Key Methods and Approaches in Performance-Based Marketing
Digital marketing has taken over the world of mark advertising, and with the cut-throat competition among marketers, innovative ways of going about it have had to be devised. In a world where value for money is the most crucial aspect when well-funded companies search for any services, service providers have had to up their game big time. One advantage that online marketers have over their analog colleagues is the power to connect internet users with their wants and needs with a few strategies and at a lower cost to the companies and the marketers themselves.
For instance, the best online casinos use internet marketing to inexpensively advertise their latest online slot machines to attract many more players to their platforms. Better yet, internet marketing allows gaming platforms to use different strategies to reel in more players to enjoy their products and services. The most innovative gaming platforms, for example, use strategies such as tournaments to get players to try out the new online slots that they have just added to their portfolio. But then, how do businesses ensure that their marketing strategies are working and that they are targeting the right audience? Read on to find out how.
A Performance-Based Approach
After analyzing their annual marketing expenditure against the results and wanting to get full value for their money, most companies only pay once set metrics have been met. This is where performance-based marketing comes in as the company agrees beforehand with the marketer about the intended outcome of planned marketing activities. The foreseen results could be impressions (or views), clicks, installs, leads or sales.
The important thing is that as much as you will be paid for results and not efforts, the efforts and strategies behind the scenes are what will determine if you get paid or lose money. As a performance-based marketer, you need to have some tricks up your ante to succeed in your business. Here's a highlight of the path you can follow to achieve your success.
Social media sites are a great way to kill multiple birds with one stone. Not only do you get to put the product in front of potential stakeholders, but you also get some free stats on how your campaign is doing so that you don’t waste time on unfruitful ventures. You will be able to define your target demographic without leaving the site and analyze your KPIs based on data collected in real time during your campaign. Presenting your product on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even Pinterest, will instantly have a wide reach and even trigger some audience engagements.
This means identifying media outlets like content sites or social media influencers to showcase the product in a detailed manner. Your outlet will come up with the content in a way that blends in with their niche content, while indicating that it’s sponsored. Sponsored content has proved to be effective in increasing traffic from various geographic regions. Social media influencers are increasingly using this tactic to earn a living or get free products, and it’s been working wonders for advertisers looking to generate fast traffic.
SEM is one of the strongest tools you can use since your targets are already looking for products similar to yours. The right keywords combination is your saving grace in SEM. That way, whenever a user enters a query, your product stands a chance at being among the first to appear. Conducting thorough keyword research is the key to achieving success in SEM. The bidding process that takes place in the background may seem complicated on the surface but worry not, as you can get the help of SEM software vendors.
Affiliate marketing is the most common method used in performance marketing and for a good reason. The sites you choose to advertise your product or services have to be reputable and relevant for the target audience. If your product keeps popping up at questionable places, it may arouse suspicion among consumers and lower conversion rates. Affiliate channels need to be varied to reach as many people as possible, but then, as much as you want to attract attention, you do not want the wrong kind.
Like in sponsored content, native advertising blends in with the content on the publisher’s page. The difference is that these are just ads, and the publisher is not the primary provider of the content. For example, you can have an ad running on Facebook in the main content area so that users can see it while scrolling instead of having it on the side where users have trained their eyes not to look. They may also appear as suggested articles on a content site. Your ROI will skyrocket since the product is literally within the audience’s immediate vicinity, and you have full control of what to say to them.
Final Thoughts
During the initial stages of a campaign, collect as much data as you can on what has worked or what hasn’t. It is the only way you can adjust your strategy accordingly. You need to understand the process and how it led to the results so that when the time comes to deliver, you will hit the ground running, knowing precisely what to do. The data insights you get from analyzing past practices will also enable you, the marketer, to look for new ways to encourage even more actions from the target audience. Apply these tricks and use the methods mentioned, and you will be rewarded in your performance-based marketing efforts.