The framework below runs five gates per market and channel, funds only the lines that pass, and assigns each line a measurement method that can answer the budget question at that spend level. Platform attribution, lift tests, geo holdouts and marketing mix models answer different questions, and each needs a different amount of data.

    Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, App acquisition

  2. Cross-industry, Australia

    Australia’s under-16 rule and advertisers

    From 10 December 2025, age-restricted social media platforms must take reasonable steps to stop Australians under 16 from creating or keeping accounts. eSafety named TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X and Twitch among the platforms the law is intended to capture; fines reach A$49.5 million. Advertisers lose logged-in under-16 audiences on those services and should expect shifts in reach estimates. Gaming, messaging, education and health services sit outside the restriction.

    Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, Snapchat Ads, Google Ads

  3. Cross-industry, Singapore

    Singapore scam and safety rules in 2026

    Singapore is pressing platforms hard on scam advertising. In September 2025 the police issued the first Implementation Directive under the Online Criminal Harms Act, ordering Meta to use enhanced facial recognition against Facebook ads and pages impersonating key government office holders. The Online Safety Commission and the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025 started on 29 June 2026, giving people affected by online harms a route to timely redress. Legitimate advertisers should expect stricter identity checks and faster takedowns, especially for finance and investment ads.

    Meta Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads

Turn the briefing into a plan for your account

Build Your Plan scores each channel for your market, industry, goal and budget, and shows service, setup and media costs on separate lines.

Plan a Saudi campaign Request a tailored quote
Build your planContact