With lockdown easing, many brands are looking to reopen and resume business operations once again. But make no mistake, this isn’t business as usual. The ‘new normal’ will be here to stay for the foreseeable and, with further uncertainty on the horizon, many brands are reassessing their budgets. This means your marketing budget will have to step-up with significant performance and returns – doing more with less, so to speak. An effective way to achieve this is through performance marketing.
What is performance marketing?
Performance marketing (also known as performance-based marketing) is a comprehensive term that refers to many types of online marketing and advertising campaigns. It focuses on improving a specific action, like a customer clicking on a piece of content, filling in a lead-gen form, or purchasing (or committing to a sale in B2B). But the crux of it lies in paying for performance. When someone completes a specific action, then a brand pays – meaning results are guaranteed.
Different performance marketing channels
Generally speaking, if a digital marketing channel has an attributable conversion event then it falls under the performance marketing category. This means that native advertising, search engine marketing (like Google Ads), social media marketing, SEO (search engine optimisation), affiliate marketing and display advertising all count as performance marketing.
The perks of performance marketing
With performance marketing, you only pay based on how often your advert is viewed, clicked, generates a lead, or results in a sale – there’s no payout from you until the result is achieved. It’s pay-per-results, and that’s really attractive in today’s economic climate. After all, it’s a lot easier to get budget sign-off when returns for each pound are guaranteed. This, in turn, makes it easier to launch campaigns more quickly, with less hoops to jump through and fewer stakeholders to get on-board.
Of course, there’s also less risk. That’s why more brands are turning to specialised performance marketing agencies to drive online growth in the short and long-term. At Soap Leads, for example, you will only pay for a valid and quality lead, not just a page view or a click.
You also get a real-time measurement of your return on investment (ROI). This makes your marketing completely accountable and trackable, which makes it easier to justify spend with stakeholders (particularly your finance team). It will also make your marketing super slick and effective, because you can tell what campaigns are most successful and then scale these out for even higher ROI.
This is incredibly powerful. In the past, attribution was nigh on impossible, but with performance marketing, you can finally make informed decisions based on what campaigns and channels are likely to offer the best returns. You can measure everything from brand reach to conversion rate down to a single ad.
Impressive results
That’s why performance marketing continuously delivers. Organisations that use performance marketing techniques enjoy returns of, on average, $12 for every $1 spent.
No longer is marketing, advertising, and branding solely dependent on the size of your budget. With performance marketing, you can continuously iterate and tweak your campaigns, optimising your spend to deliver the best bang for your buck. The power of marketing is brought back into your hands and you can scale as high as your in-house capacity will allow.
An agency gives you the edge
So, with these benefits in mind, why would you turn to a specialist performance marketing agency? Some perks will come from the very nature of performance marketing itself (having guaranteed results, for example). However, a specialist agency will also provide you with extensive experience in digital marketing and the online world, cutting-edge technology, data-driven reporting, and expert advice.
When you work with a performance marketing agency, you gain the benefits of a broadly well-accomplished team who will clearly track your spend and results, and advise on the best course of action based on this. They’ll help you communicate the value of different campaigns, using data, to your stakeholders. Plus, they’ll continuously work to refine your campaigns and drive incredible results.
Performance marketing agencies also have a wealth of technologies at their fingertips, that will help you better analyse the effectiveness of your campaigns. Such technology will inform your future campaigns, helping you to knit your data together to fully understand your customers and their buying journey.
How to pick a performance marketing agency
Not all agencies are made equal, so to pick the right agency, you need to look out for a few things:
- Multi-channel experience: Choose a team that has a holistic background in marketing strategy and performance – who understand that different marketing channels don’t operate in silos. An agency that can create campaigns that complement existing marketing campaigns, generate valid, high-quality leads and who can assess how every performance marketing channel is functioning (and influenced by each other).
- Strategic: Look for an agency that will go beyond running your campaigns day-to-day. One that will think beyond daily execution to identify the opportunities to take your brand (and results) further – and generate more leads for your pipeline.
- Brand protective: Your agency shouldn’t cut corners with your brand to get quick results. Our lead generation experts work to fully understand your brand and target audience, then align their lead generation efforts to only provide you with relevant leads.
- Adaptable and committed: Consider the agency’s responsiveness and communication style – and how much they adapt to you and working with your team. Ideally, you want an agency that will work hand-in-glove with your in-house teams, who will inform and collaborate around your performance marketing strategy.
Again, make sure the agency truly understands your brand, your customers and your product(s) or service(s), to effectively drive the best performance marketing results.
Time to refresh your marketing
Now is an opportune time to refresh your marketing efforts and create campaigns that drive prospects into your pipeline and create tangible results for your bottom-line. With performance marketing, and the right lead generation agency as your partner, you can achieve lasting results that far surpass your previous efforts.
Performance marketing is the ideal solution for today’s turbulent times, ensuring your brand remains front-and-centre and moving forward.