Here are some notes about the subject of performance marketing, written during a B2B Marketing webinar, well hosted by Joel Harrison.
“Performance Marketing is a comprehensive term that refers to online marketing and advertising programs in which advertisers (a.k.a., “retailers” or “merchants”) paid marketing companies (a.k.a, “affiliates” or “publishers”) when a specific action is completed; such as a sale, lead or click.” PMA
It’s a philosophy that should guide decision making across the business. It is as much about quality of output as it is quantity of output. The alignment with sales, as with other more traditional marketing thinking, is key. It can also assist in gluing targets, opinion and focus in the client/agency relationship.
Always attempt to set KPIs (objective and subjective) at the outset of projects and not just in marketing terms but how impacts may be felt across all teams and disciplines in the business.
It’s important to establish critical touch-points through the full customer journey to maximise throughput. With digital in most scenarios, it’s inherently measurable at every step.
The approach increases accountability for tactics and campaigns and how they deliver ROI against strategies at a higher level in the business.
In paid campaigns performance marketing activities pay only on the pre-defined results.
In many higher levels of the customer journey, the prospect may be unknown to the business until they present themselves. Performance marketing helps to guide incremental visitors within the journey to enable higher end results further down the funnel to the conversion point.
PPC is a simple example, but performance marketing can be applied through all channels, not only paid channels and can include all forms of marketing. In this way, it becomes the mantra for optimal performance within a business.
I raised the question of “is the greatest value of performance marketing, the impact on decision making and perceived value of marketing across the business (for example in HR, Finance etc.)?” and the panel replied, to paraphrase:
The performance marketing is the top end of marketing and pushes the boundaries in innovation and especially when seeking market share. It helps to provide evidence for the accountable value of marketing and helps the business to understand what it takes to achieve marketing results and how complex it is to achieve the value desired.
Performance marketing can be a catalyst for the transformation of customer-focus in the business and in many ways this could be its greatest legacy as new trends emerge. Firstly, think about exploring where this concept might fit within your approach to Google Analytics and in your CRM.
If you missed the webinar, here’s some interesting background and opinion on the value of integrating performance marketing in your business
– It is based on optimising for down-funnel KPIs
– You only pay for what you get
– The cadence of optimisation is fast
– Potential for real-time measurement of ROI
– Reduced advertisers’ spend risk
– Budgets can be small to large
– Performance marketing can inspire innovation
If you would like to discuss performance marketing and the wider concept of ROI in your marketing planning, please get in touch.
