Are you achieving all of your marketing goals? If not, you’re not alone. Many companies struggle with this. Additionally, with so many different marketing channels available to you, it can be difficult to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are paying off and which aren’t.
These difficulties have led to the emergence of performance marketing. This is a result-oriented approach that is gaining popularity among marketers, eCommerce businesses, and agencies. It helps brands do a better job of attributing leads and conversions to sources.
What Is Performance Marketing?
Performance marketing is an approach to promoting your goods and services that focuses on desired outcomes. Essentially, you set the goals that you want, and you pay only when those are achieved.
For example, if your goal is to get more subscriptions to your email newsletter, then you would only pay when a user signs up. You could also set objectives for sales, free trial downloads, or appointments. After you launch your campaign, you then track the outcomes so that you know what and where to optimize.
The benefit of all of this is that you are able to confidently market your products on various platforms and social media channels.
5 Tips to Remember for Your Campaign
When it comes to performance marketing, there’s no guarantee of success. You still have to implement best practices. To start, try implementing these five expert tips.
1. Set Clear Goals and KPIs
For your campaign to be effective, you have to establish detailed goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). Then, you have to determine how you will measure those. There are many different outcomes you can track, including:
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
- Cost per click (CPC
- Impressions
- Conversion rate
- Downloads
- Video views
- Lead score
It isn’t necessary to track every possible metric for your campaigns. Instead, identify the measurements that will truly communicate whether you are reaching your KPIs or not.
To summarize, you need to start with clearly defined goals. Then, define the KPIs to show that your campaign is making progress and choose how you will measure those outcomes. Finally, make changes to further optimize your campaign.
2. Align Your Content to the Desired Outcome
Performance-based marketing is narrowly focused on a specific outcome. This means your ad copy, social media posts, and landing pages must be relevant to your desired goals as well. If you use influencer marketing, any scripts should be written to push potential customers toward taking a very specific action.
For example, if your campaign goal is to increase your reach on Instagram, you wouldn’t create content that focuses on encouraging people to sign up for a free discount offer.
Also, with performance marketing, you want to avoid a lot of irrelevant, unnecessary content. First, identify the funnel stage and your goal. Then, write or produce your content accordingly. If you don’t do this, you’re going to experience fewer conversions.
3. Add Visuals
Nearly every advertising and marketing campaign performs better when it includes visuals. When you add photos, videos, GIFs, infographics, etc., to your content, it immediately becomes more engaging. Prospects are more likely to spend additional time consuming your content and, therefore, more likely to answer your call to action.
Additionally, visuals help you to further communicate your message. If you use branded visuals like logos or familiar color schemes, you can improve recall and recognition as well. Remember that you want your content to be concise but also make the biggest possible impact.
4. Create Detailed Customer Personas
Performance marketing doesn’t work very well if you cast a wide net. You have very specific goals to achieve, and your campaigns should therefore focus on a specific customer persona. That persona should be detailed and based on research to ensure that you have a solid understanding of the needs, values, and expectations of the target customer group.
5. Take a Money-Smart Approach
These campaigns can lead to an excellent return on investment if you follow these tips and make smart financial decisions. Take some time to look at your campaign budget, the time you have to invest, campaign goals, and what you will gain if you meet your goals. This will help you determine whether your campaign is financially smart.
If All Else Fails, Consider an All-In-One Approach
One thing you can do to get better results is to invest in one of the many performance marketing platforms available today that provide you with a suite of tools you need for campaign management, automation, tracking, and other tasks. While there may be a financial investment in a utility like this, it will help you do a better job of optimizing your campaigns.