What is Performance-Based Marketing?
Performance-based marketing is totally grounded in performance compliance alone. The planned outcomes are very finite and quantifiable. It encompasses every digital marketing and advertising activity in practice today, but with measurable objectives. The pre-determined goals become the sole deliverables of a campaign. It could be a certain number of subscriptions, ad views, leads, app installations, page clicks, website visits, email click rates, lead inquiries, and so on and so forth.
In Performance Marketing, an advertiser bands together with a publisher, who takes full responsibility of running and executing promotional campaigns in line with the advertiser’s interest and guidelines. The publisher, in his own capacity, designs a roadmap on the duration and sequence of the marketing drives with end goals that are mutually discussed before commencement.
How do you approach Performance Marketing?
From the advertiser’s standpoint, a performance-based marketing measure might have a backstory with some hits and trials which could have been exhausting. It becomes more crucial to achieve high success rates with a time-bound and result-based approach. The marketer/publisher must chalk out clearly defined realistic end goals and a deadline for them. The goals cannot be wishful and over ambitious.
Every marketer should strive for a rotational business cycle with the client. More important than the quantity of prospects delivered is the authenticity of the buying interest you have kindled in a prospect’s mind. That’s how the advertiser/client will be able to churn business from a solid MQL (Marketing Qualified Leads) base.
Essentially, from a publisher’s standpoint, there must be a viable action plan to execute a singular or an array of campaigns, which should fetch intended results. However, both parties must agree upon a lower threshold limit, below which there won’t be an agreement.
A Few Key Strategies in PBM
There are a few marketing strategies which help to zero in on the real target audience. The client company provides guidelines on geographical reach, customer persona and industry types for the campaign. These elements come from prior experiences of the advertiser. The publisher should suggest the best nature of campaigns in the said territory and industry verticals.
- Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing have hidden potential even in the B2B Business fields. Studies have shown that since 2022, Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Automation and Healthcare have used Video Marketing intensely on YouTube. Social media platforms never go unnoticed, and an interesting fact is that informal networking platforms like Instagram and Facebook have also gained popularity for lead generation campaigns. Content Marketing envelopes videos, blogs and other online material to stimulate interest.
- While creating attractive websites and landing pages, the result orientation should be to leverage website visits, clicks on internal links, subscriptions, downloads etc. There is an under-rated method to draw attention to your website and that is Content Syndication and White Papers.
- After all the interest-generating digital initiatives, a very useful and a more personalized way of marketing is Email Marketing. Emailing the filtered lead repository with a personal touch works well as you work your way towards the bottom of the sales funnel. Using a good email automation platform should be a perennial practice. Any email campaign should have concrete findings on which further strategies can be planned.
- The actual sales motives can be shaped through a measure called Account-Based Marketing which succeeds all Performance Marketing Drivers. This includes personal messaging, personalized emails, newsletters, appointment setting, outbound meetings and pursuing MQLs with all the armoury you have. The only driving force here is sales.
What value does PBM bring to the table?
While PBM strategies mold interest and generate MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads), the ultimate intent is sales. The simplification is done at all levels of marketing by being realistic and time-bound. Both the company and the marketing partner bring immense value to the table by sharing live-wire case studies from the past. Both experiences bring clear foresight for executing fruitful campaigns. Another underrated feature which PBM can do is remarketing. This is where fresh campaigns are designed to tap missed or untapped leads in a particular region.
Some good-to-know trends in 2024
- 42% of the marketers plan to increase their use of video marketing tools, says Salesforce
- A recent study indicates that 40% of B2B marketers have documented a Content Marketing Strategy for 2024. 33% have a strategy in place but not documented
- The surveys suggest that 70% of B2B companies rely on performance marketing metrics.
Benefits of Performance-Based Marketing
- You know where you want to go: None of the advertising activities can give a clear picture of the forecast from it. Under PBM, every action is well-defined, and comparison ratios can be derived. For instance, leads vs conversion ratio and Investment vs ROMI etc.
- Low financial risk: Performance compliance will ensure complete proceeds. Many marketing partners are now working on this model with their most priced clients. This is a win-win situation as a marketing publisher can win your loyalty and you, as an advertiser, can get a holistic view from an experienced hand to strategize accordingly.
- Proper Planning: Performance-based marketing has a lot of planning behind it. This goes for both the advertiser and the publisher. An organization usually arrives at the decision of a focused campaign/campaigns after some hit and trial. The publisher puts in all its resources to deliver the desired results to ensure repeat business.
- Accelerating your Sales Cycle Time: As mentioned, most of the PBM strategies are intended to capture the top of the funnel leads and push them toward the bottom of the sales funnel with time constraints. The positive absolute outcomes directly affect the top line revenue of any organization.
The Key Takeaway
In 1905, John Wannamaker, the founder of Walmart, lamented that “I know half of my advertising dollars are wasted, I just don’t know which half”.
Every marketing dollar must have a RoMI (Return on Marketing Investment) intent behind it. Marketers must make each penny count when it comes to accruing benefits from a campaign. Assisted-Marketing is the best way you can achieve tangible results in all aspects of the marketing metrics. If a seasoned publisher takes the onus of creating collateral, execute outreach plans, run electronic interfaces to generate MQLs, you can focus on the sales aspect of the value chain by focusing on deal closures
What can TSL do for you?
TSL comes with over 20 years of experience in assisting Tech Businesses to enhance their top-of-the-line revenue through reductions in sale cycle times. We specialize in creating a pipeline of high value MQLs and SQLs with our robust inside-sales team. In addition, we have firsthand experience of broadening the online reach for brands through SEO, Social-Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Website Marketing and Content Syndication.
We form a strategic alliance with our customers which goes beyond transactional aspects and apply a consultative selling approach because we understand the tech business verticals. Our apex members are seasoned professionals from the IT realms, which gives us a whip hand while collating our experience with that of our client’s.
In our Performance Marketing Metrics, we go beyond interest and demand generation and commit a percentage of closures too. We would love to hear from you and map a full throttle Performance Marketing Metrics for you.
CTA: Mail us at smohite@tslmarketing.com or schedule an introductory call with our Marketing Expert on +91 9529286060
