Answered · Cost
How much should a small business spend on social media in Pakistan?
Budget PKR 25,000 to PKR 50,000 a month all in — roughly PKR 15,000 to PKR 35,000 for someone to run it and PKR 10,000 to PKR 20,000 in ad spend. The common rule of thumb is five to ten percent of monthly revenue, so a shop turning over PKR 500,000 lands in that band.
Chhoti business ko social media par kitna kharch karna chahiye?
The longer answer
Split the budget three ways before you spend a rupee: making, distributing, and being findable. Making is the content itself. Distributing is ads. Being findable is your Google Business Profile, your website and the words on both. Most small businesses in the twin cities put everything into making, produce twelve pretty posts a month, and wonder why the phone does not ring — while a competitor with worse photos sits at the top of Google Maps for their area because someone spent an hour a week on the boring half.
Order matters more than amount. Do not buy ads before there is somewhere to send people: a WhatsApp number that gets answered, a page that shows prices, a profile with real photos. A furniture showroom on Murree Road that runs PKR 20,000 of ads into a page with four blurry pictures is buying nothing. Fix the destination first, then spend. Once ads start, expect a WhatsApp enquiry to cost somewhere between PKR 150 and PKR 600 depending on what you sell, and judge the month on enquiries, not on likes.
Then move money with the calendar. Ramadan and the fortnight before Eid are the two highest-intent windows of the Pakistani year for food, clothing, gifts and salons — spend heavier there and accept that the auction is more expensive because everyone else has worked this out too. Wedding season from November to February does the same for photographers, tailors, halls and beauty salons. The dead weeks straight after Eid-ul-Fitr are for making content, not buying reach. Our Business bundle from PKR 25,000 puts the website, the Google profile and the posting under one invoice, which is usually what a shop needs before it needs a bigger ad budget.
The numbers
| Monthly revenue (PKR) | Total marketing budget | Content and management | Ad spend | First priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 300,000 | 15,000 – 25,000 | 15,000 | 0 – 10,000 | Google Business Profile and steady posting |
| 300,000 – 800,000 | 25,000 – 50,000 | 15,000 – 35,000 | 10,000 – 20,000 | WhatsApp enquiries from Meta ads |
| 800,000 – 2,000,000 | 50,000 – 120,000 | 35,000 – 70,000 | 20,000 – 60,000 | Two platforms plus search ads |
| Over 2,000,000 | 120,000+ | 70,000+ | 50,000+ | Full calendar, ads and a measured funnel |
A rule of thumb, not a formula. A business with high margins can justify more; a reseller on thin margins cannot.
Figures as of August 2026. Source: Islamabad Digital Marketing's own price list applied to the five-to-ten-percent-of-revenue rule of thumb commonly used by small businesses; ad-cost figures from campaigns we run in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, August 2026..
If you would rather we did it
This question usually leads to the Business bundle package. A local shop, clinic or service that needs to be findable, not just posted.
from PKR 25,000
per month
- Website built and hosted
- Google Business Profile set up and posted to weekly
- Social media management on 1-2 platforms
- Local SEO for Islamabad or Rawalpindi
- Monthly report on WhatsApp
Checked and updated
Next step
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