An interactive breakdown of a UAE-based higher-education client's Google Ads account — Search, Performance Max, Smart and Display — comparing account-export data from two years before my tenure (Sep 2021–Sep 2023) against my time managing the account so far (Sep 2023–Jul 2026). Client and destination details have been generalized for confidentiality; the performance figures are real.
Note: Meta's on-platform "Leads" metric is excluded from this dashboard. Meta changed its attribution windows on the Ads Insights API in January 2026, which can retroactively understate conversions recorded for older periods — so historical lead counts pulled today may not reflect what was actually reported at the time. Reach, impressions, clicks and CTR shown here are raw delivery metrics unaffected by that change.
Note: unlike the other channels, this isn't a straightforward growth story. Both totals here are independently verified against Snapchat Ads Manager's own summary view, not just CSV exports. Efficiency improved — CTR up, CPC down — but spend, impressions and clicks per month all dropped substantially compared to the earlier period.
| Campaign | Spend (AED) | Impressions | Clicks | CTR | Avg. CPC | Landing Page Views | Cost / LPV |
|---|
Note: this account runs three Snapchat campaigns, a much smaller allocation than Google or Meta. On-platform "Native Leads" reported 0 across all three — lead tracking doesn't appear to be configured for this channel, so it's excluded rather than shown as a misleading zero.
Note: both periods have real gaps where the campaign wasn't spending (e.g. Aug–Dec 2022, most of 2026). Volume metrics below are normalized per active month — a month where the campaign actually spent — rather than per calendar month, so the comparison reflects performance while running, not diluted by dormant stretches.
Note: this account ran one steady always-on engagement/awareness campaign promoting the MBA program at a fixed ~AED 300/month, rather than a scaled lead-gen push like Google or Meta — LinkedIn's own CPMs make it a poor fit for high-volume click campaigns at this budget level. Two other ad sets in the account (a CCL-tagged InMail ad and an ACCA conversion ad) never spent and are excluded.
The account I inherited in September 2023 was already spending — CTR and conversion rate were both low relative to the media budget, which usually points to a mix of pre-click targeting waste and a weak post-click experience. Over the following months I worked both sides of that equation, across Search and social.
Note: some of the conversion-rate gain also reflects a channel mix shift — Performance Max didn't exist on this account pre-2023 and now carries a large share of volume — alongside the optimization work above.
Comparative Analysis
Not every number here is a win, and this dashboard won't pretend otherwise: Facebook's page engagement rate specifically fell 77.6% to 0.29%, even as its reach and impressions grew — a much bigger, faster-growing audience that engages proportionally less. X (Twitter) declined on most metrics — likes, retweets, engagement rate, and impressions all down, with a net loss of followers in the after period. Source: Hootsuite cross-network report, generated Aug 3, 2026. Handles, post captions, and individual staff names are excluded — only aggregate performance figures are shown.