Last updated: 21 August 2026. This is an archive post covering calendar year 2020. The rankings below are historical and are not a list of current top-performing ads.
2020 was an unusual year to advertise in. Pakistan spent large parts of it under pandemic restrictions, cricket stopped and restarted, Ramadan campaigns ran to locked-down households, and brands that normally leaned on out-of-home and event sponsorship moved budget to video.
Google’s YouTube Ads Leaderboard for Pakistan that year is a useful record of what actually held attention under those conditions. Six years on, it is worth revisiting less as a ranking and more as a case study — the patterns in it have held up better than most annual lists do.
The 2020 leaderboard
| Ad title | Brand |
|---|---|
| Tayyar Hain | Official Anthem | HBL Pakistan Super League 2020 | MA1 | Pakistan Super League |
| Phattay Note Sey Jaan Churrao, Easypaisa App Pe Aao! | Easypaisa |
| Cornetto Fantasy | Cornetto Pakistan |
| Iss Ramadan Tang say miley aik taazgi bhara ghoont | Tang Pakistan |
| Commander Safeguard – Ab Har Pakistani bane ga Hero! | Safeguard Pakistan |
| Hum Hain One | Zong |
| Dove Wellness Weekends – Episode 2 | Dove |
| Colgate Presents – Tooth Defenders | Colgate Pakistan |
| Magical Ways of Eating Cornetto Fantasy ft. Mahira Khan | Cornetto Pakistan |
| MOREseZyada Coverage with Telenor | Telenor Pakistan |
| Wedding Song Of The Year – By Telenor | Telenor Pakistan |
| Introducing New Protex Antibacterial Soap | Protex Pakistan |
What the 2020 list still tells us
Music did most of the heavy lifting
The PSL anthem topped the list, and Telenor placed a wedding song in the top twelve. Neither is a conventional product ad. Both are pieces of music that audiences chose to seek out and replay, which is a fundamentally different acquisition model from paying for impressions. In a market where a strong anthem can outlive the campaign that funded it, this remains the most reliable route to organic view volume.
Hygiene brands had a once-in-a-generation year
Safeguard and Protex both placed, and both leaned into antibacterial messaging. This is the most time-locked entry on the list: that positioning was extraordinarily well-matched to 2020 and would not perform the same way today. It is a clean illustration of category tailwinds being mistaken for creative quality.
Seasonal calendars still dominate
Tang’s Ramadan campaign is the clearest example, but the pattern runs through the whole list. Pakistani video advertising remains heavily organised around Ramadan, PSL and wedding season, and campaigns built around those moments start with a structural attention advantage.
Repetition of a working format beats novelty
Cornetto placed twice and Telenor placed twice. Neither did it by reinventing their approach between executions. Both found a format that worked and ran it again, which is generally cheaper and more predictable than chasing a new idea every quarter.
A note on reading leaderboards
Leaderboards rank by views, and views can be bought. A place on this list indicates a combination of media spend and creative that held attention. It does not indicate return on ad spend, brand lift, or sales. Treat it as evidence about what Pakistani audiences will watch, not as evidence about what worked commercially.
If you are planning video campaigns now rather than studying 2020, the mechanics have moved on considerably since this list was published, and our guide to YouTube ad formats and campaign types covers the current setup.
Original report: YouTube Ads Leaderboard Pakistan 2020, Think with Google.
Tabraiz Bukhari is a Digital Marketing Expert & Psychologist. He has experience in different areas of digital marketing from SEO and Google Adwords to Social Media Marketing and Ecommerce Management. He writes about his expertise and knowledge in digital marketing and sometimes about Psychology related topics. Currently, he is doing a job as an SEO Specialist/Team Leader at NewEraOS.
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