What is Performance Marketing?

Affiliate publishers and social media influencers

B2B marketers can negotiate with social media influencers or targeted affiliate websites to promote products and services on their brand’s behalf. 

These social media experts, thought leaders, and affiliate or media partner platforms should reach a high volume of ideal target customers, allowing businesses to engage with their users via a credible and trusted source. The goal is to leverage the affiliate site or influencer’s credibility and reach to achieve marketing objectives.

For example, LinkedIn might approach a writer from a business publisher to test and write about their experience with a new digital advertising product. They might also reach out to social media influencers to do the same. The influencer or affiliate publisher content would include an ad, link, or promo code to LinkedIn’s website or landing page. 

B2B marketers then pay partners when the prospect takes the desired action (i.e. click-through, form completion, or purchase.) 

Performance marketers can find affiliates and social media influencers to work with through third-party networks or tracking platforms. 

Social media native advertising

Social media networks are an excellent content creation and distribution channel, allowing B2B performance marketers to promote thought leadership or product messages to a high volume of target customers online. Performance marketing goals and KPIs can be achieved through Native Advertising or Sponsored Content Ads. 

These paid ad formats drive user engagement (e.g., shares, likes, and comments) for branded content assets to boost visibility and generate desired performance marketing-based actions from target customers on networks like LinkedIn. 

Native or sponsored content ads also help to amplify and grow the reach of B2B blog posts, ebooks, research reports, webinars, and live-streaming events. 

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising 

PPC advertising is a popular form of online marketing payment. Advertisers bid a certain amount of money in an ad auction to pay affiliates, influencers, or advertising platforms to display an ad or a link on their website or in sponsored content. This bid amount is called the cost-per-click (CPC), referring to the amount marketers are willing to pay for each click-through, sending users to a branded website or landing page. 

The bidder with the highest CPC bid and ad relevance will typically appear first on the affiliate, social media network, or influencer partner page. Partners only get paid when someone clicks on the ad or link. Refer to LinkedIn’s CPC Advertising Guide to learn more.

Cost-per-action or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) advertising 

In this case, affiliates or partner advertising networks get paid a set fee (or commission) after a desired action is completed, such as an ecommerce conversion (i.e., a user acquisition), and email marketing or software-as-a-service signups or subscriptions. The CPA amount can be fairly high if the product and/or audience is lucrative, such as reaching CEOs in finance or technology to purchase luxury items or sign off on large business deals. 

Cost-per-lead (CPL) advertising 

With CPL advertising, B2B marketers will bid or set a flat rate or commission for how much they intend to pay for each sales lead that comes in through their performance marketing campaign. For example, they may set a budget and bid price for each new Lead Gen Form completion to download an ebook or sign up for an online product demo. 

This form can be completed on the affiliate or ad partner’s website or with a link that sends a prospect to a form on a branded landing page or website. The performance marketing goal is to capture a target customer's contact information, including their name, title, company, email address, and phone number.

Cost-effective

Because B2B marketers only pay their ad or content partners per acquisition or “performance” for desired results, they can often stretch their budgets further. When advertising for the first time, this strategy can also be perceived as a lower risk because of the pay-per-click or pay-per-acquisition pricing models. However, running an initial test campaign is helpful to learn what bidding strategies or formats work best. Then, B2B marketers can optimize campaigns to maximize results, which we’ll discuss shortly.

Highly targeted audiences 

The advantage of targeting customers on already-established affiliate partner websites or influencer social channels is that they already have a sizeable, attentive audience that fits the B2B marketer’s buyer persona or ideal customer profile (ICP). When planning for a performance marketing campaign, properly research each affiliate, ad network, or social influencer’s audience demographic and psychographic profiles (when available) to ensure they are a good fit. Tools like comScore Media Metrics and Nielsen Insights are helpful.

Measurable results 

Like most digital marketing campaigns, performance marketing is trackable and measurable, assuming B2B marketers use the right tools like website analytics, ad tracking pixels, and ad campaign performance monitoring platforms.

Choose the right metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Before launching CPA ads and creative content partnerships, marketers need to choose appropriate KPIs and/or metrics to measure the performance. For example, one campaign goal or KPI goal could be to generate 1,000 new sales leads in three months. Or to drive 500 new customer acquisitions on a SaaS or ecommerce website in one month.

B2B marketers can track those performance marketing KPIs using metrics such as:

• Conversion rates: The percentage of people who buy something or complete a desired action via a native ad unit or affiliate/influencer content marketing link.

• Click-throughs: From affiliate or influencer content links to a website or landing page.

• Leads generated: From content downloads and event sign-ups via partner content or native ad Lead Gen forms.

• Engagement: This includes shares, likes, and comments on native ads and partner content.

• Pageviews: How many people visited and viewed the native or affiliate/influencer content page.

• Impressions: How many times the native ad or partner content was seen by target users.

Performance marketers can also use website analytics and ad-tracking software or platforms to provide accurate and detailed data on their CPA campaigns. If the metrics indicate that marketers are not meeting their KPIs, marketers might try increasing their CPA, CPC, or CPL to improve campaign results. 

If the campaign is over-performing, they might either reduce their cost-per-action or make the case to increase budgets to grow sales even more.

Research best practices before developing creative

Marketers can research and monitor what other CPA marketers are doing in their niche to learn what solutions they are using. Tools like SpyFu, Adbeat, or WhatRunsWhere help marketers follow industry best practices and guidelines for competitive CPA marketing.

Additionally, the better the creative strategy and call-to-action (CTA) in an ad or content message, the better the campaign will perform. Review LinkedIn's Ad Copy Guide to learn how to maximize ad text and copy to achieve better performance marketing results. Other best practices include avoiding misleading or deceptive claims and complying with CPA network and traffic source rules and regulations. 

B2B marketers can also experiment with different formats and platforms beyond simple banner or text ads. Native and video ads are good options on social networks, as are other forms of sponsored content published by affiliates and influencers. 

Finally, performance marketers can test formats on different devices like desktops, mobile, and tablets to reach more potential customers and improve sales and lead generation.

Test and optimize ad creatives

Next, marketers can run initial test campaigns to maximize ROI and sales. Some performance marketers split-test different CPA ads and creative variations. 

This concept is also known as A/B testing. It involves comparing two or more ad or creative versions to determine the best performer. B2B marketers can split-test creative elements, like headlines, images, copy, colors, buttons, and landing pages. 

Review web analytics and ad campaign data to identify which ads and creative variations generate the highest conversions and the lowest cost per action. Also, look for patterns to understand the target audience's behavior and preferences. Then, keep only the winning ads and creatives, pause or delete the lower-performing ones, and continue to adjust and iterate on the best campaign outcomes. 

Work with agency partners or hire in-house specialists

Finally, consider working with agency partners or hiring dedicated in-house resources with solid expertise in their field. Since performance marketing is a highly effective and efficient way to grow sales online, it’s worth investing in people who can help maximize results.