Marketing that’s based on performance – number of leads closed, sales, rate of bookings, downloads, etc, pretty much covers what Performance Marketing stands for today. Year after year, we witness how Performance marketing is becoming a more and more integral part of an effective Digital Marketing Strategy.
In 2020 alone, the US budget for Performance Marketing was as high as $6.82 billion!
In essence, Performance Marketing refers to a combination of brand marketing & paid advertising clubbed together, paid out only when the estimated outcome is attained. It is beneficial for both the ‘merchant’ and the ‘affiliate’, where they can actually target and optimize results with a specific, maximized ROI approach based solely on performance.
One of the key luring points of performance marketing is that it lets retailers get a sense of assured quality – assurance that their money is being spent well and they are getting right returns out of their investment.
With new-age communication optimization tools, personalizing shopping experience for buyers and numerous other online and offline ways, this new performance-based strategy is opening up a whole arena of marketing exposure and brand value that holds immense allure for businesses worldwide.
So, how do you utilize the full potential of Performance marketing in helping your brand succeed? We have a few pointers to guide you along:
1. Choose your ‘Publishers’ wisely
First things first, choosing the right marketing partners for your Performance marketing space is of prime importance. These are your ‘affiliates’ whose quality of work will determine your strategy’s success rate.
These could be coupon websites, loyalty programmes, product review sites, you online blog support, cashback websites, etc.
The world of Performance marketing is slowly moving more towards social media influencers, content sites, product review sites, personalization applications, etc. to fortify your Digital Marketing Strategy. Using or knowing which of these fall in line with your business needs is the first fundamental choice that determines your success in the Performance marketing field.
2. Third-party tracking platforms are essential
When it comes to your affiliate partnership, you can not ignore the importance of third-party tracking platforms. These are like one-stop shop solutions for banners, links, product feeds, promotions, etc.
These platforms are where your merchants issue bonds, sends newsletters, handles returns, etc.
But these platforms also have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses mainly around pricing structures, merchant expertise rungs, and such. Some of these platforms like PepperJam and Rakuten Marketing are highly sought after names in the field of Affiliate Marketing.
3. Dynamic remarketing is the key to success
The world of digital marketing is slowly leaning more and more towards personalizing customer experiences. Who does not like a bit of personalized special touch in the purchase process? The answer is NO ONE! Dynamic remarketing lets businesses target customers based on their previous activities.
Prompting customers to finish a purchase by displaying products similar to their old search patterns is one of the foundational tactics for dynamic retargeting!
These ads could be displayed over ad platforms, social media, search engines, or through display advertising!
4. Smart use of frequency caps
Duplicate sales efforts or ads campaigns can spell disaster for your marketing strategy. While we are on retargeting ad campaigns, let’s not forget to consider consumer preferences and experience is of prime importance.
Set a frequency cap on your affiliate marketing campaigns that determine how many times consumers will be viewing your ads in a day! Overkill is the last thing we want in our strategy.
5. Optimizing visual search options
Visual search turns your phone camera into a discovery tool. Optimizing visual search has been one of the biggest success points of your affiliate marketing strategy!
The entire process of shopping has always been visual – it is only fair that even marketing can catch up to it! So the lure of visual search in marketing is clear. Your customers express a clear intent on a product and marketeers can quickly grab the opportunity to showcase and connect to the customers based on their expressed preferences.
6. The pay per lead or Cost per Acquisition arrangement
Again, one of the biggest success points of performance marketing – assured delivery of results.
As the name already suggests, this is an arrangement where the retailer pays the affiliate as per the leads generated and only after the transaction is over.
Pay per lead, on the other hand could also refer to non-cash transactions. A lead could simply even be a name or an address or a complete form depicting the lead’s degree of interest and chances of conversion. Usually, more complex the lead higher are the rates of payout!
7. Optimize your landing page
Invariably, the Cost per Click (CPC) and Cost per Impression (CPM) parameters of your Performance marketing strategy can only taste success if your landing page is optimized for conversions!
A compelling and user friendly landing page goes a long way in prompting conversions and as well as giving your customers a reason to come back to your business. It is also noteworthy that the positioning and targeting of CPC ads are of prime importance. Round off the bases with respect to the right Google adwords and witness how your landing page works the revenue wonders for you!
8. Do not ignore Brand Positioning
It is crucial that you do not forget the importance of brand positioning in prompting conversions.
Performance marketing strategy is largely focussed on data. And while the data points are important, lead marketeers should also remember that to finally persuade the leads to become a customer, what you offer as a brand needs to be in line with the customer’s expectations!
Use performance marketing tactics to bolster your overall brand positioning as well.
9. YouTube Shopping is a fresh opportunity
Digital marketing trends have mapped how more and more purchasers have been turning to YouTube video tutorials before purchasing a product.
Conventionally, after the video they would go on with their purchase process on other platforms. However, marketeers know that more the number of steps added to the purchase process, higher are the risks of consumers dropping out of the sales funnel.
Therefore, since 2019 customers can directly shop from YouTube videos and that is one fresh new opportunity that performance marketing can fully cultivate for maximizing conversions.
An absolute data-driven way to advertise – that’s the Performance marketing tagline that is convincing businesses to adopt & embrace this new strategy with every passing year. When you unleash the full potential of performance marketing through leading Digital Marketing Services, you unlock phenomenal resources that can fortify and bolster your Digital Marketing Strategy in India! If you want to be success savvy, adopting strategies and adapting your stance seems to be the best shot to success.
Are you ready to unlock the potential of Performance marketing to multiply conversions?
