Nearly every enquiry we get opens with the same question, and almost nobody answers it publicly. So here are actual numbers.
What agencies in Pakistan charge per month
Retainers in Pakistan cluster into four bands. These are management fees — advertising spend is separate.
- PKR 15,000 – 25,000 — a freelancer or a very small studio. Usually social media posting only, no strategy, no reporting worth reading.
- PKR 25,000 – 45,000 — social media management plus basic on-page SEO and a Google Business Profile. Reasonable for a startup or a single-location business.
- PKR 45,000 – 75,000 — the level where SEO becomes serious: content, technical fixes, link building, proper reporting. Most growing businesses sit here.
- PKR 75,000 – 150,000+ — full service with paid ads management, video, landing pages and a dedicated account manager.
If someone quotes you PKR 8,000 a month for "complete digital marketing", they are posting stock images to Facebook. That is the entire service.
What advertising actually costs on top
The retainer pays for the work. The ad budget goes directly to Meta or Google from your own account.
- Meta (Facebook and Instagram) lead campaigns — you need at least PKR 40,000 a month for the algorithm to gather enough data to optimise. Below that you are paying to learn nothing.
- Google Search ads — more expensive per click but higher intent. Competitive service keywords in Lahore and Karachi run PKR 40 to PKR 250 per click depending on the industry.
Cost per lead varies enormously. A home-services business might pay PKR 300 per enquiry. A B2B logistics company might pay PKR 4,000 and still be delighted, because one contract is worth lakhs.
One-off project pricing
- Business website (5–8 pages) — PKR 60,000 to PKR 200,000
- E-commerce store — PKR 150,000 to PKR 500,000
- Brand identity (logo, colours, guidelines) — PKR 40,000 to PKR 150,000
- Promotional video — PKR 30,000 to PKR 150,000 per finished piece
The costs nobody puts in the quote
Ask about these before you sign anything:
- Ad spend markup. Some agencies quietly add 15–20% on top of what you spend. Ask directly whether they mark up media.
- Account ownership. If the agency creates the ad account, pixel or Google Business Profile in their own name, leaving costs you everything you built. Insist it is all in your name.
- Setup fees. Common, sometimes legitimate, but they should be stated upfront.
- Content production. Some retainers cover posting but not photography or video. Check what "content" means in your contract.
- Lock-in. A twelve-month contract with a three-month notice period is a twelve-month contract.
How to work out what you should spend
Start from what a customer is worth, not from what feels affordable.
If your average customer is worth PKR 50,000 in profit and you close one in five qualified enquiries, then a qualified enquiry is worth PKR 10,000 to you. Spending PKR 3,000 to generate one is excellent. Spending PKR 12,000 is not.
Work out that number before you take any agency call. It turns a vague conversation about packages into a specific conversation about return.
What a fair proposal looks like
A proposal you can trust names the deliverables and the quantities, states what is measured and how often you will see it, keeps ad spend separate and unmarked-up, confirms every account is registered in your name, and does not promise a first-page ranking by a specific date. Nobody can promise that honestly.
Questions people ask
Is a cheaper agency always worse?
Not always, but below roughly PKR 25,000 a month there is not enough time in the budget for strategy, content and reporting. You are buying activity, not results.
Should I pay for SEO or ads first?
If you need enquiries this month, ads. If you want a cost base that falls over time, SEO. Most businesses run ads to survive the four to six months it takes SEO to compound.
Want this handled for you?
We run SEO, social media, websites and paid advertising for businesses across Pakistan and the UAE. Tell us the number you want to move and you will have a plan within two working days.