Every year, a month before Ramadan, you find every company preparing a campaign, including those whose product has nothing to do with the season. The reason is not analysis; it is that everyone else is doing it.
Ramadan raises two things at once: demand in certain categories, and advertising cost across all categories. If you are in a category where demand does not rise, you pay the increase without taking the gain.
The right decision is not "do we or don't we," it is: what do we do, for whom, and at what price, and that needs thinking two months out, not a week.
First question: does demand for your product rise or fall?
Some categories rise: food and drink, gifts, clothing, home appliances, delivery, and restaurant services. Those need early preparation because competition is fierce and costs climb.
Others sleep: business services, training, real estate in many cases, and anything requiring long meetings and management decisions. The managers themselves are unavailable, and the buying cycle stretches.
If you are in the second group, that does not mean stop, it means change the shape of the work from direct selling to building relationships and preparing for after Eid.
Know your data before you assume
Before judging your product by instinct, open the last two years' numbers: monthly sales, order counts, and average order value. Was Ramadan genuinely above average? By how much?
Many companies discover Ramadan is not their strongest month, and that what they thought was a season was in fact a discount campaign eating the margin.
And if you do not have enough data, start recording now. Next season you will decide on a number rather than a guess.
Second question: can you deliver?
The biggest loss I see in Ramadan is not in advertising, it is in delivery. A successful campaign brings more orders than the team or the stock can handle, and then come delays, complaints and bad reviews that stay with you for months after the season.
Before you raise the budget, work out: the maximum orders you can fulfil in a day, who answers messages at peak times, and your plan if demand suddenly rises by half.
A campaign that promises what the company cannot deliver costs more than it brings, because your reputation in a season is built and destroyed quickly.
Timing within the month matters
Ramadan is not one month in buying behaviour, it is three distinct periods: the first week is preparation and household stocking, the middle calms down and suits content and mid-level offers, and the last ten days ignite with gifts, clothing and Eid preparation.
If your budget is limited, do not spread it evenly across the month. Put most of it in the period when your customer actually buys.
And watch the daily timing too: behaviour changes before and after iftar, and peak hours on the platforms differ completely from the rest of the year.
If the season is not your season, what then?
- Spend less and wait. Competition falls after Eid and costs return to normal, enter then with a stronger budget.
- Work on content rather than campaigns. In Ramadan people watch a great deal. A presence with good content is far cheaper than advertising in the same period.
- Prepare what comes next. Use the month to build the offers and materials for the period after Eid.
- Serve your existing customers. A message or a simple offer to past customers is cheaper than any new advertising in season.
And if the season genuinely is yours
Start preparing two months ahead, not a week: the offer, the stock, the creative material, and the response plan. And start the advertising a few days before the month begins so the platforms have finished their learning phase, instead of paying for that learning at peak competition.
Build your offer on value rather than discount alone. A discount in a season where everyone discounts is not an advantage, the advantage lies in speed, or a guarantee, or packaging, or an extra service.
Which categories work in season
If you want a quick answer to "which box am I in?", ask yourself: does my customer buy what I sell differently during Ramadan? If the answer is yes, more, less, or at a different time, the season concerns you.
Restaurants, sweets, clothing, gifts, delivery and home appliances see clearly changed demand. Software, consulting and industrial maintenance see decision-making clearly slow down.
And there is a third category people forget: businesses that serve seasonal businesses. If your customers are restaurants, Ramadan is your season too, but a month before it, not during it.
Discounts: when they help and when they hurt
A discount works when it has a clear reason and a defined duration, and hurts when it becomes permanent. If you cut prices every Ramadan, your customers will learn to wait for Ramadan, and that eats into the rest of the year.
The alternative is a composite offer: a bundle, a free extra product, or faster shipping. Value rises and the base price stays protected.
And calculate the discount against your margin, not the price. Twenty percent off a product with a thirty percent margin means giving up two thirds of your profit, it has to bring far higher volume to be worth it.
Prepare the team before the stock
Most companies prepare the goods and forget the people. In Ramadan working hours change, energy drops in the afternoon, and the peak arrives at unusual times.
Sit with your team a month before and agree: the hours, who is responsible for replies in each period, and the contingency plan if demand spikes. That agreement saves you a full week of chaos in the first days of the month.
And if you rely on suppliers or a courier, confirm their season schedules before you promise a customer anything. Most complaints come from a promise you made and could not control.
The mistakes that repeat every year
- Starting late. A campaign beginning on the first of the month pays its learning cost at peak competition.
- One offer for everyone. The season contains different segments buying for different reasons, a single offer loses most of them.
- Forgetting mobile. Most browsing this month happens on a phone in scattered moments; any slow page loses the order.
- Promises that are not kept. "Delivery before iftar" without the real capacity costs you your reputation.
After Eid: the part people forget
The thing most lost after the season is the customers who bought during it. They are your cheapest source of sales in the following months, if you recorded their details and contacted them at the right time.
Devote the first two weeks after Eid to one thing: contact every new customer with a thank you and a question about their experience. Those replies give you content, reviews and product information better than any market research.
In short
Ramadan is not a "do we or don't we" decision, it is a "what exactly and for whom" decision. If demand rises and you can deliver, go in strongly and early.
And if not, save your money for the time when it buys more result, and use the month to build a relationship you will harvest after Eid.
This is part of a series on seasons and new markets, which also covers why not to copy the big brands' Ramadan advertising.