Performance marketing
Performance marketing is marketing you can hold to account. Every rand is tied to something that happened: an enquiry, a booking, a sale and what it was worth. That makes it the right approach for most performance work and the wrong approach for brand work, which pays back over years and cannot be attributed honestly to a click.
The discipline is unglamorous. Measure properly first, because a channel that looks like it is failing is often one that is being measured badly. Then test in small, deliberate steps, put budget behind what returns and switch off what does not, including things somebody senior likes.
Search, shopping, paid social, display and retargeting all run on that basis, with one measurement setup across all of them so the same sale is not counted three times. You keep ownership of every account and every set of numbers reported on.
Questions
Common questions
What counts as performance marketing?
Any activity where the spend can be tied to a measurable outcome. Usually paid search, shopping, paid social, affiliates and retargeting.
How is it different from brand advertising?
Brand work builds recognition over years and resists direct attribution. Performance work is judged on what it returned this month. Most businesses need both and should not judge them by the same measure.
How do you charge?
A management fee rather than a percentage of spend, so there is no reason to recommend a larger budget than the account can use profitably.
What if a channel is not working?
You are told, and it stops. Continuing to run something that does not return is the most expensive habit in this industry.
Services
Related to performance marketing
Measurement and attribution
Tracking and attribution set up across every channel, phone calls included, so you know which marketing produces customers and what each one is worth.
Tracking and analytics
Analytics and conversion tracking set up around enquiries, calls and sales, with reporting that shows which marketing is actually producing customers.
PPC management
Pay per click accounts managed every week: searches refined, bids adjusted, ads tested and wasted spend cut, with reporting you can check yourself.
Lead generation
Lead generation measured on customers won, not form fills: the right audience, a simple way to enquire and a fast follow-up process that converts.
Conversion rate optimisation
Your website analysed to find where visitors drop off, with fixes and properly run tests that turn more of your existing traffic into enquiries and sales.
Paid social media
Paid social campaigns across Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok, with audiences built on evidence and creative made for the feed, managed to a clear cost per result.
Start a conversation
Share what you are spending and what it currently returns. You will see where the waste is and whether more budget would actually help.
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