With the advent of the internet, the way consumers browse and buy products has changed irreversibly. Alongside, the way companies advertise and sell their products has also changed. This has led to the emergence of Digital marketing and omnichannel marketing as the most dominant forms of marketing for a firm, as they come with the potential to reach and engage more customers in a short span of time. This has parallelly led to the growth and widespread popularity of Digital Marketing Bootcamps around the world.
Performance marketing is an important component of Digital Marketing. In the current times, when marketing professionals have the capability to gather campaign data throughout the year, it has become possible to measure the results in real time. With almost limitless data transparency in the current times, marketers can now optimize their campaigns in order to perform better. Hence, this form of marketing is called “performance marketing.”
What is Performance Marketing?
Performance marketing refers to online campaigns in which marketing companies or advertising platforms pay the advertisers or product or service owners for results achieved. Results are usually in the form of clicks or conversions.
Performance Marketing differs from other forms of traditional and organic marketing in that it specifically drives actions and then tracks and measures those actions while attributing the ROI of the particular asset, campaign, or activity.
Unlike large corporations that can spend millions of dollars on branding, smaller businesses must focus on the bottom line to stay profitable. However, performance marketing empowers smaller organizations by giving them visibility on par with MNCs, where they can use the help of advanced marketing tools by paying nominally for important business metrics such as a sale, lead, or click.
Types of Performance Marketing
One of the most well-known methods of Performance marketing is Search Engine Marketing or SEM. SEM basically refers to the ads that you see on the top of your search engine result pages (SERPs) when you search for specific keywords. SEM is highly effective as it shows user-targeted ads that are relevant to the product or service that they are searching for. When the requirement of the user is immediate, there is a higher chance of the ads capturing their attention and interest.
Native advertising is another performance marketing tactic that is gaining prominence. The main advantage of native ads is that they don’t look like ads and therefore don’t ruin the browsing experience of the user. Instead, they fit “natively” on the web page.
How to Build a Performance Marketing Strategy
There are many different types of performance marketing channels and campaigns, so there are many ways to do performance marketing. Let us look at the broad steps that must be followed while embarking on a digital marketing campaign.
Step 1: Define your campaign goal
It’s important to establish the campaign goals before you can measure the success of a campaign. Setting goals before launch is the first step in performance marketing.
The most common digital marketing goals are:
- Website Traffic
- Brand Awareness
- Engagement
- Remarketing or Retargeting
- Sales
- Lead Generation
Once campaign goals are defined and established, the ad platforms can be used to create campaigns targeting specific goals.
Step 2: Pick your digital channels
In performance marketing, it is advisable to diversify the channels you use rather than exclusively depend on a single channel or digital medium. This increases campaign exposure and reach, and hence the chances for success. Whether in affiliate marketing, native advertising, or social media platforms, focus on channels specializing in your conversion type and channels where you are most likely to find your target audience.
Step 3: Create the campaign and launch it
Creating campaigns includes a collection of works such as identifying the target audience, understanding the requirements and desires of this audience, and creating ads and messages targeted to grab their attention. The trick is to create the best ad images, headlines, design, and scheduling to impress your target audience. The technical aspects of the campaigns, such as ad sizes, copy character limits, acceptable images, etc., also depend on the particular platform or channel you are using.
Step 4: Assess and optimize your campaign
The campaign kicks in and starts showing results after it is launched once they are up and running. The marketer has to optimize individual campaigns for performance across all channels that are in use. Marketers must monitor analytics and other metrics to determine which platforms or marketing channels give the best leads or results. This data is used to allocate ad funds in the later phases.
Step 5: Foresee potential pitfalls
Some potential challenges and pitfalls that might come up during a performance marketing campaign are:
- Brand safety
- Privacy regulations
- Compliance-related issues
- Publisher fraud and placement transparency
- Click frauds & bot traffic.
The best way to reduce potential problems from the very beginning is to focus your resources only on high-quality advertising platforms and networks that assure brand safety and data privacy responsibly and reliably.
The Best Digital Marketing Bootcamp to learn Performance marketing
If you wish to advance in your career as a digital marketer, you should pursue the Digital Marketing Bootcamp from Simplilearn, delivered in collaboration with Purdue University. Gain the most in-demand skills and familiarize yourself with the most advanced tools and practices used in the digital marketing field.
The knowledge you gain from this Digital marketing Bootcamp will enable you to boost engagement and attract customers for your organization. You will gain insight into Digital Marketing skills through a blend of live workshops, self-paced videos, and hands-on projects. The course is suitable for both beginners and experienced professionals in the field of Digital Marketing.
Key Features of the program
- Combined certificate from Purdue and Simplilearn
- Purdue University Alumni Association membership
- Masterclasses delivered by top Purdue instructors
- Practical training on several industry-relevant projects
- Live online classes by industry experts that give 8X higher live interaction
- Meta Certified Digital Marketing Associate Exam Voucher worth $99
- Course aligned with Hootsuite and SE Ranking certification
