How agencies in Pakistan get paid by clients and fund ad accounts
Five clients, five ad accounts, one card. That setup works until the card declines on a Friday night and five campaigns pause at once. It also means you often pay for a client's ads before the client has paid you.
Here's a cleaner way to run the money side of an agency in Pakistan.
The rules Pakistani agencies run into
Personal cards aren't meant for this. State Bank of Pakistan rules say cards issued to individuals shouldn't be used for commercial cross-border payments, and let banks issue corporate cards to business customers instead (SBP FE Circular 7 of 2022). If you run client spend through a personal card, talk to your bank about a corporate card.
The yearly cap. Personal cross-border card spending is capped at USD 30,000 a year across all your cards (same circular). An agency with a few active clients can pass that in a few months.
Retention accounts. IT and freelance exporters can keep part of their export earnings in a foreign currency retention account (ESFCA) and pay from it, and banks were told to issue debit cards against ESFCA balances (SBP press release, 23 Oct 2023). Ask your bank whether that fits your agency.
Get paid first, in USD
Ask clients to pay the ad budget up front, separately from your fee, into USD account details. US clients pay by ACH. UK and European clients can pay to a GBP or EUR IBAN.
With nsave, receiving has a 0% fee and the money stays in USD. To set up account details, see How to get an ACH as a freelancer from Pakistan.
Fund the ad accounts from the same balance
Add your nsave USD Visa card as the payment method on each client ad account.
- 0% fee on USD charges.
- 1% to 1.5% FX fee if the ad account bills in PKR or another currency.
- No card limits.
For accounts you control, set them up to bill in USD. Here's how to decide.
Keep client spend apart from your margin
- Invoice the ad budget and your management fee as separate lines.
- You'll use one nsave card across all client ad accounts, so track spend per client from each platform's billing page, not from your card statement.
- Reconcile monthly: budget received, spend charged, balance carried over or refunded.
- Keep a week of spend per client as a buffer so a slow payer doesn't stop their own campaign.
How you invoice and record client ad budgets for tax depends on your business structure. Ask an accountant.
What this fixes, and what it doesn't
It removes the double conversion and the cash you were fronting. It doesn't change how Meta, Google or TikTok review payments. See Facebook ads payment failed in Pakistan? for platform-side issues.
For the full calculation, read Get paid in USD in Pakistan? What converting twice costs your ad budget.
FAQ
Can I run several clients' ad accounts on one nsave card?
Yes. There are no card limits, and the ad platforms generally let you add the same card to more than one ad account.
Should the client or the agency own the ad account?
Most agencies prefer the client to own it and give the agency access. Agree ownership and payment in your contract.
Do I need a business account?
Not to get started. If you invoice as a company, look at nsave business accounts.
