What Does Performance Marketing Mean and How to Get the Best out of It

Is there a need for you to switch from traditional to performance marketing?

Well, the answer is pretty obvious, once you know what that means.

Performance marketing allows you to monitor your collaboration with your marketing company to make sure that you are taking steps in the right direction and working towards achieving your goals. This type of marketing is what inspires marketers to evolve and introduce new practices of online advertising and promotion.

Performance marketing is when you pay for the result rather than a promise. In a performance based marketing, you pay for the action your visitor takes like a click or purchase. So basically, when you enter the partnership with a company or agency, you know what to expect.

If you feel like this is what you’ve been looking for, then the first step is to find and start a partnership with a marketing manager or agency.  It’s better to start by outlining the content plan that would help you achieve your goals. Based on the research of the market and your audience, your marketer will create a strategy, bring it to life, and then revise content again to make sure that it’s optimized.

After the research and data measurements are done, you are to choose how to optimize your marketing strategy. There are four main campaign types:

• CPO, when the cost is divided by orders;
• CPM, which means the cost paid for 1,000 clicks or views;
• CPL, when you pay for the sign-up by the interested visitor;
• CPA, which is the cost of acquiring one paying customer;

Now, we can’t go on without talking about how you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing.

The first thing to think about is establishing your goals. Without knowing where you want to get, you can’t tell whether you made it or not. So the objective measurement of success and effectiveness of your campaign is nearly impossible. Having clear goals gives you the ability to reflect on your failures as well as accomplishments.

Depending on the tools you are using and goals you have, you might want to use different metrics to measure the effectiveness of your marketing. Metrics can include click-thru rates, CPL, web traffic, etc.

Key performance indicators and metrics are similar in that regard that both offer ways to track the success of your campaign. Although, KPIs have “key” in them, which means that we are talking about something that is truly important. So, KPIs can include:

• conversion rate;
• visits to purchase;
• open and response rates;

A report can also help you to overview and present the results of your marketing. Some of the things a good report should cover are spending, reach of the campaign, and profit. An audit can be another way to reflect on your improvements.

Now let’s talk about performance marketing itself. The framework for successful marketing almost always includes:

• website traffic;
• website conversion;
• customer value;
• tracking for reflecting and improving;

After the framework, one should think about building an effective marketing funnel. Once you have built that you simply need to work on making sure that as many people know about you as possible. The funnel will do its thing to convert customers and building their loyalty towards your brand.

Basically, the funnel works through four stages:

awareness – interest – consideration – conversion

The reason why it’s called “funnel” is because not every visitor gets to the final stage and makes a purchase.

When your strategy is well-though-through and ready for implementation, it’s time for key tactics. These are ways you attract your audience and make them aware of your business, products, and their advantages. Usually these tactics include SEO, SMM, email marketing, etc.

The world of marketing, as well as practices and tools, keep updating, so one cannot afford to stop learning. It’s very important to educate oneself and one’s company to be able to adapt to the ever-changing world and implement the most effective and up-to-date strategies. There are even some free educational resources as well as many articles and other useful information that can help you and your company grow.

The success of your performance marketing depends among other things on the agency you selected. So, it’s important to choose the one that best suits your needs.

Before you reach out to any agency, it could be a great idea to think about specific needs that you have. Also, think about your budget, how much money can you afford spending? It’s better to avoid being ambiguous about your needs and budget in order not to get ambiguous results.

Try to find an agency that offers transparency over their services and experiences. Also one might want to ask about what kind of tools and technologies the agency uses to check its adaptability.

Another thing to consider is the relationship that is going to be built around your partnership. Are you sure you would like to spend time with the people in the agency? Are you compatible? Can you say that you and the people behind the agency are like-minded people?

Now you are pretty much ready to start the communication with an agency. If you are not looking for a partnership over just one aspect of your marketing, it would be a great idea to find a full service online marketing agency that will provide you with a full range of services needed for the successful growth of your business.

Having specialized tools and software are important for performance marketing. It enables you to track the effectiveness of your campaign, create reports, and, in many cases, offer the system of notifications for relevant actions.

Every channel requires a different approach, but before you want to create your account anywhere, think and consult with your agency about which channels are the most relevant for your industry and your target audience.

In 2020, we still not recommend ignoring email as your marketing channel. A well-thought-through email campaign that offers personalization can show incredibly high results.

When you work on marketing your products and your brand, try to imagine your customer’s journey. Where you want to get them and how? Imagine the most possible scenarios and think backward from a purchase (if that’s your main goal). How can you provide your customers with all the insights and experience needed to lead them to doing business with you?