Al Arabiya increases their click-through rate by 200% with AI-backed recommendations Success Story - Insider
2026-03-06 03:35 Diff

About AI Arabiya

Al Arabiya is a Saudi-owned pan-Arab television news channel broadcast in Modern Standard Arabic. Based in Dubai, the channel also focuses on distributing English content via different channels like web and social media. Through this content, Al Arabiya seeks to reach an international, non-Arab audience, as well as expatriates living in the Middle East and North Africa, in order to deepen the understanding of Arab societies, cultures and economies.

Personalizing Content for New Users

When Al Arabiya approached Insider, they were already working to engage existing users through personalized content. On desktop and mobile web, the brand was handpicking articles for existing users to read, but they wanted to explore the potential to increase the number of pageviews and CTR of articles by new users as well.

They set a goal to increase pageviews by showing new users personalized content based on their preferences, interests and reading habits. As the users were new to the site, one of the challenges was identifying exactly what those interests and preferences were. This is where Insider stepped in.

200% CTR Boost & More Than 1.75 Million Additional Pageviews

On mobile, the Recommendation Engine contributed to an uplift of 54% in CTR for articles, resulting in an additional 974,387 pageviews.
On desktop, the Recommendation Engine delivered a major CTR boost of 200%, with 788,466 additional pageviews recorded.