Q3 2026 edition · Meta · Google · ScoutWatch data
Morocco digital advertising barometer
The Sandbox barometer counts the ads of the advertisers Sandbox tracks in Morocco on Meta and Google: 162 Meta pages and 79 Google accounts tracked by ScoutWatch, the ad intelligence tool built by Sandbox, from July 1 to September 30, 2026. In the third quarter, these advertisers ran 13,957 ads on Meta and 11,807 on Google. A Meta ad runs for a median of 14 days; carousels account for 48.7% of the Meta ads launched; 24.2% of the quarter's Meta launches fall within the two back-to-school weeks.
Published October 19, 2026 · data from July 1 to September 30, 2026 · next edition (Q4 2026): January 2027
The quarter in four figures
Key findings
Each finding can be quoted with its source: “Source: Sandbox, ScoutWatch barometer, Q3 2026”.
- 01
Nine in ten telecom ads on Meta are not in French.
In Q3, 91.6% of the Meta text ads launched by the three tracked telecom operators are written in a language other than French: French accounts for only 8.4% of 926 ads. One operator writes 87% of its ads in Darija with Latin letters; another writes 83% of its own in Arabic script.
- 02
Half of Meta ads stop within two weeks.
Median lifespan: 14 days, across 10,618 Meta ads that ended in Q3. Of the 6,648 ads launched in July and August, 47.7% had ended within 14 days, 77.6% within 30 days, and 4.5% were still running on October 19.
- 03
A quarter of the quarter's Meta launches fall within the two back-to-school weeks.
24.2% of the Meta ads launched in Q3 (2,726 of 11,269) went live between August 31 and September 13, which is 15% of the quarter's days (25.2% excluding the quarter's top advertiser). The peak spans automotive, education, retail and telecoms. The link with the start of the school year is a hypothesis: the data shows when ads launch, not why.
- 04
Carousel is the leading format among tracked Meta ads.
48.7% of the Meta ads launched in Q3, ahead of video (32.8%) and image (18.4%). The ranking holds excluding the quarter's top advertiser (carousel: 45.6%). A carousel counts as one ad, whatever its number of cards.
- 05
One Meta ad in six comes from a single advertiser.
One banking advertiser accounts for 1,725 of the 11,269 Meta ads launched in Q3 (15.3%), with 84 distinct texts, including 358 ads launched on August 19 alone. Meta creates one ID per variant: over the quarter, 11,269 ads cover 3,465 distinct creatives, or 3.3 IDs per creative.
- 06
Almost no launches on Throne Day.
On July 30, 42 Meta ads were launched, against 200 the day before and 217 the day after; on Google, 4 against 157 and 184. The August public holidays show the same dip: 44 Meta launches on August 14 against 94 the day before, 35 and 28 on August 20 and 21.
Quarterly volumes
Ads from the advertisers tracked by Sandbox, July 1 to September 30, 2026. An ad is an ID assigned by the platform.
| Indicator | Meta | |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts tracked by ScoutWatch | 162 | 79 |
| Ads active during the quarter | 13,957 | 11,807 |
| Ads launched during the quarter | 11,269 | 4,706 |
| Ads still active on September 30 | 3,302 | 5,836 |
| Accounts with at least one active ad | 123 | 59 |
| Accounts that launched at least one ad | 114 | 47 |
An active ad ran at least one day between July 1 and September 30; a launched ad has its start date in that period. On Google, 1,175 ads first seen in Q3 without a start date provided by Google (display, YouTube) count as active, not as launched. No volume comparison with Q2: Meta tracking was extended between the two quarters, and Google end dates from April to June are not reliable.
Top 10 sectors
Share of the 15,975 Meta and Google ads launched in Q3, by advertiser sector. The ranking also reflects how many advertisers are tracked in each sector: automotive accounts for 42 of the Meta pages monitored.
| Rank | Sector | Ads launched | Share | of which Meta | of which Google |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Automotive | 3,822 | 23.9% | 3,310 | 512 |
| 02 | Banking | 3,103 | 19.4% | 2,283 | 820 |
| 03 | E-commerce and digital | 1,874 | 11.7% | 369 | 1,505 |
| 04 | Retail | 1,776 | 11.1% | 1,371 | 405 |
| 05 | Telecoms | 1,707 | 10.7% | 1,258 | 449 |
| 06 | Education | 1,428 | 8.9% | 1,285 | 143 |
| 07 | FMCG | 377 | 2.4% | 246 | 131 |
| 08 | Fashion | 325 | 2.0% | 280 | 45 |
| 09 | Real estate | 292 | 1.8% | 163 | 129 |
| 10 | Tourism and hospitality | 278 | 1.7% | 212 | 66 |
| Outside the top 10 | Media and entertainment | 199 | 1.2% | 187 | 12 |
| Agencies, brand not attributed (Google) | 458 | 2.9% | 0 | 458 |
The ranking counts ads, not budgets. The other tracked sectors each have fewer than 160 launched ads; healthcare and construction are no longer tracked on Meta since August 21.
Advertiser concentration
On Meta, the top advertiser accounts for 15.3% of the ads launched in Q3, the top five for 34.3%, the top fifteen for 56.9%, out of 121 advertisers that launched at least one ad.
Formats and lifespan
Format of Q3 Meta ads. Google is not shown: YouTube video is only visible there through its thumbnails.
| Format | Ads launched | Share of launched | Share of active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carousel | 5,492 | 48.7% | 47.6% |
| Video | 3,701 | 32.8% | 34.2% |
| Image | 2,076 | 18.4% | 18.2% |
Excluding the quarter's top advertiser (66% carousels), carousel stays first at 45.6%, ahead of video (33.7%) and image (20.6%). Dynamic catalog ads count as carousels.
Meta ad lifespan
| Format | Median | Middle half | Ads ended |
|---|---|---|---|
| All formats | 14 d | 6–27 d | 10,618 |
| Carousel | 14 d | 6–25 d | 5,258 |
| Video | 15 d | 7–29 d | 3,659 |
| Image | 13 d | 4–28 d | 1,701 |
Computed on ads that ended in Q3 with a known start date; the middle half runs from the first to the third quartile. A Meta ad ends on the day it leaves the library, to the day. The median was also 14 days in Q2. Google is not shown: its ads ended in Q3 include old display banners, so the median would not describe the lifespan of an ad.
Ad languages
Language of the text of the 9,113 Meta ads launched in Q3 that carry text (81% of those launched). Detected by Sandbox from the script and common words: indicative figures.
| Language | Ads | Share |
|---|---|---|
| French | 5,688 | 62.4% |
| Arabic, no Darija marker found | 1,049 | 11.5% |
| Darija in Arabic script | 938 | 10.3% |
| English | 723 | 7.9% |
| Darija in Latin letters | 496 | 5.4% |
| Mixed Arabic and Latin | 54 | 0.6% |
| Spanish | 8 | 0.1% |
| Undetermined or too short | 157 | 1.7% |
Darija detected overall, Latin letters and Arabic script: 15.7% of text ads. Darija in Arabic script is detected through common words (ديال، دابا، كاين، بزاف…): the line with Standard Arabic is blurred, so read it as “at least 10.3%”. Darija in Latin letters comes mostly from one telecom operator. English includes carmaker ads in their original language; the 8 Spanish ads target Spain or Italy.
Languages by sector
| Sector | Text ads | Accounts | French | Arabic or mixed script | Darija detected | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education | 1,067 | 8 | 88.4% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 9.8% |
| Automotive | 2,920 | 38 | 75.4% | 4.6% | 0.7% | 18.1% |
| Retail | 1,259 | 11 | 65.4% | 31.8% | 16.8% | 0.9% |
| Telecoms | 926 | 3 | 8.4% | 45.4% | 74.5% | 0.2% |
Shares do not add up: Darija overlaps Arabic script and Latin letters. Banking and FMCG are not shown, as their sample is dominated by one advertiser or too narrow. Telecoms: three accounts only.
On Google, the language is that of the text carried by the visual, and a bilingual banner counts in two languages: of the 4,323 ads launched in Q3 whose visual language is known, 66.9% carry French and 35.6% Arabic.
Meta placements
Share of Meta ads allowed to run on each platform. This is possible delivery, not impressions; an ad counts in each placement, so shares do not add up.
| Placement | Ads launched | Ads active |
|---|---|---|
| 91.1% | 87.8% | |
| 87.5% | 87.7% | |
| Threads | 41.4% | 38.9% |
| Audience Network | 29.1% | 29.9% |
| Messenger | 28.8% | 28.8% |
| 10.2% | 9.0% |
Facebook and Instagram are level. The share of Threads and WhatsApp probably reflects the placements Meta offers by default rather than an advertiser choice: this is an unverified hypothesis.
Launches by week
Ads launched each week of Q3 by the tracked advertisers. Full-week average: 858 on Meta, 365 on Google.
| Week of | Days | Meta | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1 | 5 | 502 | 214 |
| Jul 6 | 7 | 809 | 364 |
| Jul 13 | 7 | 888 | 296 |
| Jul 20 | 7 | 744 | 386 |
| Jul 27 | 7 | 779 | 456 |
| Aug 3 | 7 | 650 | 179 |
| Aug 10 | 7 | 672 | 286 |
| Aug 17 | 7 | 958 | 158 |
| Aug 24 | 7 | 477 | 586 |
| Aug 31Back to school | 7 | 1,359 | 487 |
| Sep 7Back to school | 7 | 1,367 | 438 |
| Sep 14 | 7 | 755 | 544 |
| Sep 21 | 7 | 843 | 195 |
| Sep 28 | 3 | 466 | 117 |
Peaks and dips: what the data says
- 01Back to school, weeks of August 31 and September 7: 2,726 Meta launches in 14 days, spread across automotive, education, retail and telecoms. The link with the start of the school year is a hypothesis.
- 02Week of August 17: August 19 has 550 Meta launches, 358 of them from one banking advertiser and 99 from a furniture retailer. This is two advertisers, not seasonality: without the first, the week is below average.
- 03Week of August 24: Meta dip, 477 ads, 44% below the full-week average; the lowest day is August 26 (20 launches). Hypothesis: end of the summer holidays.
- 04Public holidays: 42 Meta launches on July 30 (Throne Day) against 200 the day before; 44 on August 14 against 94 the day before; 35 and 28 on August 20 and 21.
- 05Google: the high weeks of late August and September are driven by a few digital services launching many ads at once, not by the calendar.
- 062026 World Cup, final on July 19: no visible effect on launches.
Method and limits
Source: ScoutWatch, the ad intelligence tool built by Sandbox. The barometer covers the Meta and Google ads of a list of advertisers chosen by Sandbox: as of October 19, 2026, 162 Meta pages and 79 Google accounts tracked. This is not a census of the Moroccan market: the figures cover the ads of the advertisers tracked by Sandbox.
An ad is an ID assigned by the platform. Meta creates one ID per variant: the 11,269 Meta ads launched in Q3 cover 3,465 distinct creatives. An active ad ran at least one day in the quarter; a launched ad has its start date in it. Sectors follow Sandbox's classification, by brand.
Dates: the start date is the one the platform gives. A Meta ad ends on the day it leaves the library, to the day; a Google ad ends on its last showing. Days are platform days (UTC or Pacific time) and may differ by one day from Casablanca.
Languages: Meta does not provide an ad's language. Sandbox detects it from the script and lists of common words in French, English, Spanish and Darija; about fifty texts per language were reviewed, and the error margin is not measured. On Google, the language is that of the text carried by the visual.
Data frozen and published on October 19, 2026. Next edition: Q4 2026, in January 2027.
What the barometer does not cover
- 01Budgets, impressions and targeting: neither Meta nor Google publishes them for commercial ads in Morocco.
- 02TikTok, LinkedIn and display on media sites: tracked by ScoutWatch, outside this edition.
- 03YouTube on Google: video is only visible there through its thumbnails, so no Google video share is published.
- 04Change since Q2: Meta tracking was extended during the second quarter and Google end dates from April to June are not reliable; no growth figure is published.
- 05The continuity of the July to September data was not checked day by day for this edition; the series show no interruption outside public holidays.
Download the data
The tables on this page as CSV (comma-separated, UTF-8), aggregated, with no raw data and no ad ID. CC BY 4.0 licence: free reuse with the credit “Source: Sandbox, ScoutWatch barometer”.
CC BY 4.0 licence · Source: Sandbox, ScoutWatch barometer
Frequently asked questions
01Which sectors advertise the most online in Morocco?→
Among the advertisers tracked by Sandbox in Q3 2026, automotive leads with 23.9% of the 15,975 Meta and Google ads launched, ahead of banking (19.4%), e-commerce and digital (11.7%), retail (11.1%), telecoms (10.7%) and education (8.9%). The ranking counts ads, not budgets, and also reflects how many advertisers are tracked in each sector.
02What language are ads in Morocco written in?→
On Meta, 62.4% of the text ads launched in Q3 2026 by the advertisers tracked by Sandbox are in French, 21.8% in Arabic script (at least 10.3% in Darija), 7.9% in English and 5.4% in Darija with Latin letters. Sectors differ widely: 88.4% French in education, 8.4% in telecoms. Automatic detection, indicative figures.
03How long does a Facebook ad run in Morocco?→
A Meta ad (Facebook, Instagram) from the advertisers tracked by Sandbox runs for a median of 14 days in Q3 2026, across 10,618 ended ads; the middle half runs from 6 to 27 days. Of the ads launched in July and August, 77.6% had stopped within 30 days.
04Which ad format dominates on Meta in Morocco?→
Carousel: 48.7% of the Meta ads launched in Q3 2026 by the advertisers tracked by Sandbox, ahead of video (32.8%) and image (18.4%). It stays first without the quarter's top advertiser (45.6%). A carousel counts as one ad, whatever its number of cards.
05When do advertisers launch the most ads in Morocco?→
In Q3 2026, the two back-to-school weeks, August 31 to September 13, account for 24.2% of the Meta ads launched by the advertisers tracked by Sandbox, for 15% of the quarter's days. Public holidays do the opposite: 42 Meta launches on Throne Day, against 200 the day before.
06Where do the Sandbox barometer figures come from?→
From ScoutWatch, the ad intelligence tool built by Sandbox, which tracks the ads of 162 Meta pages and 79 Google accounts. It is not a market census: the figures cover the ads of these advertisers from July 1 to September 30, 2026. The tables can be downloaded as CSV under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
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