Media Buyer and Digital Marketer in Iraq: Baghdad, Basra and Erbil
Iraq is a huge ad market, and part of the profit disappears after the order: on the phone, at delivery and while waiting for the cash. Ahmed Ebrahem is a media buyer and the founder of Saduq Agency. His core experience is cash-on-delivery stores, and he works online. No office and no published client in Iraq, and his published numbers here are from Egypt.
No standard addresses, so the phone is part of the ad
Delivery in Iraq relies on the phone number and a nearby landmark more than an address, so the phone field in the order form matters more than it looks. According to a seller of cash-on-delivery tools, 15-25% of deliveries may fail and cash remittance takes 7-14 days, with next-day delivery in Baghdad and 2-3 days to Basra and Erbil, and Erbil treated as a separate logistics zone. I treat these as guide numbers, then replace them with yours. That's why I don't count ad cost against the registered order. I count it against the order that arrived and got paid.
Reach numbers: TikTok first
- TikTok: 40.1 million (aged 18 and over).
- Instagram 21.5 million, Facebook 20.8 million, Snapchat 19.3 million.
The numbers are from DataReportal and show ad reach. Since the channel runs on short video, testing starts with the hook and the product: TikTok ads management. As for language, Arabic and Kurdish are both official, and we decide the ad version by your sales regions and the results.
Wallets exist, but they aren't ready-made in Shopify
ZainCash, SuperQi and FIB are all present options, and ZainCash reports over 1 million users. But Shopify has no native ZainCash or QiCard support according to a commercial source, and Shopify Payments isn't available, so connecting them needs a third-party gateway. There are 17 licensed payment companies, so the options keep changing. I check this before promising a prepayment discount in an ad.
The proof, and where it happened
Van Graph in Egypt: $80,607 in purchases on $6,334 of TikTok spend (the case with screenshots). More detail: missing cash-on-delivery orders in Shopify. Other countries: media buyer in the Arab world.
Frequently asked questions
Have you worked with stores in Baghdad or Erbil?
I have no published case from Iraq. The published numbers here are from Egypt, and the work is fully online.
What's the best sales platform in Iraq?
TikTok has the largest ad reach, but the verdict comes from delivered orders after a small test.
Why do I have many orders and little cash?
Because some orders fail at delivery and some remittances run late, so you need to measure delivered orders.
How much does a media buyer cost in Iraq?
A fixed monthly fee plus a percentage of sales, set after reviewing your profit margin and the size of the spend.
Is your store in Iraq getting lots of orders while only part of them reaches you? Message me and I'll review the numbers.
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