Profile
The Man Who Thinks in Returns
Most people in digital marketing talk about clicks. Saqib Arshad Qureshi talks about what happens after the click. That distinction - seemingly small - is the difference between a marketing cost and a marketing investment, and it's the philosophy that has shaped his entire career.
He grew up in Karachi, one of the world's largest cities by population, where the pace of commerce is relentless and digital transformation arrived fast. By the time he finished his graduate studies at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) in 2020, he had already started stacking Google certifications: Search, Display, Video, Analytics. Not for the certificates themselves - though they do look clean on a LinkedIn profile - but because he was building a vocabulary for something specific. Performance.
Not performance in the jazz musician sense. Performance in the "cost per acquisition" sense. In the "here's what your ad spend returned last quarter" sense. The kind of performance that finance directors understand.
Career
From Logistics to Global Agencies
His stint at CodeLabs gave him the early reps - the kind of agency-side experience where you learn how to juggle clients, deadlines, and the gap between what clients ask for and what they actually need. By 2022, he had moved into a role that was less about learning and more about delivering: Manager of Digital Growth at TCS Private Limited.
TCS is not a scrappy startup. It's Pakistan's leading courier and logistics company - infrastructure-heavy, operationally complex, with the kind of digital needs that don't leave much room for experimentation for its own sake. Qureshi's job was to drive measurable digital growth for a business where the supply chain is very, very physical but the acquisition funnel had to be very, very digital. He did it.
Then came the call from one of the largest communications groups on earth. Publicis Groupe - parent company of Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, and a constellation of specialist agencies - tapped him for a management role at Starcom, its media agency network. Since 2023, Qureshi has been operating at that level: performance digital for brands whose campaigns run across global platforms, requiring the kind of disciplined media buying where budgets are large and accountability is larger.
That quote, floating somewhere in his professional presence online, is the clearest window into his thinking. Predictable. He uses that word deliberately. Not "better," not "higher" - predictable. Paid media that you can model, that you can forecast, that behaves more like an investment than a lottery ticket. That's the thing he's after.
What He Actually Does
Paid Media is the Easy Part. Measuring It Isn't.
Performance digital marketing sounds deceptively simple: run ads, track results, optimise. But the reality involves a chain of interconnected systems - bidding algorithms, audience segmentation, landing page conversion rates, attribution models, creative testing - each one capable of quietly undermining an otherwise solid campaign.
Qureshi operates across all of it. His expertise spans paid search (Google Ads, SEM), programmatic display, video advertising, SEO, and Shopify optimisation for e-commerce. The Shopify angle is notable - colleagues have specifically called out his depth here, which matters in a market where direct-to-consumer e-commerce is growing rapidly across South Asia and the Gulf region.
Lead generation is another pillar. Not just building lead forms, but thinking about what a lead is worth, how to qualify it, and how to structure media buying around cost-per-lead targets that a sales team can actually use. It's a blend of marketing and operations thinking that not every digital marketer develops.
What can brands do with this? Hire someone who has done performance marketing at a legacy logistics giant and at a global media agency. The combination of real-world accountability (TCS) and global best practice (Publicis / Starcom) is not a common profile in Karachi's digital marketing talent pool.
His LinkedIn community - around 4,000 followers for a mid-career professional - suggests he's visible enough in Pakistan's digital ecosystem that people actually follow his professional updates. That's not a huge number globally, but in the context of the specialist community he operates in, it means he's someone other practitioners pay attention to.
Education
IoBM to Google Certified
His formal education concluded at the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) in Karachi, one of Pakistan's respected business schools, where he completed a graduate-level program between 2018 and 2020. But the more interesting education happened in parallel and immediately after: a systematic push through Google's certification ecosystem.
In 2020 and 2021, he completed certifications in Google Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, Google Ads Search, Google Ads Display, Google Ads Video, Google Analytics, and WordPress development through DigiSkills.pk. Seven-plus certifications in rapid succession isn't padding - it's the profile of someone who wanted a complete toolkit before touching client money.
Career Timeline
Completed undergraduate studies in Karachi, building the foundation for a career in business and communications.
Graduate studies at Institute of Business Management (IoBM), Karachi. One of Pakistan's leading business schools.
Earned Google Fundamentals of Digital Marketing certification, plus Google Ads certifications in Search, Display, and Video. Also completed Google Analytics certification. Started building early performance marketing chops at CodeLabs.
Added WordPress certification via DigiSkills.pk. Continued at CodeLabs Private Limited, picking up agency-side operational skills across multiple client verticals.
Manager, Digital Growth at TCS Private Limited - Pakistan's leading courier and logistics company. Responsible for digital acquisition strategy at genuine scale.
Manager, Performance Digital at Publicis Groupe (Starcom). Global agency. Global campaigns. The step up the ladder that the previous decade was pointing toward.