Definition

What Is Performance Marketing?

Performance marketing is online marketing that is planned, measured and paid for based on results, such as leads, sales or bookings, rather than on reach or impressions alone.

Performance marketing typically uses channels where every click and conversion can be tracked: Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, affiliate programmes and marketplaces. Budgets move towards the campaigns that produce results and away from those that don't.

Good performance marketing depends on accurate tracking. Without conversion tracking, call tracking and a CRM connected to sales, it's easy to optimise for cheap clicks and form fills that never become revenue.

Performance marketing in practice

An online store tracks every purchase back to the ad that drove it. Each week, budget shifts from ads with a low return on ad spend to those with a high one, and new creative is tested against the best performers. The store judges success by profit, not by impressions.

Common questions about performance marketing

Is performance marketing the same as digital marketing?

Performance marketing is a part of digital marketing focused on measurable actions. Digital marketing also includes brand building, content and other work that is harder to measure directly.