Brands use various performance marketing channels to achieve specific goals, such as lead generation, sales, or app downloads. They use many different channels including partner marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, email marketing, and interactive marketing.
According to Statista, global advertising spending is expected to reach $917 billion in 2024, 8.5% higher than in 2023 ($845 billion). This growth is expected to continue, reaching $1.17 trillion by 2028.
To optimize results across channels, performance marketing software like Trackier helps marketers to view analytics at a single dashboard, fraud protection, and performance tracking to refine their marketing strategies and maximize ROI.
What are Performance Marketing Channels?
Performance marketing channels are platforms used by brands or businesses to promote their products or services. They pay only after a specific conversion, such as a click, lead, or sale, occurs. The best performance channels help brands maximize their marketing ROI.
Top 7 Performance Marketing Channels
The top 7 performance marketing channels include native advertising, partner or affiliate marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, mobile advertising, email marketing, and interactive marketing.
Native Advertising
The global native advertising market is expected to cross $650 billion by 2032. It blends seamlessly with the content on a particular platform. Unlike other ads, native advertising does not interrupt the user experience, instead, it appears naturally and relevant as per the platform content that offers more value to the user without being overly promotional.
For example, when a user reads news on a website, they can see an article (native ad) that is related to that news, labeled “Sponsored” or “Promoted”. As I said, native ads match the style and format of the platform to ensure they do not disrupt the user’s experience.
Why is Native Advertising Important in Performance Marketing? Because it:
- Get higher engagement
- Targets specific audiences
- Boosts ROI
- Boost trust
Popular Example: Mercedes in The Washington Post
Mercedes (a German luxury and commercial vehicle brand) has partnered with the Washington Post for native advertising called “The Rise of the Superhuman”.
This native ad explains various new technologies like robotic exoskeletons and virtual reality and links them with their “E-Class” series that has the Intelligent Drive System.
Partner/Affiliate Marketing
Partner or affiliate marketing is a paid performance marketing channel where brands collaborate with affiliates or partners to promote their products or services.
A partner earns a commission based on their performance like driving sales, generating leads, or downloading an app. Brands prefer to do partner marketing as they have to pay only when they get a conversion.
How Does It Work?
- Advertiser (the business or brand): They provide a commission to their affiliates or partners to get their desired action done like sales or sign-ups.
- Affiliates (partners): They promote the advertiser’s product or services through their websites, blogs, social media, and email marketing.
- Tracking & Attribution: Using performance marketing software like Trackier, the advertiser can track their affiliate activities and attribute the performance to the right affiliates based on their KPIs like clicks, conversions, or revenue.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of the best marketing channels for brands today. There were 5.52 billion internet users worldwide which is 67.5% of the world population. Of this total 63.8% of the world population were social media users.
Brands can use various platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok to promote their products or services. However, before that brands have to identify their target audience to spend their time, resources, and budget effectively.
For example, Facebook and Instagram have the most diverse audiences, TikTok has a mostly Gen Z user base, and LinkedIn has a more professional audience.
But, why does Social Media Marketing Matter? Social media platforms have billions of active users and brands can miss out on this opportunity. Paid performance channels like social media allow brands to target their audience based on their demographics, interests, or behaviors.
Brands use social media campaigns to increase their brand awareness, generate leads, or get sales. To get improved ROI in social media marketing, brands can use performance marketing software to measure their KPIs and optimize campaigns for better results.
A Popular Example: Nike’s “Just Do It” Campaign
One of the best examples of social media marketing is Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign. Nike has used social media to make it clear about their brand.
Nike does not just create and promote their products (footwear, apparel, sports equipment), instead, they create powerful and emotional content that their audience will engage that improves their brand recall.
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) focuses on getting traffic to a website through running paid ads that show on search engine results pages (SERPs). Performance marketers bid on relevant and specific keywords and pay for the ad placement in search engines (eg, Google, Bing, or Yahoo).
Every brand does SEM as it offers instant visibility and targets their potential customers based on their search intent and they have to pay only when their users interact with their ads (through clicks).
Why does SEM work for performance marketers?
- Measurable ROI
- Scalable campaigns
- Targeted reach
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Mobile Advertising
As per Statista, the total spend on mobile advertising is estimated to reach $399.6 billion by the end of 2024. Mobile advertising is a part of performance marketing that includes ads displayed on mobile apps, websites, social media platforms, in-app notifications, and SMS.
Brands show targeted ads directly to the user’s mobile devices as people spend most of their time on their smartphones.
Why does mobile advertising matter in performance marketing?
- Precise targeting
- Real-time optimization
- High engagement rates
Popular example: Coca-Cola’s “Shake It” campaign
The best example of mobile advertising is Coca-Cola’s “Shake It” campaign, during the 2012 London Olympics. They launched an app that encourages their users to shake their phones while watching Coca-Cola TV ads to get rewards.
Mobile ads offer so many opportunities for brands to connect with their target audience through ad platforms like Google Ads or Meta Ads.
They need to track their performance metrics like app installs, clicks, and user retention that is where mobile measurement partners like Apptrove come in.
Apptrove helps marketers and businesses increase their app downloads, increase engagement, and optimize their advertising campaigns across various channels.
Email Marketing
Despite the growth of mobile message and chat apps, e-mail is still one of the best-performing marketing channels. In 2023, there were 4.37 billion global e-mail users which is expected to grow to 4.89 billion users in 2027.
Brands can send targeted and personalized e-mails to their potential or existing customers to drive specific actions (eg, clicks, sign-ups, or purchases). It helps brands to nurture their leads and maintain communication with their customers.
For example, Spotify’s “Your Wrapped” campaign is one of the best examples of effective email marketing. Every year, Spotify sends their users a personalized email with a summary of their listening habits, favorite songs, and top artists.
Why is email marketing effective? Because it:
- Driving affiliate engagement
- Retargeting leads
- Nurturing relationships
Interactive Marketing
Interactive marketing is a personalized approach in performance marketing, where brands can interact directly with their audience.
Unlike other performance marketing channels, it focuses on creating the best experience for its users to keep them engaged and encourage them to take specific actions such as signing up, making a purchase, or sharing content.
Brands can do this through quizzes, polls, interactive videos, or augmented reality (AR) experiences to understand their user preferences and collect data to help them refine their future campaigns.
Why Interactive Marketing Matters for Performance Marketers? Because it:
- Improves conversion rate
- Enhanced customer data collection
- Higher ROI
Popular Example: Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign
Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign is the best example of interactive marketing. They have replaced their brand logo on bottles with popular first names that encourage their customers to find and share Coca-Cola bottles with their friends’ names.
People engaged with this campaign and shared those photos on their social media platforms which was a UGC (user-generated content) that acted as free advertising for Coca-Cola.
How to Choose the Right Performance Marketing Channel?
Choose the right performance marketing channel, which depends on various factors like your target audience, budget, and objectives. However, be sure your marketing efforts are aligned with your business goals.
- Understand Your Business Goals: Define your business objectives, what do you want to achieve? Is it increasing website traffic, generating leads, driving sales, or building brand awareness? Based on your objectives, choose the best performance channels.
- Know Your Audience: Before choosing any performance channels, you need to identify where your target audience spends their time online. If you are targeting Gen Z, Instagram or TikTok might be more effective. If you are targeting professionals, LinkedIn might be a top choice.
- Evaluate Your Budget: Some of the best marketing channels like affiliate marketing or partner marketing can be a cost-effective way to drive conversions with a minimal upfront investment. Others, like native advertising, might require a larger budget to drive conversions.
- Track and Measure Effectiveness: Without having data, there is no way to measure your success. Performance marketing is all about data and making sure you track your performance. Performance marketing software helps you to monitor your campaigns in real time, optimize them, and prevent fraud.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the best performance marketing channels help brands to optimize their marketing strategies and maximize their ROI. Each performance channel has its advantages depending on the target audience and business goals.
To monitor performance, businesses can use performance marketing software like Trackier to refine their strategies, track their performance, and ensure measurable results. By choosing the best channels based on goal, budget, and audience, businesses can get the best conversions.
FAQs
Is email a performance marketing channel?
Yes, email is a performance marketing channel. Brands use email marketing for their targeted campaigns to get conversions and maximize their ROI.
What is the difference between paid and organic performance marketing channels?
In paid performance marketing channels, businesses have to spend money on ads to get targeted traffic through various ad platforms. In organic performance marketing channels, businesses have to create valuable and engaging content to get website traffic through SEO and content marketing.
Can performance marketing channels be used for brand awareness?
Yes, brands can use performance marketing channels to boost awareness of their brand through display ads, and social media ads.
