Meta Ads case study · UAE real estate client
1,248 property leads in 5 months.
How we used Facebook and Instagram ads to fill a UAE real estate client’s pipeline, with screenshots from the ad account.
27 April to 2 October 2026
The results
Everything in one look.
The client is a real estate company that sells homes in the UAE. Since April 2026, Shahmeer Iqbal LLC has run its Facebook and Instagram lead campaigns for projects across the UAE and for buyers in Saudi Arabia.
The list continues to 26 campaigns. Together they add up to the totals above.
Top campaigns
The five campaigns that brought the most leads.
| Campaign | Leads | Cost per lead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TownhousesUAE buyers · live since 6 May | 406 | AED 38.64 |
| 2 | Emaar SouthUAE buyers · live since 23 July | 223 | AED 65.30 |
| 3 | International testShort test in May · paused | 204 | AED 1.51 |
| 4 | Bayn by ORAPremium villas, Ghantoot · live since 17 August | 98 | AED 95.44 |
| 5 | Golden VisaBuyers in Saudi Arabia · live since 16 September | 72 | AED 48.18 |
The international test reached four African markets for AED 308 in total. Its leads were very cheap, so it lowers the overall average. Without it, the average cost per lead is AED 69.37.
Leads by project
Success story 1 · Townhouses
One ad. 406 leads.
The Townhouses campaign started on 6 May 2026 and is still running today. It is the strongest campaign in the account.
- One ad did the work. A single ad brought 405 of the 406 leads.
- It costs a third less. AED 38.64 per lead against the account average of AED 58.28.
- It gives more than it takes. It used 22% of the budget and brought nearly a third of all leads.
Success story 2 · Golden Visa, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia: 72 leads in 17 days.
We launched this campaign on 16 September for buyers in Saudi Arabia, offering UAE property as a route to the Golden Visa. It worked from the first week and keeps getting better.
Golden Visa leads per day
- Getting cheaper as it runs. AED 62 per lead in week one, AED 28 per lead in the last five days.
- The right people. Every one of the 72 leads came from Saudi Arabia.
Success story 3 · Azizi
We fixed it. Cost per lead down 81%.
The first Azizi campaign was too expensive, so we did not keep spending on it. We rebuilt it twice. Version 3 is live now and brings leads at one fifth of the first cost.
Cost per lead for each version
- Five times cheaper. From AED 469.68 to AED 90.68 per lead in two weeks.
- Four times more leads. Version 3 brought 20 leads. Versions 1 and 2 brought 5 together.
- Your budget is protected. When a campaign is not working, we stop it and fix it.
Lower cost, project after project
Azizi was not a one-off.
When a first version is not good enough, we rebuild it. On these four projects the relaunch brought more leads at a lower cost.
What this means for you
You do not pay for the same mistake twice. We watch the cost per lead from day one, and if it is too high we change the ads and the audience until it comes down.
Creative testing
We test many ads. The winner gets the budget.
Every campaign starts with several different ads. Within days the numbers show which one people respond to. We keep that one running and switch the others off.
- Emaar South. 4 different ads, 2 audiences. One ad brought all 223 leads.
- Golden Visa. 4 different ads, 2 audiences. Two ads brought all 72 leads. The rest cost under AED 10.
- Townhouses. 3 ads. One brought 405 of 406 leads.
Retargeting and lookalikes
We go back to people who already showed interest.
Most people do not enquire the first time they see an ad. So we build audiences from the client’s own data and show them the ad again.
Retargeting
People who opened a lead form or visited the website in the last 90 days.
Lookalikes
New people who are similar to the leads we already have.
Interest audiences
Property buyers, investors and business owners, tested side by side.
These two tests are still new: 20 leads in the Azizi test and 8 in the lookalike test so far.
Growth
More leads every month.
Leaving out the one-off test in May, monthly leads went from 143 in May to 305 in September.
How we work
One campaign per project
Each property project gets its own campaign and its own ads, so we can see what works.
Test small, stop fast
14 campaigns were stopped before they spent AED 1,000.
Back the winners
The top 3 campaigns got 54% of the budget and brought 58% of the leads.
Want this for your brand?
Shahmeer Iqbal LLC runs Meta ads for businesses in the UAE and the USA. Message us on WhatsApp to talk about your project.
Source: Meta Ads Manager, client ad account, campaigns named SILLC, lifetime to 2 October 2026. Client name hidden for privacy. Leads are as reported by Meta. Dollar figures use AED 3.6725 to 1 US dollar. Screenshots were captured on 2 October 2026 while campaigns were live, so a figure can differ by a few fils from one screen to the next.