Performance or affiliate marketing has completely changed the way that companies conduct their businesses advertising. It puts the power back into the hands of the advertiser: giving them the power to decide on the CTA, pay and then see where and how a lead was generated and completed. Measuring marketing campaigns has never been easier and discerning attribution has allowed users to make better decisions in future campaigns.
With performance marketing, we can measure conversion rate, brand reach and ad success. It has made a huge difference to marketing; companies can quickly see visible ROI and are able to effectively determine which strategies are to thank for it.
How has performance marketing changed over the years?
New technology and changing user expectations have led to a shift in how performance marketing functions. Consumers are using mobile over and more than any other medium which means this is where advertisers need to find and target their ideal consumers. Where SEO and SEM used to be king, it seems engaging, entertaining and interesting content has taken over making it that much harder for marketers to rank and generate more leads. This makes for an exciting slightly different 2020 for performance marketers.
Where is performance marketing going in 2020
Influencers are important
Companies are beginning to see significant returns on influencer marketing in 2019. Did you know that 19% of marketers will spend $1,000 – $10,000 per year on influencers? (Big-commerce) This could mean that in 2020 we will be seeing more and more brands getting involved and working with influencers. This trend is crushing other marketing strategies, why? Because, as G.S. Alag says “A satisfied customer is the best source of advertisement”.
Influencers work in much the same way as a satisfied customer (only with more followers and INFLUENCE). If your brand can benefit from utilising influencers make sure you make use of this highly effective marketing tool.
Voice search is on the rise
Siri, Alexa and Google Home are household names, they have been and are being used more as the years go by. This has had a significant impact on SEO and how it works. Today more than 20% of searches are made through voice search (dbswebsite.com). Therefore, as previously mentioned above, if our consumers are using the internet differently, we have to change the way we advertise and market to our clients.
Your copy not only needs to rank but the wording and SERP used needs to be considered as well! Users are now more than happy to scroll past the top article or site to find the particular keywords that they are looking for. In addition to this, advertisers have to take note of the difference in the way a user would speak a question as opposed to how they would type it. As a result, sites and blogs need to be optimised for longer sentences with more words to reach their target markets who may now be using voice search.
Keep it personal
With new advertising methods comes more competition and the best way to combat competition is by making your clients feel special. Maya Angelou said it best, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Customer service is how you continue to make your customers feel important. If your clients can see that you prioritise them, they will have no need to go anywhere else.
Old tricks can still be new
Blogging, video and webinars will still work in 2020. Why? Because while the digital landscape is ever-changing, some things will remain. Lead generation, SEO and adding value to your clients and consumers will never go out of fashion. However, the way we go about writing articles may have to change. The subject matter of videos, blogging and webinars will have to be on-trend, include subtitles, statistics and be of particular use to your perfect customer. How do you do that? One way to go about it is to send your customers a survey and ask them what they want to know about and create content that falls in line with that.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories, you tell.” – Seth Godin, Bestselling Author and Blogger.
Affiliate programs to become more app friendly
With performance marketing doing so well in the last couple of years it makes sense that this form of advertising will increasingly work with more apps in 2020. Again, this is as a result of consumers changing the way they interact with media and technology. People are choosing to use apps over browsers. For example, instead of going on Pinterest using Google or Safari, people now download the app and visit the social media platform there usually from their mobile phones. Performance marketers will have to join forces with more Apps in order to get accurate information in sites and to be able to generate leads.
Curate campaigns with care
You can only create amazing campaigns if you have a clear objective! This is so important before you even begin making your campaigns you have to have clear goals in mind of what you would like to achieve. In 2020, this will be even more important. Therefore, when curating your affiliate marketing campaigns be sure to:
- Define your goals
- Let those goals and KPIs be your guide
- Take a look at your sales funnel and see that the two complement one another: Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action
- Keep track
Testing is still cool in 2020
Tracking and testing marketing efforts and strategies are two things that will never fall away. Businesses need to know where they are succeeding in their efforts and how they can improve the areas in which they are not. In fact, performance marketers may use even more testing methods in 2020. Clients and consumers need to see how well their campaigns are doing in real-time which may mean that new methods of tracking marketing strategies could come about. David Ogilvy said, “Never stop testing and your advertising will never stop improving.”
LeadByte could not agree more, our landing pages and A/B testing are the peanut butter and jelly to any performance marketing campaign sandwich. Take a look at our live demo to see why!
Final thoughts
As you can see performance marketing will go through many changes in the coming year but as always so long as you stay on top of new trends and never forget about old practices. LeadByte’s managing director Anthony Burgin has some further advice for you to heed:
“Brands must move away from one-size-fits-all marketing and customise user journey. A deep understanding of your audience will help refine targeting, maximise engagement and ultimately drive a greater ROI.
