Digital paid media and performance marketing – what’s the difference?

Digital paid media marketing and performance marketing are two different approaches to online advertising.

Digital paid media marketing refers to the use of paid digital channels, such as social media ads, display ads, and search engine marketing (SEM), to promote a brand, product or service. The goal of this type of marketing is to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to a website, or generate leads. It usually involves paying for impressions, clicks, or conversions.

Performance marketing, on the other hand, is a more results-driven approach to digital marketing that focuses on driving specific actions, such as sales, leads, or app installs. Performance marketing involves paying for actual results achieved, rather than just for impressions or clicks. This can include paying for a specific action like a purchase or a lead. 

In essence, while digital paid media marketing is more focused on creating brand awareness and generating traffic, performance marketing is more focused on generating measurable results and a positive return on investment (ROI). Performance marketing strategies may include tactics like affiliate marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and email marketing.

Overall, both digital paid media marketing and performance marketing can be effective in reaching specific business goals, but they require different strategies and metrics to measure success.

So how can performance marketing fit into your channel marketing strategy?

Paid marketing is undoubtedly an effective way of promoting your vendors’ technology solutions, and the various mediums for paid B2B marketing are Google Marketing and  LinkedIn Ads, etc. For channel marketers paid social and pay-per-click advertising can be challenging.

We know that B2B paid advertising has become one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach potential customers. The key to measuring the effectiveness of any campaign is to track conversions. Conversion tracking allows you to determine which campaigns are working best, and what changes need to be made to future campaigns.  Harnessing the power of paid media marketing in your channel marketing campaigns is a fantastic way to demonstrate and show a measurable return on your marketing funds. 

First, Paid media will allow you to reach yours or your vendors target audience more effectively. By leveraging data and analytics, paid media can support you to identify the specific demographics, interests, and behaviors of your ideal customers. This information can be used to create highly targeted campaigns that are more likely to resonate with potential customers and result in conversions. 

Second, paid media can provide a significant boost to a company’s brand awareness. While organic marketing efforts such as SEO and content marketing are crucial, they can take time to generate results. Paid media, on the other hand, can immediately put a vendor’s brand in front of potential customers. This can be especially important for technology companies that are new to the market or looking to expand their customer base. 

Third, paid media provides measurable results. Unlike traditional advertising methods, paid media campaigns can be easily tracked and analysed. And we all know how important that is at the end of the quarter! This allows you to see exactly how much traffic, leads, and conversions your campaigns are generating, and make data-driven decisions about how to optimise your strategy.

Finally, paid media can help you stand out from the crowd and deliver creative routes to market in the channel. In the technology industry, new products and services are constantly emerging, and companies must stay top of mind with their target audience to remain competitive. Paid media allows companies to stay in front of potential customers, build brand recognition, and stay ahead of the competition. 

In conclusion, it is our strong belief that paid media is an essential component of any successful technology channel strategy. By leveraging the benefits of paid media, you can reach your target audience more effectively, increase brand awareness, generate measurable results, and stay ahead of the competition. With the right approach, paid media can be a powerful tool for technology companies looking to achieve their marketing goals.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can harness the power of performance marketing, why not watch our 30 min On-Demand Tech Talk here. 

Alternatively, you can get Bite’s Top 10 Paid Media Tips, by downloading our handy Infographic here.