‘Performance marketing’ and ‘digital marketing’ – two terms you’re likely to hear a lot in today’s digital marketing world. Whilst the two might seem similar, the strategies and tactics are actually quite different.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the difference between performance marketing and digital marketing, metrics to consider, and approaches that can help you build a successful performance marketing framework.
Digital Marketing vs. Performance Marketing
Digital marketing is a broad term that encompasses all marketing efforts that use digital channels to promote a product or service. This includes social media marketing, search engine optimisation, email marketing, and more. However, digital marketing has a more general focus on building brand awareness, developing relationships with ideal customers and increasing engagement.
Performance marketing, on the other hand, is a specific approach within digital marketing that is focused on achieving a specific goal or metric. Though performance marketing still explores the usage of standard digital channels, it is all about measurable results, such as generating leads, acquiring new customers, or increasing revenue. The best practise when launching performance marketing campaigns, is to use digital media advertising channels such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads & banner (Display) ads.
Related content: A Guide to Paid Campaigns
Metrics That Matters
Businesses should identify which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to set in order to determine the performance of a campaign. For performance marketing, this would be metrics such as:
- Cost Per Lead (CPL)
- Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Lifetime Value (LTV)
- ROAS (Return On Ad Spend)
- Conversion Rate
It is important to track and measure results of these campaigns, as they provide the fastest and most visible results from a marketing initiative – making it crucial to regularly monitor and modify live-campaigns, to optimise overall results.
It is still equally important to track the performance of digital marketing campaigns as well. Though the KPIs to note will be different and this, again, depends on the objective of the campaign. As the goal here for brands is to gain awareness or see an uplift in engagement, metrics to set for this would be:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Bounce Rate
- Engagement Rate
- Page Views
- Website Traffic
A common overlap between performance marketing and digital marketing is data and analytics. Data is used in both approaches for making informed decisions when defining target audiences, selecting the best creative format, or determining the most effective distribution channels. However, performance marketing is often more data-driven, focusing on optimising campaigns and improving results using data.
Time To Get Started
Now that we’ve defined the differences between performance marketing and digital marketing, how can brands start to activate a tailored performance marketing framework?
#1 Set Clear Goals and KPIs
The first step in building a performance marketing framework is to define clear goals and KPIs. This will help to focus your efforts and measure the success of your campaigns.
#2 Understand Your Target Audience
To create successful performance marketing campaigns, you need to have a deep understanding of your target audience. This includes demographics, behaviour, interests, and pain points.
#3 Develop a performance marketing strategy
A performance marketing strategy should outline the tactics and channels that will be used to achieve your goals. This should include a budget allocation, creative assets, and targeting parameters.
#4 Measure and Optimise
The key to successful performance marketing is to continually measure and optimise campaigns. This includes tracking KPIs, analysing data, and making data-driven decisions to optimise performance.
In a world where digital marketing dominates, understanding the distinction between digital marketing and performance marketing becomes paramount. While Digital Marketing lays the foundation for brand awareness, performance marketing is the driving force behind tangible outcomes and measurable triumphs. Armed with these key insights and cutting-edge approaches to performance marketing, businesses can orchestrate campaigns that transcend traditional boundaries, igniting a wildfire of measurable results and skyrocketing returns on investment. It’s time to unleash the full potential of performance marketing and revolutionise the way your brand approaches marketing objectives.
Related content: Upgrade to Great: Marketing in 2023 (guide)
If you’re looking to kick start new campaigns with a performance marketing agency who eats, breathes and lives data, give us a go! Check out our services here or drop us a message today.
