Performance marketing
What is performance marketing?
Performance marketing is marketing for sales: advertising is judged by a measurable result — an order, an enquiry or revenue — rather than by impressions and likes. Campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are compared by cost per acquisition and by return on ad spend (ROAS), and the budget moves to the ones that sell.
Example
An online shop selling coffee and coffee machines runs Google Shopping, Instagram and Facebook ads. Two weeks in, the tracking shows Shopping bringing orders at €9 each and the Instagram catalogue ads at €14, while the Facebook videos collect likes and not a single order. Performance marketing does not argue with the likes: the video budget moves to Shopping and Instagram, and the videos stay on as remarketing to people who have already browsed the products.
Why it matters for a business
In performance marketing every euro of the budget answers one question: what did it sell? That takes two things before the first campaign goes live: tracking of orders and calls — Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, conversion tracking — and a margin that says what cost per order is still profitable. Without them the report counts clicks and decisions are made on instinct.
It does not replace the brand or SEO. Advertising sells while it is paid for; a name people recognise and pages Google shows for free make every later order cheaper. So it works best alongside them.
What to ask
- What will the campaign be measured on — orders, revenue or ROAS — and where do the numbers come from?
- What cost per order does our margin cover?
- Whose name are the ad accounts in, and who is the budget paid to?
- How often does the budget move between campaigns, and who decides?
We run performance marketing for online stores as part of digital marketing, with Google Ads and social media advertising.
