Is performance marketing dead?
Digital marketing is the best isn’t it?
Performance marketing lets you efficiently target and convert potential customers without the crippling costs and wastage of traditional TV and mass-media channels. Inexpensive clicks, direct call-to-actions, and fully trackable campaigns from impression to conversion.
It’s so easy… or is it?
Between 2005 and 2018, we all (marketers and business leaders alike) lived in an attribution-based marketing utopia. For every penny in, we were able to track the return out. Branding and clever creative, while still important, took a back seat to the growth hack that was digital marketing.
When it came to data, it was the wild west.
Websites and apps were harvesting troves of user data that could be internally referenced for their own advertising retargeting. Tracking could pin-point a user down to any personal factor. There was no reason to not buy completely into shifting funds from brand building activities to performance marketing channels.
Then things started to change.
In Europe in 2018, the GDPR Privacy Policy was introduced. Companies were now required to be more transparent with users about their data collecting practices and give them the ability to opt-out of advanced tracking. In 2021, Apple drastically changed its privacy policy in iOS15 for apps, enabling users to opt-out of tracking as well, and the maximum duration for retargeting users in apps was reduced to 7-days, barely any time at all. Moreover, Google announced that they will stop using cookie files within their browser Chrome (which has over 70% of market share) until the end of 2024. User tracking becomes way more challenging.
Attribution is only a half-truth.
It’s way more likely that a user who converts on a website via a contact form or purchase point, was first exposed to the brand in a channel that is no longer being tracked. For example, a user could see an ad for a pair of shoes on Instagram, look at them, log them in their memory and in six weeks search for that shoe brand on Google and purchase the shoes. In this scenario analytics will attribute that conversion’s point of origin to SEO, which it was not. It was paid advertising.
Is performance marketing dead?
These are just a few examples of challenges that performance marketing is facing right now, but is it actually dead? Absolutely not! Paid advertising online is still one of the most effective and inexpensive (compared to mass media) ways to bring traffic to your website and raise brand awareness of your business. The industry is changing and it is not going to be easy to adapt to what we’ve been used to for the last 10-15 years, but paid advertising is still huge leverage for your business if you know how to benefit from it. Moving forward, marketers and business owners strategizing and allocating budgets to marketing initiatives need to consider investments that are essential in current state of constantly evolving digital space.
CREATIVES
Web users has become way more selective and demanding about the content they are consuming. Times when even a static graphic with -5% promo cod on it where driving attention and traffic are over. Investing in your brand identification, video content and fresh, strong messages that make users stop scrolling and engage are the first thing every brand needs to improve. First impression is only one.
STOP SELLING
Don’t try to sell something on every occasion when you are communicating with your audience. People are tired of seeing offers, products and services that have no meaning for them. Ramp up your brand building initiatives and raise awareness through the meaningful content that is not meant to generate conversions instantly. You want to sow a positive seed in them and be associated with good energy. You can’t force them to buy if they are not inspired and excited about your brand.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
It is way harder (and expensive) to bring one new happy customer than to keep existing one satisfied. Take care of customers that have trusted you and build a strong relationships with them. These things are unmeasurable, but essential for any business regardless of whether it is an ecommerce store, recruitment agency or food delivery service. Ask for feedback, give exclusive offers and loyalty incentives, show them your gratitude. Tip: Email is a simple, inexpensive, yet extremely effective channel to do so!
COLLECT HIGH-QUALITY DATA
The importance of accurate tracking and data collection cannot be overstated. Analytics tools like Google Analytics play a pivotal role in helping businesses understand user behaviour, optimize PPC campaigns, and make relevant decisions. However, as described above, the web tracking landscape is riddled with challenges, especially with the end of cookie files era. Adapting to server-side tracking might be a necessity to gain deeper insights and ultimately achieve better results from your digital marketing efforts.
Performance marketing won’t build your brand, it will expose it as it is.
Simply put, don’t expect to take shortcuts moving forward or rely on one high-performance channel as a silver bullet. Don’t make every channel a “conversion” channel. Ramp up your brand building content initiatives, beef up communications with your existing customers through social media and email, and track progress as a whole across all channels with weighted sub-goals for exposure, engagement, and sales. Embrace your authenticity and never try to force anybody to buy. Attract customers initially by giving more than you take, so in the long-term perspective they will happily buy from you on their own.
