All About Performance Marketing
At Mandel Marketing, we provide all manner of advertising services to help our customers grow, and many of these can be encapsulated under the term, “Performance Marketing.” But what is it?
You can think of performance marketing as a overarching term that describes the process of measuring and optimizing marketing activities to generate a specific desired outcome. In the digital age, this usually means generating website clicks, leads, or sales.
Performance marketing can be used by businesses of all sizes to increase ROI and drive more revenue, and because of this, so much advertising is going online (as the Economist notes).
In this guide, we’ll discuss what performance marketing is, how it works, and why you should consider using it for your business.
Part I: What is performance marketing?
Performance marketing is a type of digital marketing that focuses on tracking and improving the results of online advertising campaigns.
Performance marketers use data and analytics to track the success of their campaigns and make changes accordingly. This type of marketing allows companies to have greater control over their budget and where their money is being spent.
Additionally, it provides insights that can help companies make better decisions about their overall marketing strategy.
How does performance marketing work?
Performance marketing works by using data-driven insights to track and optimize your marketing activities. By tracking things like website clicks, leads, and sales, you can see what’s working and what’s not.
This allows you to make changes to your campaigns in real-time so that you can improve your ROI and drive more revenue.
What are the benefits of performance marketing?
There are many benefits of performance marketing, but some of the most notable include:
- Increased ROI: Performance marketing allows you to track your ROI so that you can optimize your campaigns for maximum return. The ROI of marketing campaigns can be notoriously difficult to track, but performance marketing makes it easy.
- Better data: Performance marketing provides you with detailed data insights that can help you improve your campaigns. You can see what’s working and what’s not, and make changes accordingly.
- Improved customer acquisition: By tracking your marketing activities, you can identify which channels are most effective at acquiring customers. This allows you to focus your efforts on the channels that are most likely to result in conversions.
- Higher Quality Leads: Performance marketing allows you to focus on quality leads, which leads to improved sales numbers. By targeting your ideal customer, you can generate higher quality leads that are more likely to convert.
- Greater control: With performance marketing, you have greater control over your budget and where your money is being spent. By tracking your results, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are yielding a positive return on investment.
- Improved decision making: By tracking data and analytics, performance marketing provides insights that can help you make better decisions about your marketing strategy. This data-driven approach leads to better results and a higher ROI.
Why should companies use performance marketing?
Companies should use performance marketing because it is an effective way to track and improve their digital marketing activities. Performance marketing provides insights that can help companies make better decisions about their overall marketing strategy.
Additionally, performance marketing allows companies to have greater control over their budget and where their money is being spent.
When done correctly, performance marketing can be a powerful tool for any company. If you are looking to improve your digital marketing efforts, performance marketing is a great place to start.
Part II: How to implement a performance marketing campaign
If you’re interested in implementing performance marketing at your company, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Identify your goals and objectives
What do you want to achieve with your marketing efforts? More sales? More leads? A higher conversion rate? Once you know your goals, you can start to develop a performance marketing strategy that will help you achieve them.
Determine your KPIs
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics that you’ll use to track and measure your progress towards your goals. Selecting the right KPIs is essential to success with performance marketing.
Some common KPIs used in performance marketing include:
- Sales – Total number of sales or revenue generated by a campaign
- Leads – Total number of qualified leads generated
- Conversion rate – percentage of visitors who take a desired action (such as make a purchase or sign up for a newsletter)
- Cost per acquisition (CPA) – how much it costs to acquire a new customer
- Click-through rate (CTR) – the percentage of people who click on an ad or link
- Display advertising – impressions, view-through rate (VTR), interactions
- ROI – return on investment
As you can see, there are a number of different KPIs that can be used in performance marketing. The important thing is to select the KPIs that are most important to your business and track your progress over time.
By doing this, you will be able to see what is working and what is not working so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Understand the platforms
It’s important to research all of the many different performance marketing platforms in order to find one that best suits your needs. Make sure to read reviews and compare pricing. Finding the right platform is essential to success with performance marketing. (Also, you have a brilliant and friendly agency like Mandel Marketing handle this for you!)
Develop a plan and budget
Now that you know what you want to achieve and how you’re going to measure it, you can start to develop your performance marketing plan.
Your plan should include:
- Goals and objectives
- Strategies to achieve your goals
- Tactics to use (which means the specific channels you’ll run with: e.g., paid search, display advertising, email marketing)
- Budget
- Timeline
Implement and track your plan
Once you have your plan in place, it’s time to start implementing it. Depending on the complexity of your plan, this could take some time. An agency like Mandel Marketing can help greatly in the execution of a performance marketing campaign.
Develop your campaigns
Once you’ve determined your goals and KPIs, you can develop your performance marketing campaigns. There are a variety of ways to do this, but some common methods include:
- Search engine marketing (SEM) – using paid search ads (on Google and Bing, for example) to drive traffic to your website
- Display advertising – using banner ads and other visuals to promote your brand
- Email marketing – sending promotional or informative emails to customers and prospects
- Social media marketing (SMM) – using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect with potential customers
- Affiliate marketing – partnering with other businesses in your industry to promote each other’s products or services
Performance marketing is a great way to reach your target audience and generate leads.
By using different digital marketing channels, you can tailor your marketing efforts to specific demographics and interests. And, best of all, you only pay for results – usually in the form of sales or leads.
Execute and track your progress
Once you have your plan in place, it’s time to start executing. This is where the real work begins. Depending on your strategy, you may need to create ad campaigns, landing pages, lead forms, or other elements of your performance marketing plan.
As you execute your plan, be sure to track your progress against your KPIs. This will help you see what’s working and what’s not. Make adjustments as needed to ensure you’re on track to reach your goals.
A performance marketing plan is a great way to take your digital marketing efforts to the next level. By setting clear goals, strategies, and budgets, you can ensure that your performance marketing campaign is effective and successful.
Part III: Best practices for performance marketing
Common best practice for performance marketing includes continual optimization and experimentation. Try different tactics and see what works best for your business. Then, scale up your efforts to get the most ROI possible.
If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to a performance marketing agency or consultant. They can help you create a plan that’s tailored to your specific needs and goals.
Tracking your campaign’s progress is essential to success. By tracking data and metrics, you can see what’s working and what isn’t. This allows you to make necessary adjustments to improve your campaign’s performance.
There are a few key things to keep in mind when planning a performance marketing campaign:
- Set clear goals, strategies, and budgets from the outset
- Continually optimize and experiment with different tactics
- Track progress using data and metrics
When it comes to performance marketing, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. But with careful planning and execution, you can create a campaign that drives results for your business.
If you keep these things in mind, you’ll be on your way to running a successful performance marketing campaign.
The key to better marketing performance
If you’re looking for a more effective way to market your business, performance marketing is worth considering. It’s a data-driven approach that can help you drive more leads and sales while also tracking your marketing ROI.
Contact Mandel Marketing today to learn more about how our performance marketing services can help your business grow. We’ll work with you to create a custom marketing plan that fits your budget and delivers results.