Types of Performance Marketing

Adopting various internet marketing strategies, such as performance marketing, is essential if you want to grow your consumer base and brand's reach. However, there are other forms of performance marketing, and it's critical to comprehend the distinctions between them in order to choose which ones are best for your company.

What Is Performance Marketing?

It is imperative to address the question of "What is performance marketing?" prior to delving into the specifics of various marketing tactics. Although a lot of terminology can be complicated, performance marketing is a straightforward idea: It alludes to internet marketing and advertising campaigns in which marketing partners receive payment only upon the fulfillment of pre-established, targeted actions.

This action could be a potential customer clicking on a link, hitting a certain level of engagement, or a completed sale. Unlike outdated, traditional marketing models, where a company pays for a billboard or magazine feature in the hopes that it will lead to sales, marketing partners are paid only when they meet specific tangible targets. You can keep track of how these targets are met by establishing KPIs for performance marketing channels.

1. Social Media Performance Marketing

Social media performance marketing is when brands use advertisements placed on social media platforms to increase brand awareness, engagement, and sales. The performance metrics associated with social media marketing are typically concentrated on engagement — specifically likes, comments, shares, saves, and reposts. There are many social media platforms out there, and the ones you choose depend on your target customer. If you’re aiming at a younger audience, then Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram are good options. While companies targeting professionals will have more success with Facebook or LinkedIn.

2. Display Advertising

Display advertising is a highly visual form of online marketing that often includes images, video, and audio. Banner ads and rich media are popular examples of this kind of advertising. Display advertising has a reputation for bad clickthrough rates. But the key to harnessing its potential is to have a targeted approach. Only use it on websites where you know you will find your target audience, like relevant blogs or digital publications.

3. Native Advertising

Native adverts are essentially the opposite of display adverts: While the latter stands out, the former blends right in. When scrolling online, many internet users can’t tell the difference between native adverts and the surrounding content, which is precisely the aim of this kind of marketing.

One example of native advertising is the use of Instagram ads that look like regular Instagram posts. Another type is the use of marketing blog posts or sponsored articles written in the same style as the webpage. The performance metric for native adverts is usually pay-per-click or pay-per-impression.

4. Affiliate and Influencer Marketing

Affiliate marketing can take many forms but it essentially means that you offer compensation to a partner when they generate leads, sales, or traffic on your behalf. This may involve bloggers or influencers using your products and creating posts or videos about their experiences. But the third party you partner with could also be a review-, incentive-, or coupon-site. With any form of performance marketing, it’s crucial to stay on top of all activities, but this is even more essential when you are working with third parties, as with affiliate marketing. Keeping track of where clicks, leads, and sales come from is challenging, which is why we recommend using a data-driven affiliate tracking platform to make the most of your KPIs.

5. Search Engine Advertising

Performance search engine advertising refers to the ads that appear on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing when you search specific terms. These ads are a fantastic way to target potential customers who are probably already interested in your products or services. While these paid ads are more or less guaranteed to be seen by potential customers, many companies also opt for the free, organic search approach (SEO).

Try Out Some Performance Marketing

"Performance marketing" refers to a broad spectrum of advertising strategies that are all aimed at meeting marketing objectives. Not all of these marketing channels will work for your organization, even though you must understand the advantages of paying for actual results rather than results that are promised.

Performance marketing is fantastic because it gives you the freedom to try new things and take calculated chances to see what works. Just make sure you assess every tactic you attempt in-depth before proceeding.