The Fundamentals Of Performance Marketing

“I believe in the strength that lies in numbers. It’s the numbers that have got me to carve my niche into performance marketing.”

Gone are the days when marketers would pay lump sum amounts, throw in some guesswork, and hope for the best with their marketing and advertising efforts.

It’s the age of Performance Marketing – a combination of brand marketing and paid advertising that is only paid for once the desired result or action has taken place. Essentially, just like the name states, it’s marketing based on performance.

While there are several areas for advertisers to utilize Performance Marketing for their growth and revenue strategy, let me share with you the top five ways:

1. Affiliate Marketing

If you’ve ever scrolled through Buzzfeed’s recommendation lists, or a long recipe blog just to find product links at the bottom of the page, you’ll recall seeing the word “affiliated links” or a disclaimer stating that every click/purchase through that link will earn the poster a commission.

This is called Affiliated Marketing – where an external brand, blog or website will market specific advertisers products/services, and get paid out after the desired action is completed. Previously this term was interchangeably used with Performance Marketing, and in my experience, it remains one of the most popularly used methods by advertisers to pretty much get bonus (and even free) marketing alongside the paid result.

2. Native Advertising

This term refers to any paid media that doesn’t actually look like an ad. They’re most commonly found on your news websites or social media networks, designed to seamlessly blend in with the rest of the content i.e. appear native to the platform they’re viewed on. Typically, native paid media can be purchased on a Pay Per Impression (CPM) or Pay Per Click (CPC) basis.

3. Sponsored Content

Scroll through your Instagram feed and you’ll see numerous influencers and celebrities use #ad or #sponsoredcontent in their posts to promote products or services. In return for this ‘sponsored content’, influencers can receive a lump sum or action-based monetary compensation, or maybe even free products, complimentary services and more depending on what they’ve negotiated with the brand or advertiser. You may also see these posts marked as “in partnership with” or as brand endorsements. I personally find that this is one of the best ways for brands to grow in 2021, especially since most people are having to engage in online shopping from the comfort of their homes, and are placing enormous amounts of trust into influencers and reviews.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are commonly used by businesses for full-funnel marketing to gain website traffic, create brand awareness, and drive conversions – all through paid ads. Results are often measured through engagement metrics such as likes, clicks and shares as well as reach, impressions and conversions.

5. Search Engine Marketing

There are two aspects to successful Search Engine Marketing: paid and/or organic. The former refers to advertisers paying search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing for every ‘click’ that their ad receives in search results, whereas the latter refers to the unpaid method of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) where they optimise their website pages to appear higher in the search engine results.

What do you think makes Performance Marketing an crucial part of any brand’s digital marketing strategy today?

In my opinion, Performance Marketing is a necessity in any marketers toolbox in today’s digital age. Along with developing brand awareness through external partners, it further allows companies to increase their reach and market share, obtain targeted traffic from desired audiences, and ultimately generate relevant conversions and collect trackable and measurable data.

Thanks to a post-result payout, Performance Marketing is particularly desirable due to its lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and higher Return on Investment (ROI). With that being said, it gives marketers the opportunity to test more marketing strategies and control their budget immensely. Which brand wouldn’t want to do that?!