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Performance marketing

What is performance marketing and how to use it?

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What is performance marketing?

Performance marketing is a form of digital marketing in which advertisers pay marketing service providers only after they achieve their business goals or take specific actions. Such actions include clicks, sales or ad views. In other words, it is results-based marketing, hence the name performance marketing.

This type of marketing works when advertisers team up with agencies or publishers to design and place ads for their company across available channels such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads – social media, search engines, videos and embedded web content. Instead of paying for advertising in the traditional way, advertisers pay based on ad performance, measuring all available elements in the advertising process.

What are the goals of performance marketing?

The goals that performance marketing campaigns achieve are called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). They enable measuring the degree of achievement of goals. They stand for key performance indicators, i.e. a measurable measure of performance over time for a specific goal. KPIs enable teams to measure progress towards achieving the goals they are striving for. Thanks to KPI, we can clearly assess the effectiveness of the campaign and its individual elements.

KPIs can be divided into several groups:

  • strategic: These are high-level, key performance indicators that monitor the organization’s goals. We typically look at one or two strategic KPIs to get an idea of how the organization is doing at any given time. These may include, for example, return on investment, revenue or market share. In efficiency marketing, these will be, for example, acquired leads, ROI or ROAS.
  • operational: These KPIs typically measure performance over a shorter period of time and focus on organizational processes and performance. Some examples include sales by region, average monthly transportation costs, and cost per acquisition (CPA). In performance marketing, these will be, for example, CTR, CPC or ad impressions.

What are the performance marketing channels?

Performance marketing allows you to reach your audience through various channels. These are the main channels we can use to promote our company:

  • Native advertising – advertising tailored to the content on the website. Its main advantage is that it does not look like an advertisement. This promotional message looks natural; however, there is no call to action. Marketers use native ads with a variety of content formats. The most important thing is that the advertising message is perfectly matched to the content. By choosing this type of advertising, you can pay for clicks or impressions.
  • SEM (search engineering marketing) – all promotional activities on the Internet that are aimed at obtaining the best possible position of the website in search results for selected keywords/key phrases entered by users in search engine queries.
  • Social media marketing – Facebook, Instagram, TikTik, Twitter, LinkedIn are the most frequently used social media channels among people of different ages. These social networks allow brands to connect with their audience, increase traffic and awareness, increase sales, etc. You can choose from different pricing methods: cost-per-click, cost-per-view, cost-per-impression, cost-per-acquisition, etc.
  • Affiliate Marketing – includes affiliate and influencer marketing. Advertisers usually pay for sales, leads acquired, downloads, app installs, etc. Providing a special link to the affiliate allows advertisers to identify the source of return on investment and thus determine the most profitable strategies.

What are the advantages of performance marketing?

It is easily measurable – in performance marketing, advertisers and marketers pay only for the clicks/conversions/impressions obtained. Each transaction involves the consumer performing a specific action, such as making a purchase from an advertiser or signing up for a subscription. Trackability in performance marketing is not based on estimates, but on hard data.

Precise targeting – with performance marketing you have the ability to display ads to exactly the people you want. When targeting, you can take into account factors such as demographics, location, user behavior and preferences. This allows you to reach the desired audience at the designated time and place. All this translates into greater advertising effectiveness and increases the chances of conversion.

Budget control – you can clearly set daily spending limits, set preferred billing models such as cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-conversion (CPA), and adjust your approach and budget based on the results. You only pay for the results achieved, so you don’t have to worry about blowing your budget.

Scalability – you can easily increase your campaign expenses, depending on your needs. By accurately tracking results and optimization, campaigns can be adapted and developed to achieve greater reach, generate more conversions and increase sales.

What does a performance marketing agency do?

Performance marketing agencies specialize in pay-per-action digital marketing channels and are able to use analytics to track and report results. The agency will help you create a strategy, manage and optimize campaigns.

The activities of digital agencies focus on optimal use of the advertising budget in order to achieve set goals, e.g. increasing sales or acquiring leads. The agency creates advertisements, monitors and optimizes all campaigns, analyzes data and reports results. You can devote time to running and developing your business, and the agency will take care of effective advertising of your products and services.

When is it worth using the help of a performance marketing agency?

If your company does not have internal resources in the form of an SEM specialist, graphic designer or analyst, it will be best to use the services of an agency. This will help you avoid the need to hire and train your own team, which can be time-consuming and expensive. The agency has competences in every field of digital marketing, so you can be sure that your funds will be used optimally.

The agency will help you create a strategy for promoting your products and services, as well as examine the target group, its location and possibilities of reaching it. Thanks to the appropriate tools and skills of dedicated specialists, you will achieve the best advertising effectiveness and high return on investment.

Platforms that allow displaying ads will be difficult to use and operate for non-advanced users. Specialists from performance marketing agencies will take proper care of the campaign and set it up to generate optimal results.

How to run a performance marketing campaign?

Running a performance marketing campaign is a technically advanced process that requires knowledge and appropriate competences. Start by setting and defining the goals you want to achieve with your campaign. Thanks to this, you will be able to assess the effectiveness of your activities during the campaign.

Once you have set your goals, consider the appropriate advertising channels through which you will reach your target group. Depending on the channel, you will be able to use different targeting options, e.g. using demographic and behavioral data.

Once you start marketing activities, you will need to optimize them. Ongoing monitoring of results and analysis of the acquired data allow us to identify areas requiring improvement. Test different variants of promotions and target groups and look for optimal solutions. This will help you get the best results from your campaign. .

Lead generation campaigns

Lead generation is the process of attracting potential customers who may be interested in your products or services and then converting them into potential customers who will benefit from your company’s offerings.

The goal of the lead generation process is to guide potential customers through the sales funnel until they are ready to make a purchase. Potential customers go through each stage of the funnel, from the moment they become aware of them to the moment they are sold.

Lead generation is a complex process that increases brand awareness, builds social relationships, generates high-quality leads and closes sales. Your lead generation marketing process will vary depending on your company’s needs, but there are four essential steps found in most lead generation campaigns: lead awareness, lead education, lead sampling, and lead conversion.

Settlement models for performance marketing campaigns

You can settle performance marketing campaigns in several basic models. They are a definition of how you pay a contractor to implement a campaign.

CPC (Cost per Click) – you pay for each click on the ad. The model only takes into account clicks that actually occurred, regardless of the number of conversions.

CPM (Cost per Mille) – you pay for the number of ad views, usually 1000 views.

CPL (Cost per Lead) – you pay for the leads acquired. These may include, for example, submitted forms or contact details left on the website.

CPA (Cost per Acquisition) – payment for completed conversions. The advertiser pays the contractor only for the actions that have been performed, e.g. making a purchase, registering or downloading an application.

Analytics in performance campaigns

Web analytics are an essential element of running online campaigns. It enables effective operation on the Internet by providing data about users and their behavior. Analyzing data, noticing certain dependencies among them and drawing conclusions from them will be useful both in running an online store, writing a blog, and editing portals or websites.

Depending on the case, the analytics and its configuration look different. Depending on your needs, you can examine different data and check different mechanisms. The most popular analytical tool used in performance marketing is Google Analytics 4.

  • collects website and app data to better understand the customer journey;
  • uses event-based data, not session-based data;
  • includes privacy settings such as cookieless measurement and behavior and conversion modeling;
  • includes predictive features that suggest recommended actions without the use of complex models;
  • Integrates directly with media platforms to help drive user action on your website or app.

How is the effectiveness of a performance campaign measured?

The effectiveness of a performance campaign is measured by comparing its results with the assumed goals, i.e. KPIs and data obtained as part of the campaign. We can compare traffic costs (CPC), conversion rate (CR), conversion cost, click-through rate (CTR) and campaign reach.

There is no universal way to measure the effectiveness of campaigns, because each of them is different and requires the analysis of different factors. In a lead campaign, we will focus on analyzing the number of leads, their cost and quality, and in a reach campaign we will be interested in the generated impressions and clicks on the ad. Therefore, before we move on to measuring effectiveness, we should consider which indicators are key to us and then analyze them.

Performance campaign optimization

Optimizing a performance marketing campaign involves constantly improving the strategy and advertising activities in order to achieve the highest possible effectiveness. The process includes data analysis, conducting tests and experiments, personalization, targeting, improving landing pages and analyzing the results.

By analyzing the data obtained in the process of running campaigns and then taking optimization actions, you will achieve better results and maximize ROI, i.e. return on investment. Remember that campaign optimization is an ongoing process that strives to continually improve and maximize advertising effectiveness. One-off optimization activities will help improve the operation of the campaign, but only regular optimization will enable efficient achievement of satisfactory results.

Tools necessary to run a performance campaign

The most popular tools you can use to run efficiency campaigns are:

Google Analytics 4 – a tool for collecting and analyzing data from various websites and mobile applications in one panel.

Google Ads Editor – Google Ads Editor is an application for managing Google Ads campaigns, available for free download. Using it is simple: you download at least one account, edit your offline campaigns, and upload your changes to Google Ads. This will save you time and make it easier to make changes in bulk.

Google Looker Studio – Looker Studio, formerly Google Data Studio, is an online tool for converting data into customizable information reports and dashboards. It allows you to create reports and quickly analyze data.

SemRush – a tool for researching keywords and online ranking data, including metrics such as search volume and cost-per-click.

The latest trends in performance marketing

Personalization – advertising content and communication is increasingly tailored to the individual preferences, behaviors and needs of recipients. This helps increase user engagement and, therefore, conversion rates. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning is also becoming widely adopted. Thanks to these technologies, it is possible to analyze huge amounts of data, predict user behavior, automate advertising processes and personalize offers and content.

Mobile channels cover an increasing part of the market. Due to their growing popularity, advertising campaigns are optimized for users who mainly use phones. Ads adapted to these platforms are more responsive and adapted to smaller screens, which increases the chances of reaching audiences at the right time and place.

Integration of various marketing channels is also gaining importance. It is important to consistently combine activities in search advertising, social media, e-mail marketing and other channels. Channel integration allows for more effective targeting and coordination of activities, which translates into increased campaign effectiveness.

Why is it worth choosing performance marketing activities with Up&More?

At Up&More, we focus on achieving your business goals, regardless of whether they are sales results, market share, the number of new customers or brand recognition. We have been cooperating with the largest players on the Polish and European markets for years and we ensure the highest quality of service.

Thanks to well-thought-out strategies, we help brands develop and acquire new customers. We guarantee support at every stage of the project, from implementation, through optimization, to reporting. We accompany clients in every area of digital marketing and ensure that it is carried out at the highest level.

Our competences include mobile application marketing, planning marketing strategies, PPC, social media and influencer marketing, SEO, analytics and WEB development.

We belong to a small group of companies with the Google Premier Partner status. We have advanced knowledge in creating, measuring, optimizing and managing individual Google Ads services. We have the best, certified specialists on board.

Our campaigns are appreciated every year in the most prestigious marketing plebiscites. Up&More is the best agency from Poland at the European Search Awards 2022 – we won as many as 4 main awards!

Customers often stay with us for many years, and thanks to the partnerships we build, we achieve above-average results.