Earlier, people would open a shop and put up a sign. The customer would come on their own. Now that’s not the case. Now, the customer first picks up their phone. They search on Google. They look up the brand on Instagram or Facebook. They read reviews. They compare prices. They do all this before coming to the store.
The same thing is happening in Pakistan. Today, more than 117 million people use the internet. More than 80 million are active on social media. Meaning, the customer is already online, whether your business is there or not.
The simple gist of all this research is this: If a business isn’t visible online, it’s not where customers are. Businesses that understand this and are coming online are moving ahead. Those that don’t are giving away their customers.
What is digital marketing?
Understand it this way: Digital marketing means making your product or service accessible to people online. That’s it. It encompasses these things, which perform different functions:
SEO
This means getting your website ranked higher in Google. When people search for something, your website should appear first, ahead of competitors.
Content
Writing blogs, videos, or posts that benefit customers, teach them something, or solve their problems. The higher the quality of the content, the greater the trust in you.
Social media
Create your own page on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc., and stay active there regularly so people remember you.
Paid ads
Pay money to run your ads, such as through Google Ads or Facebook Ads. The special thing is that you can choose which cities and age groups will see these ads.
Email marketing
Send emails directly to customers, such as announcing a discount or a new product.
Influencer marketing
Get your brand featured by a famous online influencer to your followers.
These things together form a complete digital marketing strategy. Not every business needs to use everything at once, but the more a business uses, the more likely its customers are to find it.
Your customer is on the phone.
Just think: how many times do you pick up your phone these days? As soon as you think about something, the first thing you do is search on Google or open Instagram. This is what is happening with every Pakistani customer now.
Looking at the numbers, the matter becomes even clearer. Currently, more than 117 million people are using the internet in Pakistan, which is almost half the population of the country. Talking about mobile connections, they have reached 194 million, which constitutes 76% of the total population. This means that every second person in Pakistan is online in some way or the other, and most often through their mobile phones.
A similar picture is seen on social media. More than 80 million people are actively using social media in Pakistan. Platform-wise, there are 69 million people on Facebook, 24 million on Instagram, and TikTok has now become the twelfth largest platform in Pakistan in terms of user count. Speaking of YouTube, 76% of people watch YouTube every day, and 67% use Facebook every day.
These numbers aren’t just statistics; they tell a simple truth: your customer is already there, every day, on their phone. The question isn’t whether to go online or not. The question is whether, when the customer does look there, they will find you, or just your competitor.
The gossip of the neighborhood is now on Instagram
Previously, news of a good shop would spread through word of mouth in the neighborhood. People would tell each other whether to trust this shop or not. This was word-of-mouth, which built trust for a business.
Now social media does the same thing, only now it reaches the entire city or country. A good post, a nice comment from a customer, all of these things rebuild that old trust, just digitally.
Posting every day isn’t enough. Three things are important: knowing when the customer is active, understanding which format works best (Reels, Carousel, Stories), and converting followers into real customers.
One more thing: YouTube and Facebook are used the most in Pakistan, while Instagram and TikTok are popular among young people. If you have young customers, stay on Instagram and TikTok; if you have 12-year-old customers, Facebook and YouTube will be better.
No more darkness, now every rupee is accounted for
Earlier, when you placed an ad on a billboard or in a newspaper, you couldn’t tell how many people saw it, or how many came to the store and bought it. Money was spent, but the result remained unclear.
Now, when you run Google Ads or Facebook Ads, everything is clear. How many people saw the ad, how many clicked on it, how many bought it- everything is available in numbers.
The most important thing is that the ad can reach the right people. You can choose to show it only to people from Karachi, or only to people between 20 and 30 years of age. This was not possible in a billboard, where every passerby would see the ad, whether he needed it or not.
In Pakistan, well-executed Google Ads campaigns often give 3 to 5 times the return on every rupee spent, especially in e-commerce, services, and real estate. This is just an estimate; the result can be different for every business.
That is why now even a small business can cost as much as a big brand. Earlier, only those companies used to become famous that had a budget of Rs. Now anyone can run their first ad with Rs 500 or Rs 1000, see the result, and then increase the budget.
