Digital marketing consultant · Dubai, UAE
Digital marketing consultant in Dubai who has run the whole funnel in-house
I’m Lorenzo Solís, a digital marketing consultant in Dubai with 17 years growing businesses from the inside: SEO, paid media, CRM and analytics at Eventbrite, Just Eat, bwin, EF Education First and now Privilee across six markets. If you need one person who can see the whole funnel and make the channels work together, you’re in the right place.
17 years
in digital marketing, since 2009
+23%
revenue at Just Eat Spain in 2021, across the full channel mix
16
countries managed at bwin
6
markets led today across the GCC and Asia
In-house at
Companies I have grown
Why me
Why a digital marketing consultant, not another agency
An agency is built to sell and deliver one or two channels well. A digital marketing consultant is there to decide what the whole budget should do, and to make sure it does it. I’ve been on both sides. I co-founded a small digital marketing agency in Spain and ran it for five years, and since then I’ve hired and managed SEO, paid media and CRM agencies at almost every company I’ve worked for.
The gaps are almost always the same. The paid media agency optimises to its own dashboard, the SEO agency to rankings, and the CRM sits with whoever has time. Nobody owns the number that matters: how many customers you acquired, at what cost, and how many of them came back. And when the tracking is broken, which it usually is, every channel claims the same conversion.
Working in-house fixed that for me. At Just Eat I owned SEO, PPC, paid social, affiliates, promo codes and CRM for Spain under one target, so every euro had to justify itself against the others. That is what I bring to a company in Dubai: one view of the funnel, one set of numbers everyone trusts, and the judgement to move budget to where it works.
I’m not here to replace an agency that delivers. I set the priorities, check the work against the business, and make sure the pieces connect. If you don’t have agencies yet, I’ll tell you which ones you need, and which ones you don’t.
Track record
17 years of digital marketing across the full funnel
My career has moved from single channels to the whole funnel. Every role below is on my LinkedIn with the same figures.
2026 to today
Privilee
As Global Head of Growth & Sales at Privilee, a premium lifestyle membership platform, I lead growth across the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Singapore and Hong Kong. The job covers SEO, paid media, CRM and analytics, plus the agencies behind them, so I work every day on how the channels add up in the Gulf and Asia, not just how each one performs alone.
2023 to 2026
Eventbrite
I joined as Senior Growth Marketing & SEO Manager and finished as Head of Organic Growth at the world’s largest events marketplace. The work sat inside growth: building the case for organic against paid and lifecycle, running data pipelines in BigQuery and coordinating with product and engineering so that what we planned actually shipped.
2019 to 2023
Just Eat Takeaway.com
As Digital Marketing Manager for Spain I owned the full acquisition mix: SEO, PPC, paid social, affiliates, promo codes and CRM. In 2021 that delivered +31% year-on-year organic traffic, +12% orders, +14% active customers, +14% app downloads and +15% new customers, for a +23% revenue increase. I then became Senior Growth Marketing Lead, Global, running growth strategy across eight key markets with a team of five.
2016 to 2019
bwin
I started as Acquisition Manager for bwin Spain and became Senior Marketing Manager for Iberia and Latam, overseeing marketing for bwin and Sportingbet across 16 countries. Net revenue grew 21% in 2018 and again 21% in 2019, in one of the most competitive and regulated verticals in digital marketing.
2014 to 2016
EF Education First and Groupalia
At EF Education First in London I was SEO Regional Manager on a site serving more than 50 countries. At Groupalia in Barcelona, one of the largest e-commerce sites in Spain at the time, I was responsible for organic traffic, web analytics, sign-ups and conversion.
2010 to 2014
ClickDirecto
I co-founded ClickDirecto in Asturias, a small agency doing SEO and PPC for local newspapers, hotels, estate agents and clinics. Five years of selling digital marketing to business owners taught me the lesson I still use: the client doesn’t care about clicks, they care about the phone ringing.
Where I help
What I can help your business with
I don’t sell packages. I take on problems where having run the whole funnel in-house makes a measurable difference, and they tend to fall into these areas.
Growth strategy and channel mix
Where should the next dirham go: search, social, CRM or product? I build the plan from your own data, set one target for every channel, and decide what to stop as well as what to start. Most companies I see are spreading budget too thin across too many channels.
Paid media and agency management
Google Ads, Meta and Instagram, with the agency or in-house team running the accounts. I set the strategy, the budgets and the targets, review the work against real customer numbers rather than platform-reported ROAS, and tell you plainly when a campaign or an agency isn’t working.
SEO and organic growth
Organic is where I started and still the channel I know best: international, technical and programmatic SEO for marketplaces and platforms. If search is your main problem, my SEO consultant page goes into the detail.
CRM and retention
Acquisition is expensive in Dubai, so keeping customers matters more. Lifecycle journeys, renewals, win-back and the move between CRM platforms when the current one no longer fits. Email, push and WhatsApp working from the same data, measured on repeat revenue.
Analytics and measurement
If GA4 and the ad platforms disagree with your sales numbers, every budget decision is a guess. I rebuild tracking with your developers or agency, define the conversions that matter, and set up reporting the leadership team can trust.
Launching new markets
Taking a Dubai business to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore or Hong Kong is a sequence of decisions: which channels first, how much to test with, which local partners, how to read early results. I’ve run multi-market growth at Just Eat and bwin, and launched new markets at Privilee.
Not sure which one you need?
Send me your website and the problem you’re trying to solve. I’ll tell you which of these it is, or whether it’s something else entirely.
Options
Consultant, agency or in-house hire?
Each option fits a different stage. This is how I’d explain the trade-off to a founder.
| Consultant | Agency | In-house hire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | One senior person across all channels | A team and a process for one or two channels | A full-time employee |
| Best for | Setting strategy, fixing what is broken, managing agencies | Execution at volume: campaigns, content, links | Ongoing work once the plan is proven |
| Ties work to | Revenue, customers and acquisition cost | Channel metrics in their own report | Whatever the role is set up to own |
| Speed to start | Days | Weeks, after onboarding | Months, after hiring |
| Commitment | Project or monthly, easy to stop | Retainer, often with a minimum term | Salary, visa and notice period |
Method
How I work
01
Measurement before money
Before I recommend any spend, I want to see GA4, your ad accounts, your CRM and your sales numbers side by side. If they don’t agree, fixing that is step one, because every decision after it depends on it.
02
One target for every channel
Paid, organic and CRM work to the same business goal: customers and revenue at a cost you can afford. No channel gets to mark its own homework.
03
Ten things that ship
I’d rather hand you ten priorities ranked by impact and effort, with the business case written so your CEO or CTO says yes, than an eighty-point audit that sits in a folder.
04
Directly with your team
I work with your marketing, product and tech people and your agencies directly. No account managers, no hand-offs. If I’m on the project, I’m in the meeting and in the spreadsheet.
Local context
Digital marketing in Dubai and the GCC: what actually changes
Most of what works in Europe works here, but three things change the plan.
Multi-market by default
A Dubai company rarely stays a Dubai company. The path runs to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha and often Singapore or Hong Kong, each with its own audience, costs and channel mix. Planning for that early is far cheaper than rebuilding later, and it’s exactly what I’m doing at Privilee across the GCC and Asia.
Social and messaging carry more weight
In my experience here, Instagram does more of the work than it would in Europe, and WhatsApp is a real customer channel, not an extra. A plan copied from a European playbook usually underweights both, and over-relies on search.
Seasons move demand
Summer, Ramadan and the school calendar shift what people buy and when. Budgets and campaigns that stay flat all year leave money on the table in the peaks and waste it in the troughs. I plan the year around those moments.
Judge
Global, UK and MENA Search Awards
In 2025 I served as a judge for the Global Search Awards, the UK Search Awards and the MENA Search Awards, scoring international search and digital marketing campaigns. Reading entries from the other side of the form, you learn quickly which results are real and which are presentation.
Professor
Master in Digital Marketing, IEBS Business School
Between 2014 and 2017 I taught on the Master in Digital Marketing at IEBS Business School across three editions. A good consultant should be able to explain the why to your team, not just deliver the what.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does a digital marketing consultant do?
A digital marketing consultant looks at your whole funnel, from the first ad or search to the repeat purchase, and decides where your time and budget should go. In practice that means setting the strategy and targets, fixing measurement, managing agencies or in-house specialists, and reviewing results against revenue rather than channel metrics.
How much does a digital marketing consultant charge in Dubai?
It depends on the problem, not on hours. After a first conversation I send a short written proposal with a defined scope and a fixed price, either as a project with a clear end or as a monthly engagement. You know the cost before anything starts.
What kind of businesses do you work with?
Companies where digital is the main growth channel: marketplaces, platforms, e-commerce, subscription and membership businesses, real estate portals, and services with online booking. Most have a marketing or product team and operate, or plan to operate, in more than one market.
Do you replace our agency?
Not if it’s delivering. Often the best set-up is me defining the priorities and targets while your agencies execute, with the work reviewed against business numbers. If an agency isn’t working, I’ll say so and help you find a better one.
Do you work with companies outside Dubai?
Yes. I’m based in Dubai and have worked across the UAE, the wider GCC, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and most of Europe. A client with teams in Riyadh or London is a normal engagement, not an exception.
How quickly will we see results?
Fixing measurement and cutting wasted spend usually shows within weeks. Paid media tests give a first read within a month or two. SEO and CRM programmes compound over six to twelve months. I’ll tell you which one you’re looking at in the first conversation.
How do we start?
Fill in the form below with your website and the problem you’re trying to solve. I’ll reply within two working days with an honest view on whether I’m the right person for it and what the first step would look like.
Get in touch
Tell me about your project
Your website, the markets you’re in, and the problem you’re trying to solve. That’s enough for a first answer.
Based in Dubai. Working with companies across the UAE, the GCC and Asia.