Talabat app icon

Talabat

Customers order deliveries.
Talabat scales in the
Middle East.

Talabat ad on the App Store

Talabat was already a market leader in the Middle East — but maintaining that position across a variety of delivery categories was a challenge. For help, they turned to Apple Search Ads, growing customers by 20 percent at 12 percent lower cost.

The Results

20% increase in new user acquisition in just 30 days.
12% average lower cost-per-acquisition compared with similar ad platforms.
3 months to become one of Talabat’s best-performing acquisition channels.

The Challenge

Directly translated as “orders” in Arabic, Talabat has become a household name in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region since it launched in 2004. Today, customers can use the app to order deliveries from restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, and florists. To maintain this leadership position against increasing competition in a variety of delivery verticals, the Talabat team needed to find more cost-efficient ways to grow its customer base across the Middle East.

Apple Search Ads is integral to our overall marketing strategy. It’s a game changer for customer acquisition and accelerated our growth in key regions at
an impressive pace.

Erwan Jacob,

Global SEM Director at Talabat

The Solution

Scale reach with regional customers.

Focused on acquiring new customers, the team at Talabat seized the opportunity to improve app visibility with Apple Search Ads as soon as it became available in the region. Being able to showcase the app in Arabic improved ad relevancy to Talabat’s target audience across Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. In just a month, they saw a 20 percent incremental increase in installs with Apple Search Ads.

Optimize based on intent.

At Talabat, a new user is counted when they place an order, not when they download the app. That means reaching an engaged audience at the right moment is crucial. With Search Match, the Talabat team was able to uncover new keywords and maximize impression volume based on intent. Across markets, they found that brand, competitive, and category keywords performed better than specific local restaurant names.

Drive performance with unique takeaways.

In addition to being a top channel for accelerating customer growth, Apple Search Ads provided valuable insights, such as search query volume, for Talabat’s optimization across markets. “We trust and rely heavily on the insights Apple Search Ads offers. Our plans for Apple Search Ads Attribution API integration will allow us to extract even more in the future. We also plan to increase investment and start testing Creative Sets1 to learn how ad creative can influence performance,” says Anthony Estephan, head of performance marketing at Delivery Hero, which owns Talabat.

Company Snapshot

  • Talabat
  • Food & Drink category
  • Founded in 2004
  • Based in Kuwait
  • Operated by Delivery Hero SE
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