The WARC Guide

Strategies for brand growth

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing

Takeaways 3

Performance marketing’s huge growth has been a Chapter 1:

Shifts in the performance landscape 6
result of its appeal as a measurable, targeted
strategy. However, the growth of AI, the end of Chapter 2:
cookie-based measurement, a focus on the Reaching the full funnel 18

importance of long-term effects, and the rise of

Chapter 3:
retail media are all impacting what performance Making sense of measurement 33
marketing means today. This WARC Guide aims to
Chapter 4:
explore some of these headwinds and share
Optimising for success 48
evolving best practices.
Contact WARC 64
In this report, we define performance marketing as
a type of online advertising where advertisers pay
for specific results, such as clicks and
conversions.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing

Performance accounts for half Look beyond short term for

of ad spend efficiency and effectiveness
WARC research shows advertisers Adding in brand building can improve
spend 51% of their investment on the effectiveness of performance
performance activities versus 49% marketing, and make campaigns more
on brand building. A rough 50:50 split efficient when growth starts to plateau
is consistent across all global on pure performance.
regions.

Performance marketing is Multiple approaches needed for

facing multiple shifts in 2024 measurement
Changes include measurement metrics The move to privacy-based tracking
and increased complexity in media with means that a combination of
multiple channels becoming more measures is now the best strategy.
addressable and shoppable – this is in Attribution still has a place, but best
addition to the rise of retail media and practice includes MMM and
changes in search. experimentation.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing

Performance marketing can be AI is impacting all areas of

more effective for new brands performance marketing
Understanding the optimal role of Artificial intelligence and automation
performance marketing at different are being used in the major platforms
stages as a brand grows and matures for media planning and buying, and
is essential to maintain efficient new tools for advertisers to create
growth and avoid suboptimal spend. and manage campaigns, as well as
impacting search and creative.

Full funnel optimisation is more Wastage is a huge issue in

than a change in media strategy digital advertising
It should be planned across all The multiple formats and creatives
phases of the ad value chain, result in up to half of all digital assets
informing creative strategy, media never being used, representing a
planning and measurement. Efficient huge waste of work and carbon
growth requires scaling brand footprint.
awareness alongside performance.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing

Focus on breaking down silos Encourage brand owners to be Measurement is at a Use Gen-AI for performance

to facilitate communication less tactical and more crossroads; enable and marketing with caution as

between teams and agencies strategic when it comes to educate all players in the it's currently riddled with brand

working on performance, performance marketing. ecosystem to use a mix of safety risks including

brand building and retail Consider the role of attribution, MMM and adjacency to misinformation

media. Approach creative, performance in the full funnel experimentation to capture and deep-fakes, which are

media and measurement and commit to long-term complex effects and also harmful to society. And

holistically. measures to account for all campaigns. watch your carbon emissions;
effects. taking a quality-over-quantity
approach can help.

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Chapter 1

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

Performance marketing dominates the

advertising landscape with around half of ad
spend and a promise of accountable returns.
However, it’s a time of unprecedented
disruption with the rise of retail media, new
complexity of measurement and research
emphasising reaching the full funnel.

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7
 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

USD billion, nominal

Increased investment in brand

Performance marketing involves Brand marketing Performance Increased investment in performance
No change
short-term, response-focused
campaigns with a focus on short-
term sales. While its roots are in
20% 24% 25%
direct mail, performance marketing 28%
36%
campaigns are usually online and 53% 51%
advertisers pay for specific results,
such as clicks and conversions. In
32% 50% 46% 40%
general, internet advertising spend
falls into four broad areas: search, 41%
online display, social media and
retail media. Digital ad spend is 47% 49%
40% 36%
shifting to where consumers spend 30% 31%
23%
more time – on social platforms and
apps, retail media and connected
TV – and as more media becomes 2022 2023 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

shoppable, metrics and attribution

Source: WARC Marketer's Toolkit 2024
models are evolving too.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

Search Online display

Google processes over 8.5 billion searches every day, 78% of all The variety of formats of online display advertising makes it a valuable
online search behaviour. 56.93% of Google’s revenue is from search choice for marketers looking to connect with consumers throughout
results pages and other search-related services. However, even this the funnel – it’s a key channel for brand building and awareness as
previously distinct advertising area is changing with the growth of well as of value for performance. The ability to experiment, target, and
search behaviour on social platforms and paid search on retail media. strategically place ads can provide great flexibility and efficiency.

Social media Retail media

Social is the fastest growing medium in 2024, with spend rising to a Retail media is among the fastest-growing advertising channels
total of $227.2bn – a fifth (21.8%) of total advertising spend – fuelled forecast to reach $128.3bn in 2023, rising to $141.7bn in 2024 –
by new tools and AI automation. 70% of advertisers sell directly on 13.6% of all spend. Data-rich retail media networks can help brands to
social platforms and 80% buy ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube understand performance of their campaigns across channels, a vital
and TikTok. attribute in the context of third-party cookie signal loss.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

Search ad spend by platform

Search is the largest channel by Bing is forecast to earn a 5.9%
spend globally, commanding 22% share of the global search market Google Baidu Bing Other Search Platforms

of ad investment worldwide in in 2024, and each additional 1% 200,000

2024. However, as consumers share gained through the
pivot away from text-based search integration of ChatGPT into Bing 175,000
towards discovery on social and could earn the company an
150,000
retail platforms, and generative AI additional $2.5bn in revenue.
reinvents the search experience, 125,000
Google’s long-standing market Retail media may have an even
dominance in paid search may larger impact. So far, retail media 100,000

come under unprecedented investment appears to be

75,000
pressure. incremental to existing search ad
spend, with brands focusing on 50,000
Instagram and TikTok have both converting shoppers at the point of
signalled their intention to launch purchase. However, as retail media 25,000

dedicated search businesses, networks continue to proliferate –

0
against the backdrop of mass and costs rise – marketers may be 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 (f) 2024 (f)
adoption of artificial intelligence forced to make trade-offs on
within the sector. where that search spend goes.
Source: WARC

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

Discovery (% who discover brands and products via ads seen on social media)
The shift towards social media
Research (% who look for information about brands and products on social media)
platforms is fuelled by ad solutions Purchase (% who are motivated to purchase by the option to use a 'buy' button on a social network)
becoming more effective in
matching brands and consumers to
63%
target them with the right message 59%
56%
at the right time to drive a 52%
conversion. Social media platforms 47%
45%
are evolving to provide different 43%

types of utility to users, effectively 37% 37%

34% 34% 34%
blurring the boundaries between 30%
27% 26% 26%
messaging apps, e-commerce 23%
19%
platforms and social networks, as 17% 16% 17%
13% 13% 13% 14%
well as, in APAC in particular, social
7% 8%
commerce. Accounting for 60% of
the world’s social network users,
APAC consumers use social media Philippines Indonesia Malaysia India Australia Thailand Singapore Vietnam China
from discovery to purchase –
making this a key channel to reach Source: Raising the bar in APAC: How media quality and performance drive outcomes
and convert customers.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

While the primary function of search and benefits from the effectiveness of linear
social is diversifying, the same is true of TV viewing, including: a big screen and
offline channels more traditionally sound on, a high-quality brand-safe
associated with brand building. environment, and shared viewing.
Television, audio and out of home are all System1 research has found that TV ads
becoming more addressable, and so elicit more positive reactions and greater
more of interest to performance short- and long-term business impact
marketers. among addressable audiences.

Connected TV can have many of the Likewise, programmatic DOOH is

benefits associated with more traditional increasingly finding its way onto media
performance marketing channels such plans as advertisers value the
as addressable capabilities and more opportunities it offers for highly targeted
precise measurement. UK trade-body activations and trigger-based buying,
Thinkbox highlights how Advanced TV which can complement both brand and
has dynamic one-to-one ad delivery and performance ad campaigns.
mass first-party data, while also offering

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

% respondents
Retail media networks are booming #1 Driver #2 Driver #3 Driver
thanks to their proven ability to
influence shopper behaviours at
Higher ROl vs. other channels 27% 8% 12%
the point of purchase.
Improved insights from retailers/RMNs 10% 17% 11%

It was not long ago that this form of Ability to better measure upper funnel impact 11% 14% 11%
behaviourally-targeted advertising
Measurement innovations for better/easier value proof 11% 14% 9%
on retailer websites, marketplace
and apps was considered Emerging practices for better return optimisation 6% 14% 10%
experimental. Now, retail media has
Enhanced customer engagement by retailers 11% 4% 13%
gained traction due to its perceived
ability to deliver superior return on Integrated retailer negotiations 5% 10% 10%

ad spend and leverage rich data Channel standardisation easing management complexity 3% 2% 7%
and insights from retailers and
"Cookie demise" boosting RM appeal over other channels 2% 4% 6%
RMNs. It is also valued as a source
of shopper insights from across 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
the entire customer purchase
Note: Survey of around 100 US consumer product manufacturers and agencies.
journey.
Source: Skai and P2PI, State of Retail Media 2024, Retail Media Radar Q1 2024

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

Retail media campaigns mainly and algorithmic nature of retail

target the bottom of the marketing media advertising formats, such as
funnel, focusing on reaching sponsored products, enables
consumers at the point of purchase effective targeting and optimisation,
to increase sales. aligning with the evolving landscape
of digital advertising. According to a
In terms of performance marketing, survey conducted by Skai and the
retail media activates audience Path to Purchase Institute, retail
segments likely to convert, media and paid search emerged as
contributing to increased online the most important forms of
sales. Retail media’s growth is likely advertising, with over 80% of
to continue as retailers can offer surveyed brands prioritising them.
brands a variety of advantages –
they have first-party data, strong The study revealed that more than
relationships with customers, half surveyed believe retail media
privacy advantages, brand safety, advertising to have a positive effect
detailed ROI/ROAS measures, on performance indicators of their
comprehensive customer journey brands. Notably, 24% said that retail
Photo: Marques Thomas, Unsplash
propositions and effective media advertising exceeded their
attribution. Additionally, the dynamic performance indicator expectations.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

Artificial intelligence innovations AI-enabled search optimisations

Media Quality inventory may become harder to find
are impacting every aspect of drive efficiencies, which can result adjacency and harmful content – including misinformation
performance marketing. in increased click-through rates and deep-fakes – may proliferate.
(CTR), decreased traffic acquisition
Tools such as Meta’s Advantage+ costs, and more time spent on-site,
and Google’s Performance Max among other metrics.
effectively automate part of the Media Using Generative AI to create media can help with

media planning and buying Generative AI algorithms (e.g.

creation efficiency but may result in unsafe or unsuitable
content creation or copyright infringement.
process, making it simpler for ChatGPT) can be used to create
advertisers to create and manage content, including audio, code,
campaigns across Google and images, text, simulations and
Meta’s ecosystems. These videos. The rapid progress of
systems are claimed to enable generative AI has the potential to
Ad Inauthentic and automatically-generated content
fraud can create a higher risk of invalid traffic.
outcome-based planning: instead create content at scale, which also
of planning against an audience, makes fighting media quality issues
the AI optimises against a specific, such as ad fraud more complex,
tangible outcome that an underscoring the importance of
advertiser wants to achieve. brand safety protections.
Source: Raising the bar in APAC: How media quality and performance drive outcomes

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

AI is growing in importance for scale and Deploying AI technology in its existing

efficiency in performance marketing on businesses has begun to deliver
the major platforms. Magdalena significant revenue benefits to Chinese
Cunnington and Gabriel Matwiejczyk, tech giant Tencent, particularly around
Marketing Science Partners at Meta, its advertising business. President
explain, “As the customer journey Martin Lau told an earnings call that
becomes increasingly dynamic, Tencent’s “AI-powered ad tech platform
automation allows marketers to keep is contributing to more accurate ad
pace with the changes without targeting, higher ad click-through rates
sacrificing budget, resources or time”. and thus faster advertising revenue
Meta research found that using its growth rates.”
automated products led to a 12%
median lower cost per attributed However, the ‘black box’ nature of many
purchase compared to standard AI tools means that they can make
conversion campaigns and improved decisions and deliver results that cannot
the cost per optimised conversion be explained. Marketers should consider
compared to Manual App Ads (EMEA) by adopting clear ethical principles for
13%. working with AI-based tools. Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 1 – Shifts in the performance landscape

Traditionally, the programmatic cookie solutions including

ecosystem has depended upon third- contextual/interest based targeting and
party cookies to target specific perisistent IDs. In the post-cookie era,
audiences with advertising content. second-party data partnerships take on
However, the ongoing demise of the extra importance, particularly for
third-party cookie and introduction of advertisers lacking in first-party data.
privacy regulations is reducing the
capacity of advertisers to track and In order to maximise data collection
target audiences on the web. while respecting users’ individual needs
and preferences, brands need to focus
According to LiveRamp research more on creating positive privacy experiences
than half of marketers (60%) are that help people feel in control of their
concerned about being able to reach data, letting them know how their data
audiences once third-party cookies will be used, what it will be used for and
disappear. Advertisers are why this will deliver a better experience.
experimenting with a range of post-

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Chapter 2

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

Many of the distinctions between short and

longer-term campaigns are being
challenged. As a result, improving
effectiveness in performance marketing
requires a holistic view to capture
opportunities and measure all results.

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19
 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

Jared Belsky, CEO & Co-Founder, Acadia

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

For businesses that sell online, beyond immediate sales. For the
(including long-term effects, 3500 campaigns)

2.5x
digital and AI-powered most successful, growth can slow
advertising solutions have as they reach a plateau in the
revolutionised the role marketing number of in-market consumers higher than
has on growth. their current strategy can convert. the short-term ROI
In this situation, brands can level up
Performance marketing can serve their growth by broadening their
the right ad to the right person at strategy beyond traditional
the right time to capture demand performance marketing. 40%
from consumers that are signalling Short-term ROI 76%
they are in the market. For many Multiple research studies have
56%
companies it can be their main shown the importance of 42%
driver of growth as they increase combining long-term objectives
their budgets and optimise their and measurement with shorter,
60%
campaigns to convert an more performance-focused
Long-term ROI
increasing share of the in-market campaigns to reach the full Tech and Retail and FMCG
durables telco
audience. However, there’s a need potential of advertising spend.
for performance marketers to
focus on long-term brand growth, Average across studies and categories

Source: Meta Marketing Science 2022. The short and long term impact of advertising, research
by Nielsen, Nepa, GfK. Average calculated from results across three independent studies. Data
2016-2021. Methodology – market mix modelling, analyses commissioned by Meta.
© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 21
 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

Research for the tech and durables performance advertising can still
category found that performance have a long-term impact through

18%
marketing activities on Facebook repeat or deferred purchases or
and Instagram generated strong
ROI in the short term as expected.
from supporting prices. Focusing
on performance campaigns is
greater
Unexpectedly over 59% of the often the most efficient way to incremental sales
return happened in the long term. drive growth for many smaller
for reach and performance campaigns vs. performance alone
advertisers. However, for those
Upper funnel activities take longer already maximising the impact of
for their full impact to unfold. 80% their performance campaigns,
of the total ROI driven by upper expanding outside of performance

36%
funnel activities was generated optimisations can reach a whole saw a lower
long term. As marketing scientists new audience. Potential new
incremental cost
Konstanze Fichtner and Harry customers who will buy in the
per conversion
Davison at Meta explain, “This tells longer-term.” However, the
us two things about how media effectiveness of short-term
when using performance and reach vs. performance
works today: media is not either advertising in the long term is
short- or long-term oriented. In debated, so the addition of long
most cases, it can do multiple term is a good way to drive
jobs. Although short-term-focused efficient growth. Source: Konstanze Fichtner and Harry Davison, Meta, The brand growth formula

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

The best way to use advertising changes as you grow

Brand building makes performance

people’s job easier says Grace Kite (Insurance businesses with and without brand building) (e-commerce)
of magic numbers. The figure
shows analysis that can be done No TV (Privilege) TV (Churchill)
0.70%
with data a brand usually owns. 0.69% 0.69%

Demonstrating that, for these real 12%

businesses, brand-building 0.67%

9%
advertising brought better click-
through rates on both organic and
6%
paid search. As Grace Kite puts it:
“Getting brand building up and
3% 3%
running involves showing examples 1%
2%
1%
1% 1%
like these to the performance team.
Keeping it running means doing
1 2 3 4 5 0-2 3-5 6-8 8+
this analysis with the performance
Organic ranking on search page (1=top) Brand reputation score out of 10
team’s own data, to show them that
they’re actually seeing the
Source: Direct Line, IPA effectiveness award 2018, Mu and Zhang, Journal of Academy of Marketing Sciences (2021)
benefits.”

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

Steve Lockwood, Head of Client Measurement providers are also

Measurement at TikTok, has said highlighting the evidence for a
that advertisers should shift from a more holistic view of impact.
binary view of brand and Fospha upper funnel research
42%
performance to being more examined both the short-term (3
outcome-focused. ”The industry months) and long-term (10+
has formed a reliance on click- months) impact of spending in
based measurement because of its Meta Awareness, ultimately finding
clear return on investment, but the that brands who maintained spend
reality is that click-based over the longer period presented
measurement is not suitable for the far lower acquisition costs and a -11%
majority of digital advertising. This stronger average ROAS. This
‘tunnel vision’ has meant that we’re echoes work by Analytic Partners,
increasingly seeing marketers which found performance -35%
allocating budgets disproportion- marketing is often significantly
ately to channels that appear more more effective when combined ROAS CAC CPP
effective based on the last click, with brand, equity and cross-tactic
even if other channels play a pivotal messaging. Note: ROAS – Return on ad spend, CAC – Customer acquisition cost, CPP – Cost per purchase-
Source: Make or break: Why measurement is key for the modern e-commerce brand, Fospha,
role in the lead-up to conversion.“ 2024

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

With its foundation in closed-loop The study found that the top-
measurement, retail media can performing retail media ad formats
Top retail media formats with the highest ROAS for
easily be overlooked for its ability were on-site display ads (45%) and
brands (Top 3)
to produce brand awareness and on-site video ads (43%) – far
engagement at a massive scale – outpacing the bottom-funnel on- Upper funnel / Close to POS Upper funnel / Away from POS Bottom funnel
much like linear TV. And it can site sponsored product
On-site display advertising 45%
uniquely convert this branding placements (25%).
impact into sales effectiveness at On-site video advertising 43%

the same time, effectively Lipsman explains that strong Off-site display advertising 37%

delivering the holy grail for the creative delivered close to the Paid social media 37%
brand”, says Andrew Lipsman of point of purchase – in this case on Off-site video advertising 31%
Media, Ads + Commerce. e-commerce websites – should be In-store advertising 29%
effective at driving brand choice.
On-site sponsored products (search) 25%
Advertisers are discovering that ad Display and video ads are also
Email 23%
formats generally considered more cost-efficient, all else equal,
Connected TV 22%
“upper-funnel” are also the best at than sponsored product ads due to
driving performance in the context less active bidding from mid- and 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
of retail media, according to a 2023 long-tail advertisers.
Source: McKinsey & Company, 2023
survey by McKinsey & Company.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

Startups and scaleups often • For every $1 spent, startups

focus, out of necessity, on generate 2.5x more in
performance marketing as they incremental return on
seek to drive immediate returns. investment from performance
Big business:
marketing than from more
Performance
New research from magic numbers brand-focused efforts. Scale ups:
underperforms
There's still an
has confirmed that performance • Looking at scaleups, which are 0.7x
advantage, but
marketing delivers a stronger no longer startups but have not it's only 1.3x
$7.5
return on investment for startups yet become major brands, this Start ups:
Performance $5.9
and scaleups, but brand building gap falls to 1.3x. delivers 2.5x $5.2
delivers better results for larger, • Among big businesses, more growth from $4.7
the same budget
more established players. however, the incremental
Grace Kite, founder and managing returns from brand building
director of Magic Numbers, a topped those from $1.6
$0.7
marketing econometrics performance marketing by
consultancy, discussed this topic 0.7x.
Low PM High PM Low PM High PM Low PM High PM
at SXSW 2024:
Source: Incremental ROI from Magic Numbers, Circana, D2D, VCCP, OMG, Ekimetrics via IPA
ARC.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

Growth efficiency is the ratio of sales uplift relative to ad spend increase

A study by WARC found that
scaling brand awareness as you
Great sales efficiency on performance platforms is no
scale performance marketing Optimise for growth
spend allows you to maintain 1 efficiency
good if it can’t be scaled. As you invest, monitor growth
efficiency as a core success metric and take action if you
growth efficiency and scale see signs of growth inefficiency.
profitably.

Small brands can, and do, grow and Brands that reach strong levels of awareness as they’re
Invest in brand – even in
thrive on retail media while barely
registering in terms of public brand
2 startup / scaleup phases
going into their scaleup phase will be able to continue to
grow efficiently and retain strong performance marketing
metrics.
awareness. Those brands then
have a choice to stay small and
efficient or grow into a significant
Track your brand’s health and use it as a core set of
market-leading brand in their Track and optimise both
categories. To do so requires 3 brand and performance
metrics alongside your performance metrics.

scaling brand awareness alongside

performance marketing to continue
to enjoy profitable growth.
Source: Growth efficiency: Marketing's existential metric

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

The best way to use advertising changes as you grow

Grace Kite and Tom Roach’s work

on scaling up makes it clear how
performance marketing starts to
Sales from
plateau in terms of performance,
advertising
requiring the addition of brand
building to increase the pool of
potential customers. But it can be a Performance Awareness
lot easier said than done. As Grace plateau building
ads e.g. TV,
puts it, “Eventually you’ve reached
posters
everyone that’s shopping and easy
to convert with a simple and cheap Synergy
Synergy Synergy
ad, so that growth from
performance marketing slows to Performance marketing e.g. paid search and social
nothing. That’s when brand building
is needed to restart growth.
Sounds simple, but the plateau isn’t
always easy to recognise, let alone
demonstrate to the CEO, founder, Source: Grace Kite and Tom Roach

or investors.”

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

The reason performance marketing possible it’s time to reach people

works so well for startups is that it not currently in market. A few signals
helps identify consumers who are that might indicate a brand is ready
already in-market, informs these to make this move are:
individuals about a brand, and • A steep decline in new customer
rapidly turns them into paying acquisition, meaning a brand has
customers. to rely on its existing clientele
increasingly;
A deeper challenge is to engage • The gradual decrease in return
people who are not currently looking on investment from
to buy or who may prefer a rival performance efforts over time;
brand, says Grace Kite. This may not • Upticks in cost per click, cost
be critical for startups who are per engagement and customer
selling to those in-market for the acquisition costs.
product. But once most of the early
adopters for their goods and Measurement is critical to proving
services have made a purchase, and the impact of brand-building efforts
when they have gained exposure to to skeptics within startups and
as many in-market shoppers as scale-ups.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

Case study

The UK-based online beauty brand • There was a 31% lower cost More incremental return on ad spend
LOOKFANTASTIC had previously per incremental purchase
run conversion-focused using the conversions and
performance campaigns on Meta reach objectives together,
apps in Europe. The beauty brand compared to the conversions
decided to try adding a second objective alone.
objective to see if this could help • Cost per incremental new
reach potential new customers on customer purchase went down Lower cost per incremental purchase
Facebook and Instagram. by 16% using the conversion
and reach objective together,
Results compared to a conversion
• The beauty brand increased its objective alone.
incremental return on ad • Overall return on ad spend
spend by 92% after extending increased by 2.5x compared to
their strategy to broader the established conversion Return on ad spend
audiences on Facebook and objective only strategy.
Instagram beyond their usual
conversion objective.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

A full funnel strategy should inform creative strategy, media planning and measurement

Reach Creative Measurement

Analyse reach potential. Is there enough A successful full funnel strategy benefits Brands need the right measurement
liquidity for the brand to continue to grow from addressing the right people with the approach to optimise across the funnel.
through performance marketing? A reach right message at the right time from a Test and learn allows brands to trial new
saturation analysis can help mature large pool of potential buyers. Therefore, strategies whilst safeguarding established
brands understand if they repeatedly reach extension should be supported by a approaches. In order to assess the value
reach the same audience. Reach creative growth strategy to adjust of moving beyond performance strategies
extension should be implemented messages to resonate with broader brands must adapt their KPI framework
individually for each brand. If diminishing audiences who may not be familiar with towards combining short- and long-term
returns have yet to be reached, brands your brand or product yet. Advertising metrics, building on different tools which
can refine their direct response strategy tools powered by AI help marketers combine attribution, experiments and
alongside scaling beyond existing maximise the success of these strategies MMM to avoid undervaluing the impact of
demand. by optimising the targeting on the go. upper funnel activities.

Source: Gabriella Munro, Inessa Ishunkina, Konstanze Fichtner, Harry Davison, Meta, Beyond performance marketing: strategies to maximise performance across the funnel

© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 31

 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 2 – Reaching the full funnel

It takes time for the benefits of experience their increased

long-term campaigns to investment as causing a decay in
materialise. blended metrics – for example,
their overall CAC will rise. This is 33%
As Snezhina Kashukeeva of Fospha where frustration typically sets in,
explains “We regularly see that the which may lead them to conclude
impact of spending in brand that upper funnel activity is
14%
awareness is not always immediate. ineffective for them and switch it
With customers slowly progressing off. Ultimately, although conversion
along the funnel, it can take a while activity is more direct and easily
for website visits and ad tracked, it is ineffective as a stand-
impressions to convert. For that alone objective in the long term.
reason, after an initial three Instead, with brand awareness -7%

months, we actually observed becoming more effective the

brands who did not spend in higher longer it is maintained, we conclude
ROAS CAC CPP
funnel, had stronger metrics. that investing in upper funnel media
is a long-term strategy for cost
For brands without advanced reduction and improvement of Note: ROAS – Return on ad spend, CAC – Customer acquisition cost, CPP – Cost per purchase-
Source: Make or break: Why measurement is key for the modern e-commerce brand, Fospha,
measurement, they will typically returns.” 2024

© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 32

Chapter 3

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Performance marketing has been heralded

because of its link to measurable results. But
whether attribution methods have ever been
that accurate is a subject of debate – one
that will only intensify as measurement is
re-evaluated in the context of tracking
protection.

© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 34

34
 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Measurement is changing to Incrementality experiments are

become more privacy-centric, at becoming more accessible and
the same time as research popular among advertisers, thanks
emphasises both the short- and to more open source resources
long-term effects of channels and increased availability to run
Incrementality
previously thought of as being for experiments in platform. experiments
short-cycle sales activation.
MMM is living a renaissance with its
Determine areas Determine areas
Google’s Modern Measurement future-proof nature (it relies 100% of interest for Use to calibrate
of interest for
and validate the
Playbook highlights how the on aggregated data), increased experimentation MMM model experimentation

changes to attribution will affect ability to show granular results, and Use experiment results
to inform how you view
marketers and advises that a improved frequency of updates. and use attributed
values
combination of these three
measurement methods will be Marketers need to reassess their
needed for a holistic view. measurement strategy so that they MMM Get real-time updates to
Attribution
can know the full impact of media inform areas for MMM
deep dives
Attribution has reinvented itself to investment, and understand how to
continue to provide real-time data better optimise these investments
Bring additional insights
by relying on modelling to cover to improve performance. to the attribution results
tracking gaps.
Source: Google, Modern Measurement Playbook

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Steve Lockwood, Head of Client Research, Europe, Israel & Global Gaming, TikTok

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Changes in the media landscape incremental sales prompted by the Incremental sales Attributed sales
have placed new demands on same ads. For more well-known
media effectiveness modelling. businesses, sometimes the ad acts
Both attribution and marketing mix as a signpost for someone who
modelling (MMM) have a role to would find the brand another way if
play, and can complement each the ad didn’t exist, which could
other to enable fuller result in wastage in the advertiser’s For attributed
sales that are
understanding. However, over- budget. not incremental
reliance on attribution – particularly the ad is acting
as a signpost
last-touch attribution – can lead to As the ‘death’ of the cookie
short-term thinking and non- undermines attribution, there is a
optimal budget allocation. shift back to MMM. MMM
techniques are adapting to the SEM Generic Insta static Facebook video SEM brand
Research by magic numbers in the challenges of a fragmented, digital
Incremental %
chart on the left highlights a landscape but also the
40% 50% 70% 5%
challenge for attribution. The pink opportunities for speed and agility
lines show attributed sales using that it affords.
tracked purchases, while the .
Source: magic numbers econometrics, taken from the experience of several real-life scale ups
turquoise bars show new or

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

“Pixel-based measurement has no up the funnel to awareness and

100%
way to capture the impact of consideration, the differences +14% Overclaim
impressions-led channels like paid found in the research were 0%
social”, says Snezhina Kashukeeva incredibly pronounced as shown in Underclaim
-100%
of measurement consultancy the chart.
Fospha. -200%

Snezhina Kashukeeva explains, -300%

Fospha research found Meta is “For a brand that’s interested in
-400%
relatively accurate when assessing scaling higher funnel in Meta, but
overall performance, but it is only looking at results in Ads -500%
-498%
heavily skewed by brands’ over- Manager, it would be a no-brainer -600%
concentration on bottom-of-funnel to write off traffic and brand
-700%
activity, which, according to awareness. In reality, our research -687%
Fospha, still accounts for 88% of has found that brands spending in -800%
Meta spend on average. the higher-funnel long term, see far
Conversion Consideration Awareness
stronger results.”
This activity is click-based and
more easily tracked. Moving further
Source: Fopsha

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Fospha research finds that Google Analytics under-reports the contribution of other channels

TikTok is the most under- 0X

-0.1X -0.6X
reported major channel by GA. -10X
-5.8X
Major channels
-20X
-22.3X
-30X

Performance Max Google Generic PPC Meta TikTok

0X
Pinterest is the most under- -0.8X -5.6X -11.1X -11.3X
-40X
reported growth channel by GA. -19.5X
-80X -59X Growth channels
-120X
-110.4X

Google Google Google Snapchat YouTube Reddit Pinterest

Shopping Display Discovery

Source: Make or break: Why measurement is key for the modern e-commerce brand

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Case study

Leveraging TikTok to connect with Gen Z Jaded’s year-on-year blended ROAS vs. blended CPP
Jaded, the fashion brand, spends a past year, Jaded achieved
significant proportion of their remarkable growth, reducing
Blended ROAS Blended CPP
channel mix in impressions-driven customer acquisition cost (CAC)
channels (i.e. paid social) acting on while increasing ROAS across all
the signals they saw in Fospha and channels. Overall, they experienced
Jaded implement changes
their post-purchase checkout a 42% drop in CPA and CAC, recommended by Fospha + Kno
survey provider, KnoCommerce. By coupled with a 104% increase in
leveraging this combined data, total ROAS.

Blended ROAS
Jaded scaled TikTok, doubling

Spend
return on ad spend (ROAS) while Jaded’s successful marketing
increasing paid media investment strategy, capitalising on the
by 200%. growing Gen Z audience present on
TikTok, and creating strong brand
With the use of impressions awareness, has led to significant
modelling and integration of their gains in blended performance – Oct-22 Nov-22 Dec-22 Jan-23 Feb-23 Mar-23 Apr-23 May-23 Jun-23 Jul-23 Aug-23 Sep-23
deterministic data, Jaded gained supporting the view of TikTok as an
visibility over TikTok’s significant important channel for your mix. Source: Steve Lockwood, Advertising myopia: How a one-eyed view of measurement is failing an
contribution to revenue. Over the industry and Snezhina Kashukeeva, Make or Break: Why measurement is the key for the modern
eCommerce brand

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Kamran Asghar, Co-founder & CEO, Crossmedia

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

As Google puts it, “Data-driven party smart TV data and development of

attribution is here to stay and will retain a privacy-preserving identity techniques
key role in your measurement toolkit. like cohort measurements, clean rooms
However, where attribution alone was and cookieless solutions that can help
sufficient in the past, today’s marketers with measurement access within “walled
require other tools such as gardens” – mean that it can still have an
incrementality testing and media mix important role to play. As Google puts it,
modelling (MMM).” “Attribution has reinvented itself to
continue to provide real-time data by
With the phasing out of third-party relying on modelling to cover tracking
cookies, marketers can no longer expect gaps.” These developments mean more
to observe and attribute all conversions data to manage, and the need for
via tags, stitch user journeys, or fully rely investment in technical capabilities and
on user-based Multi-Touch Attribution strategic partnerships in the short term.
models (MTAs). However, industry Longer term, they can help marketers
developments – such as the accelerating address some of the perennial
move of linear TV to digital and challenges with MTA.
addressability, the proliferation of first-

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

1980s: 1990s: 2000s: 2010s: 2020s: Future

One of the key tools for a holistic

view of measurement is to include
MMM, which is experiencing
something of a renaissance. METHOD Faster and
Previously MMM had a reputation Add advanced updated more
OLS econometrics often
for being unwieldy and expensive
but automation processes and
more granular data mean it can be
WHO BUYS
used to support tactical decisions. IT?
It evaluates the impact of all media; FMCGs Add anyone that buys offline ads Add buyers of online ads
can capture the long-term as well
as short-term effects of
advertising; measures advertising’s WHO
incremental impact on sales; DOES IT?
examines pricing and the impact of Ad agencies Media agencies and independents New entrants
promotions; and can account for
the impact of non-marketing
Source: magic numbers, The tech giant that cried wolf and the role of MMM
variables on advertising
performance.
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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

All respondents

Marketing measurement company

Ekimetrics employs a five-step
2. Metric 3. MMM 5. Insight
approach to implement market mix 1. Data 4. Optimisation
selection modelling sharing
modelling. The aim of this five step
process for employing MMM is to
use it not just as a backward-
looking assessment tool but as a
forward-looking compass. Working
with a beauty brand in China the Comprehensive Choosing right A two-stage Enhancing Interpretation of
data aggregation metrics for next approach to analyse marketing mix to data with business
models provided actionable
process step marketing increase ROI acumen
insights with a predictive accuracy effectiveness
of over 85%. By focusing on
• Collection of data and • Strategise with media • Base model to • Leverage insights from • Translation from
brand-specific variables and categorisation to align team to align with establish foundational MMM to help statistical findings into
with modelling media buying understanding reallocate budgets to insights highlight areas
iterative model optimisation, the parameters objectives • Sub-model to the effective channels of strength and
MMM initiative proved to be a vital • Transform the raw • Key metrics: understand specific • Scenario planning opportunity
data into structured impressions, clicks, platform contribution helps adjust strategies • Recommendations to
tool for the retailer to navigate frames and actionable engagement, etc. and utilise advanced adjust their marketing
datasets features investments and
market volatility, optimise ROI, and tactics to create
achieve sustainable growth. business value

Source: Ekimetrics APAC, Advancing marketing mix modeling in China's luxury beauty market

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

As well as attribution and MMM, in combination to achieve your goals is

the complex media landscape a challenging task. This is made
experiments have become crucial more difficult by the varying chance
for advertisers to optimise their that some in the audience will
strategies and maximise results convert anyway across different
within and between channels. options. This is where experiments
become crucial. They help
Carl Johan Johansson Alm, Peter understand how to optimise among
Simpson and Harry Davison from all those options and measure the
Meta, Kasper Moll from Pandora, overall impact of performance
and Olivia Benetreau from iProspect marketing. When baselines might
explain the benefits of differ, or when you want to
experimentation for performance understand the incremental impact
marketers: of your ads, it's essential to run an
experiment. This experiment should
“Performance marketing offers a include a test cell (a randomised
wide range of choices, from channel portion of the target audience who
selection, formats, targeting, and sees ads) and a control cell (a
Photo by Chase Baker on Unsplash
bidding strategies for each randomised section of the target
campaign. Picking the best audience that doesn't see ads).”

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Case study

Luxury jewellery brand Pandora’s Pandora to increase experiments

experimentation journey started by almost 5x and to quickly Grew incremental sales on Meta by
with incrementality measurement identify and implement strategies
and running ad hoc experiments to drive growth. Pandora
to develop a well-performing estimates that they grew
strategy. incremental sales on Meta by
160% globally.
But Pandora was able to unlock a
Automation and changes to allocation
new level of growth by building Pandora identified strategies to improved incremental ROAS by
out a “test and learn” culture to improve performance across the
accelerate learning and truly see funnel, for example, finding that
the benefits of experimentation. distinctive creatives improved
incremental sales by 33%, a
As well as setting internal goals simplified account structure
Pandora aligned key agency and improved incremental sales by
Distinctive creatives improved
platform partners to drive best 16% and leveraging automation incremental sales by
practice testing and strategy. and changes to their full funnel
allocation improved incremental
This new way of working enabled return on ad spend by 35%.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 3 – Making sense of measurement

Advice from Meta, iProspect and Pandora

Focus on a measurable hypothesis Challenge your business-as-usual

Make sure you have a clear test hypothesis and define actions from To develop your strategy and results, continuously challenge your
results. Some recommend to only test one variable at a time, which current way of working and implement the winning strategy.
could mean many tests. If you are making multiple changes at once, be
aware that you won’t know the impact of each change, but of the
combined changes.

Use the right method Consider the timing Dimension the test

Incrementality and lift testing are the gold Time your test to the period you are Dimension the test to get robust results:
standard for experiments. But it comes at interested in, e.g. a business-as-usual ensure you run the test for long enough and
the cost of holdouts who are not seeing ads. period, versus tests that focus on sales with a sufficient budget to have a good
When baselines are equivalent, a simple A/B periods. chance of significant results.
test is a faster and cheaper method.

Source: Carl Johan Johansson Alm, Peter Simpson and Harry Davison from Meta, Kasper Moll from Pandora, and Olivia Benetreau from iProspect, The value of experimentation

© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 47

Chapter 4

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

Optimisations for performance marketing

can be endless. Here we look at a few key
strategies – media and creative quality,
using behavioural cues, integrating key
players and measures, and the use of AI.

© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 49

49
 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

The fast-changing digital

advertising landscape points to a
growing need for advertisers
to rethink how they set themselves
up for success. Broadly speaking,
effective advertising delivers on its
objectives and provides
Fraud and SIVT Brand safety Viewability Geography
commercial returns, making it an
and suitability
investment that pays dividends.
Many variables influence Is my ad served to a Was my ad served Did my ad have Was my ad served in
human being? against content aligned the opportunity to the intended
effectiveness, from media choice
with my brand’s equity be seen? geography?
to alignment of ads based on page
and values? Or can it
or app content. Measuring
hurt my reputation with
effectiveness can also vary based consumers?
on campaign goals. A push towards
quality means taking into
consideration the nuances of the
digital media ecosystem that may
undermine effectiveness and
efficiency. Source: Raising the bar in APAC: How media quality and performance drive outcomes

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

CPM distribution
The digital marketing industry focus on cost, without considering
400
has been focused on getting the quality. In DoubleVerify’s Global
17% of observed events
most impressions for every Insights Report 2023, it was found $1.00 CPM or less
dollar, with the goal of keeping that campaigns that do not 300

Aggregated observations
costs low and accessing the incorporate verification can risk
largest possible audience. This losing up to almost US$450,000
200
was validated by a recent ANA per billion impressions to fraud,
study on supply chain viewability and/or brand suitability
transparency. violations. Efficient and effective 100
media buying can’t happen without
In many ways, prioritising cost considering all metrics. With
0
makes sense. Advertisers want to rampant fraud and the potential

$10 to $11

$11 to $12

$12 to $13

$13 to $14

$14 to $15

$15 to $16

$16 to $17

$17 to $18

$18 to $19

$19 to $20
$9 to $10
$0 to $1

$1 to $2

$2 to $3

$3 to $4

$4 to $5

$5 to $6

$6 to $7

$7 to $8

$8 to $9

Greater than $20

deliver outcomes on a limited exposure your brand could face if
budget and efficiently achieve ROI ads are served adjacent to
– an objective that is especially objectionable content, quality has 50% of observed events
difficult considering the downward to be a priority. And in the long run, $3.00 CPM or less
pressure of economic uncertainty. media quality drives campaign
However, this can lead to a myopic efficiency and effectiveness.
Source: ANA Programmatic media supply chain transparency study, 2023

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

MFA sites typically feature low- websites deemed to be MFAs Made for Advertising (1 viewer)
Super Bowl watchers ($71 CPM)
quality content with a much based on industry definitions and Netflix viewers ($55 CPM)
higher density of ad placements cross-referenced by multiple Newsletter readers ($25 CPM)
and a super fast refresh rate, sources. Relative to some of the 220

meaning that a single ad shows most expensive inventory on the

200
up as being served many market, MFAs can be staggeringly 178

thousands of times during a inefficient (see chart).

single user session. 150 137
Media agencies and ad exchanges
A January 2024 study by Adalytics have said that they are moving to 100
showed major brands including identify, filter out or prohibit MFA 100 89
81 81 79
77
P&G, Unilever, Mondelez, Mars, ad inventory, while many brands 63 62
71 70

Ford, Disney, Google, Pfizer, and may not be as protected as they 48

50 41
37 36
Reckitt, among many others are believe. A suggested fix is simple 31 28 28 25
32
25
32

being placed on low value even if it might cost a little more: to

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
inventory, potentially wasting optimise digital advertising to a 0
kroger.com grainger.com paycor.com comcast.com etrade.com zoro.com ford.com verizon.com
millions of their ad budgets. The particular conversion goal rather
study, which ran in January 2024, than aim for high online reach on a
Source: ANA Programmatic media supply chain transparency study, 2023
was based on observations of 22 budget.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

While it’s important to ensure your collective years of consuming media

message is reaching the right and watching others do the same.
audience in an appropriate context,
media channel selection can imply The study found time spent with
unspoken qualities and have an media does not equate to improved
impact on advertising effectiveness. signal strength. Online video’s score
was almost identical across studies
A study by Essence Mediacom conducted in 2020 and 2023,
found the choice of media channel despite the surge in consumption of
significantly affected respondents’ content on platforms like YouTube
perceptions of the brand, in terms of and TikTok. The research also found
its financial footing, its popularity younger audiences are more likely
and the degree to which it could be to be influenced by the signalling
trusted. strength of media, with their
responses across all channels in
Despite the changes in media terms of fitness and social signals
consumption in recent years, signal being higher than older groups.
strength is an enduring feature of
media. It is informed by our

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

Performance marketing platforms Consequently, the efficiency

like Meta, Google, and TikTok are suffers, resulting in lower Return-
highly effective for mass-market On-Ad-Spend (ROAS). However, as
and high-volume products like e- Prassath Leelakrishnan, VP of Wealth
Sneaker
commerce and gaming because Consumer, at Ethos explains, management
there are hundreds of millions of advertisers of high-value products
Revenue $100,000 $100,000
prospective buyers, and these can deploy tailored strategies to
platforms have numerous signals acquire customers cost effectively
Price / ARPU $100 $10,000
to identify the most likely buyers. including:
However, businesses with high-
Number of purchases to
value products and services, such • Boosting signal volume with generate $100,000 revenue
1000 10

as SaaS, life insurance, or financial milestone-based signals;

services, face a unique challenge • Creating effective lookalike
because there are fewer buyers audiences;
100 x
and ad platforms often lack high- • Accelerating creative Lower
fidelity signals to identify such experimentation; purchase signals

buyers due to a shortage of past • Reaching the target audience

purchase data for such products. on multiple channels. Source: Prassath Leelakrishnan, Four performance marketing strategies for high-value products
and services

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

The development of AI will have enabling advertisers to detect,

wide-ranging impacts across the block and prevent such instances
advertising industry. In particular, in the future. To effectively use
one key feature that advertisers machine learning, models can be Return on
can leverage is the predictive customised and trained using adspend or
ability of machine learning to relevant data, which can come from other KPIs
optimise ad performance across multiple sources as indicated on
various fronts. the right.

Cost
For example, machine learning can Meta advises first establishing a
be used to predict optimal bid strong base by streamlining First-party
prices for ad placements accounts, diversifying creatives, data
considering factors like user and making use of automation. (i.e. purchase or
Attention audience data)
behaviour, competition and Advertisers who skip the base-
conversion history. This ensures building stage of their marketing or
that advertisers place competitive strategies and immediately embark viewability
data
bids without overspending. AI on sophisticated and complex AI
models can also be trained to tools campaigns risk substantial
All respondents
recognise patterns of unsafe inefficiencies.
content or fraudulent activity, Source: Raising the bar in APAC: How media quality and performance drive outcomes

© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 55

 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

A recent report from CreativeX stated e-commerce and brand marketing

more than half of new content produced without ever losing consistency.
annually by brands is never published –
translating to as much as $100bn spent Estimates suggest that a typical digital
on unused assets. ad campaign is responsible for the
emission of around 5.4 tons of CO2 – or
Collective World’s Chris Shadwick as Vicky Foster from Adform puts it – the
explains, “The wastage doesn't just apply rough equivalent of keeping a petrol-
to the assets themselves, of course. The powered car running for an entire year.
sheer amount of man-hours wasted, the She explains that the slow progress in
extra levels of stress for everyone moving towards more sustainable digital
involved and the colossal carbon advertising is because of a lack of
footprint all this unused work creates is information and expertise, but a first
deeply worrying.” His recommendation is step is for each player in the ecosystem
to explore creating a photo-real digital is to evaluate their own carbon
twin of the asset, so you can re-use it an emissions to benchmark for future
infinite number of times across all your improvements.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

There are many players involved in a media plan has been approved. This
typical performance campaign. Clients behaviour all but guarantees suboptimal
ultimately decide their agency roster says results.
Kamran Ashgar of Crossmedia. This
might be an “integrated” agency, separate When creative and media are truly
media and creative agencies, or a holding integrated, it’s hard to tell where one ends
company that has two or more relevant and the other begins. All involved should
agencies. But, he cautions, none of these work together in concert towards the
options guarantee seamless integration. same business outcomes, same brief,
same target(s), same data, same
“In worst-case scenarios, media and performance metrics, same outcomes,
creative agencies tend to work etc. Inter-agency integration brings value
independently until they absolutely need in many ways. Through the sharing of
to engage. Sometimes it’s the media learnings and insights before, during and
agency handing off a media plan with a list after a campaign. Over time, the
of creative assets for the creative agency realisation of shared tools and resources
to develop. Sometimes the media folks can create cost efficiencies for the
don’t see the strategy or creative until the client.”

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

As well as the planning of the second-favourite and fictional

campaign there are many ways to brands with the most effective
optimise performance marketing versions of each bias.
creative. The Behavioural In the hotel category,
Architects and Google ran an supercharging lifted second-
experiment mocked up to look and choice brand preference from 26%
feel like a Search results page. to 53%. Even with smartphones, a
Using the results they explored the category with strong brand loyalty,
potential to 'supercharge' ad copy almost a quarter of people chose Power of free Authority bias Framing
with behavioural science their second-choice brand.
techniques.
The results demonstrate the
The results showed second-choice potential for creative framing of
brands were able to take significant search ad copy. Even if a brand's
preference share from first-choice Ad Rank doesn't reach first
brands. Applying one or more position, a strong proposition and
Social proof Costly signalling
behavioural sciences biases BeSci supercharged copy can win a
shifted brand preference, but the greater share of clicks. Alternative version image here: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-emea/marketing-
best results came when the strategies/search/supercharge-search-ads-behavioural-biases/

researchers ‘supercharged’ the Source: Google: Winning in the messy middle

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

Experiments by The Behavioural

Architects, commissioned by
Power of free
Google, demonstrate the power of
behavioural science to enhance ad
Price and
appeals. There were no categories discount
tested in the research where the Delivery
friction
relative impact of behavioural
science wouldn’t make a difference
in situations where margin or other 70% 30%
Price and discount
considerations prevent Behavioural science

discounting. So, while promotional

activity clearly plays a key role in Authority
decision making, supercharging bias
Brand
propositions with the best
expressions of relevant behavioural
science principles can have as Category
Social proof
heuristics
much, if not more, impact on what
people choose. Source: Google commissioned UK research conducted by The Behavioural Architects. n=844-1000 in-market online shoppers per category, UK,
ages 18-75, 2022.

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

There can be a danger of too information processing” of content

much focus on the mechanics of as they were told they would be Depth of information processing: Shallow
performance campaigns, but asked questions about the website Depth of information processing: Deep
creativity matters. material they were viewing. Other
participants were engaged in 7

Total Fixation Duration (in sec)

According to a study in the Journal “shallow information processing” of 6
of Advertising Research, higher content, as they were told to
5
levels of creativity increase browse this online material
attention to banner ads, whether casually. The “total fixation 4

consumers are deeply or more duration” was 2.8 seconds for 3

lightly engaged with online content. “simple” ads and 6.6 seconds for
2
creative ads when consumers were
In the study, eye-tracking paying shallow attention to 1

technology was used to assess content. For participants engaged 0

how creativity in animated banner in “deep information processing” of Simple Creative
ads impacts consumer responses content, those figures stood at 1.8 Ad creativity

to these messages. Some seconds and 3.7 seconds

participants were engaged in “deep respectively. Source: Farzad Abedi & Scott Koslow, 2022, Can personalization or creativity reduce banner
blindness?: An executive functions approach to media and creative strategies, Journal of
Advertising Research

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing | Chapter 4 – Optimising for success

Google research found that generate keywords, creative, and

shoppers need to feel confident other assets that feed into ads.
before they can make a purchase
decision, and that the same Ways to optimise the landing page
factors that boost category include considering:
confidence also make shoppers
more likely to consider making a • Delivery friction
purchase. • Emotional priming
• Paradox of choice
Properly optimised landing pages • Framing
provide other benefits to marketers • Anchoring
too. For example, in the age of AI it • Authority bias
makes it easier and more efficient • Social proof
to get new campaigns up and
running. Google AI uses
information from landing pages to

Source: How to build a gold-star website that boosts shopper confidence, Google

© Copyright WARC 2024. All rights reserved. 61

 WARC Guide to performance marketing

▪ The undeniable value of ▪ Making sustainable digital • Make or Break: Why • Retail media is the perfect intersection of
integration advertising a reality measurement is the key for the branding and performance
Kamran Asghar, Vicky Foster, Adform modern eCommerce brand Andrew Lipsman
Crossmedia Snezhina Kashukeeva, Fospha
• The value of ▪ Advertising myopia: How a one-eyed view
▪ No more retail media experimentation • Advancing Marketing Mix of measurement is failing an industry
island Carl Johan Johansson Alm, Modeling in China's Luxury Steve Lockwood
Jared Belsky, Acadia Peter Simpson, Harry Beauty Market
Davison, Meta; Kasper Olivier Kuziner, William Ferrell, ▪ Beyond performance marketing:
▪ How to build a gold-star Moll, Pandora; & Olivia Jean Wu, Ekimetrics strategies to maximise performance
website that boosts Benetreau, iProspect across the funnel
shopper confidence • Four performance marketing Gabriella Munro, Inessa Ishunkina,
Tamara Bos & Jonny ▪ The tech giant that cried strategies for high value Konstanze Fichtner, Harry Davison,
Protheroe, Google wolf and the role of products & services Meta
MMM/econometrics Prassath Leelakrishnan, Ethos
▪ How to safeguard your Grace Kite & Charles
performance marketing Cleasby, magic numbers
strategy from potential
injuries
Magdalena Cunnington,
Gabriel Matwiejczyk,
Meta

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing

▪ Can personalization or creativity reduce ▪ Scaling up without screwing up ▪ Decoding points of sale
banner blindness?
▪ Retail Media Radar Q1 2024 ▪ Redefining what’s possible in paid
▪ Raising the bar in APAC: How media search performance using AI
quality and performance drive outcomes ▪ Why building brands is a critical
next step for start-ups and scale ▪ Growth efficiency: Marketing’s
▪ The brand growth formula – how ups existential metric
marketers benefit from harmonising
brand and performance marketing ▪ Global Ad Trends: Search 3.0 ▪ Signalling Success 2: More proof that
the media is the message
▪ To get the mix of brand and performance ▪ How to marry branding and
right, theory on its own is not enough performance for pharma brands ▪ A simple solution to wastage in
advertising

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 WARC Guide to performance marketing

David Tiltman Lena Roland Catherine Driscoll Ann Marie Kerwin Rica Facundo Jenny Chan
SVP Content Head of Content Commissioning Americas Editor APAC Editor China Editor
WARC WARC Strategy Editor, EMEA, WARC Strategy WARC Strategy WARC
WARC Strategy

2nd Floor, 81-87 High Holborn WeWork Suite 638, 6th Floor
London, WC1V 6DF 71 Robinson Rd 666 Third Ave, New York, 10017
United Kingdom Singapore, 068895 United States
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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