Lenovo is one of the biggest names in the tech industry. Lewis Broadnax, the Director Of Web Sales And Marketing, stated it was difficult for Lenovo to track its progress in the traditional rules-based approach of marketing. Inflated results, low sales volume, and among other things made Lenovo take a different approach and they chose to partner with a performance marketing agency.
This brought in a better understanding of the goals and adoption of a data-driven approach which resulted in gaining a complete and accurate view of its cross-channel marketing efficacy.
Now, it is natural to question…
“Lenovo is a giant. They have the budgets for it. But our businesses do not have such massive budgets to grow. This is only for established and big players”
The statement is purely a myth. Several small and medium-sized businesses can equally vie for the audience’s attention. Smaller companies have a better understanding of goals and multiple channels at their disposal for performance marketing. From clicks to conversion, performance marketing is a guaranteed tool for your success.
In today’s fast-paced business world, performance marketing has become increasingly important for companies aiming to keep their skin in the game. A lot has changed since we faced the COVID-19 pandemic and with the rise of e-commerce with regard to consumer behaviors. Just following traditional marketing strategies is not enough for effective customer reach and engagement. We delve into the latest trends and best practices in performance marketing that offer practical insights to help businesses of all sizes optimize their campaigns and achieve tangible results in these challenging times.
We will explore data-driven analytics with a focused approach, as well as innovative creative strategies, covering all the essential components for building successful performance marketing campaigns that make a real impact on business. Whether you’re an experienced marketer or just starting out, join us on this journey to unlock the full potential of performance marketing in today’s dynamic digital landscape.
Here are a few benchmarks you must set for Performance Marketing to work for you.
Set Clear Goals and KPIs
We asked our CEO, Subramaniam Krishnan, where and how one gets started with performance marketing. He piqued “Here’s the thing. It isn’t about the tools. You need to understand your goals. How do you want your audience to get to know your brand? Do you want to drive traffic to your website through social media or is it more direct messages you want?
It can be as simple as using a landing page to drive leads or even a display advertisement that talks about how XYZ company can help you. A campaign is half successful when you jot down your goals and be clear about it.”
We would like to reiterate the same. Companies need to understand their goals to drive engagement and make the audience happy. Examples of Indian brands that do well because of this are Groww (financial investment mobile application), CRED (Credit card payment application), and Sleepy Owl (Boutique coffee brands) among others. When you know how to catch the pulse of your end user, the journey is half done.
Understand Your Audience
Business is a two-way street and the end goal for your company should be to bridge the gap between corporate goals and audience goals. The audience usually likes to understand a few quick points about what you want to sell. For a performance campaign to be successful you need to experiment and test your content and ideas across social media platforms to collect data on how engaging each of your campaigns is.
CRED, an Indian credit card payment application released a series of advertisements on TV and social media to raise brand awareness about their product. It used several different themes using famous sports personalities, actors, and other celebrities to reach audiences across the Indian subcontinent. The advertisements went so viral, CRED saw a boost in the number of users on its application.
Choose the Right Platform
During a recent meeting with a client, they expressed their desire to be present on every social media platform imaginable. “We want to be everywhere! Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, you name it,” they said enthusiastically.
However, our Senior Head of Brand Strategy, Dolly Udeshi, was quick to offer a word of caution. “While it’s important to have a strong digital presence, being present on every platform, regardless of relevance, could be a waste of time and resources, and could even harm your brand’s positioning in the long run,” She suggested focusing on key platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, along with a strong website presence.
This approach would allow the client to maximize their impact and build a strong digital presence without spreading it too thin. It’s essential to focus on platforms that align with their brand’s goals and target audience, rather than trying to be everywhere at once, Dolly emphasized.
The point is, sometimes being on every social media may work against you. As we mentioned above, when you understand your goals, you will also know what platforms will work for you automatically. The reason is time. And time is money. By being on every social media platform, you’re scattering your audience into different platforms with varying quality of content and wasting your precious time.
If you want your clicks to turn into conversions, focus on platforms that directly align with your brand. Not only does this bring the already existing audience to the table, but also improves the quality of content and engagement leading to a sale or at least an inquiry.
Optimize for Conversions
Performance marketing initiatives focus on driving specific action. Clicks, leads, purchases, and engagement among many others. You want your hard-earned advertising budget to be spent on something wise. So, it is better to seek advice and change the course of your campaigns according to your audience’s response to driving more sales.
Test and Refine Your Campaigns
The biggest success point for a performance marketing campaign is testing. Take out data, check what is right, and what is not working, and optimize spend to meet your goals. A/B testing is crucial as it helps to map and monitor the pulse of your audience. Not only that, testing is the only way to make a successful campaign in the long run.
“The key to success with performance marketing is to take a scientific approach. Test your hypotheses, measure your results, and use data to inform your decisions. It’s a continuous process of improvement and refinement.” – Oli Gardner, co-founder of Unbounce
Conclusion
To summarize, if you want to make your performance marketing a hit, and drive business; you need to create realistic goals and KPIs, understand your audience, choose the right platform, optimize your campaigns for conversions, and test, test, and test until you find the golden goose.
