25 June, 2025. Internet users in Saudi Arabia are shown over 700 ads daily, according to a new study by Eskimi, a leading creative and media technology platform. This number positions Saudi Arabia in the 19th place among countries most exposed to digital ads.
“Try imagining the ads you’ve seen today. Let me guess – you remember none or a very few. We are exposed to thousands of ads daily, but become resistant to them. In many instances, we do not even need ad-blockers, as our brains do just that. With this comes a challenge for businesses – how to cut through this block and get noticed,” says Vytautas Paukstys, CEO of Eskimi.
Country results vary greatly
To draw these conclusions, Eskimi researchers investigated ad statistics from apps and websites across 188 countries worldwide, including Saudi Arabia. Below are the key takeaways from the study.
• While Saudis are heavily exposed to digital ads, a few countries rank even higher. Internet users in Nauru, a tiny island in Oceania, are the most exposed to digital ads worldwide. One individual is shown almost 1,600 placements daily. Iceland ranks second with over 1,500 ads and Qatar is third with almost 1,200 ads.
• Among the analyzed countries, the average number of ads displayed to a person per day varies from tens to almost 1,600 ads every day.
• Across all the studied markets, internet users are exposed to more app ads than website ads. This difference is particularly pronounced for internet users in Saudi Arabia, who experience 5 times more ads on apps than on websites.
Factors impacting the numbers
According to Paukstys, multiple factors affect ad exposure differences. Device types and internet connectivity play a role here, as devices display ads differently, and faster connections allow for more complex and engaging ad formats to load more quickly.
Moreover, certain countries receive more attention from advertisers than others. The more competitors for the ad space, the less likely that the ad placement will stay vacant. This factor is relevant for both the popular advertising markets and smaller countries in terms of population. For instance, Nauru, an island exposed to digital ads the most, has only over 10,000 residents, so ad impressions per user tend to be much higher than in larger countries.
Online habits of country residents also impact the number of ads they are exposed to daily. The recent 2025 Global Digital Report by Meltwater and We Are Social reveals significant differences in the country’s average time spent online. South Africans, for instance, spend almost ten hours online every day, while Japanese people spend only four.
Why should businesses care about it?
Knowing display ad exposure trends in various countries can significantly help businesses develop smarter advertising strategies, says Paukstys. Suppose one knows that in a particular market, internet users are flooded with ads. In that case, advertisers can prioritize investing in engaging rich media visuals over placing a high number of static creatives in standard ad placements.
“Being exposed to hundreds of ads is very different from truly seeing them. When people are experiencing too many ads, they tend to tune out and become immune to the messages. To break through ad fatigue, advertisers need to step up their game by returning to creativity and evaluating the actual impact of their campaigns,” says Paukstys.
He adds that today’s market increasingly focuses on attention measurement, using advanced AI tools and analytics to understand how users engage with ads beyond simple impressions or clicks. This enables advertisers to optimize campaigns for attention and effectiveness rather than just visibility.
Tips for advertisers on how to get noticed in an overcrowded digital space
Paukstys encourages advertisers to follow simple recommendations when creating campaigns in highly ad-exposed markets.
1. Dare to innovate. Modern demand-side platforms offer cutting-edge resources to create engaging creatives or transform previously created static visuals into interactive, animated ads.
2. Localize. Create your ad campaigns with your target audience in mind. Translate the copy of your creatives and consult local experts on nuances, such as jokes or overall campaign style.
3. Be creative. Focus on transforming your visuals into compelling art before optimizing for efficiency. It will help distinguish the brand from the others.
Methodology
To conduct this study, Eskimi researchers analyzed the anonymized advertising data from various AdTech industry databases, including Eskimi internal data, across websites and apps in 188 countries worldwide. The average number of ads displayed for a single user was counted based on the daily averages of ad requests received by programmatic platforms and the number of internet users in 2025 in different countries. Researchers investigated the daily ad exposure results from May 2025.
Separately, researchers counted the ratio of ads displayed on both websites and apps. To do so, they utilized aggregated industry numbers, alongside specific insights from Eskimi anonymized advertising data.
