If you understand the gist of performance marketing and you just want to interact with the above dashboard, skip to the end of the article and you will find a link to the interactive dashboard.

However, if you want to know how you go about Performance Marketing, I suggest you read the whole article. By the end of the article, you will:

1. Have an understanding of what performance marketing is
2. Know how to interpret data insights and suggest areas for improvement
3. Learn how to leverage data for decision-making

What is Performance Marketing?

Imagine you have a lemonade stand.

Performance marketing is like figuring out the best ways to sell your lemonade. You might make colorful signs (social media ads, email marketing, etc) to catch people’s attention or offer a special deal like buy one, get one free. Then, you keep track (web/social media analytics) of how many cups of lemonade you sell and which strategies (Campaign management) work the best.

If you sell a lot of lemonade, that’s a good performance! If not, you try different things to see what works better next time. It’s like a game of figuring out how to sell the most lemonade and make the most money!

Note that Performance marketing campaigns are highly data-driven and rely on analytics and tracking tools to measure and optimize results continually.

How Performance Marketing Works

I’ll illustrate the concept using the lemonade stand analogy and then connect it to the project I completed using job board data. Additionally, I’ll share the insights I derived from the analysis. Let’s revisit the dashboard to delve deeper into the data.

1. Goal setting

In our lemonade stand, the goal of the business could be to increase revenue. So the marketing goal could be something like selling 100 cups of lemonade cups a day. Note that every marketing activity should be aligned with the overall business goal.

My project: the goal was to increase the conversion rate by 15% by the end of the campaign. (the goal should always be specific so that at the end you can measure the campaign's success)

2. Target audience

In our lemonade stand, You identify your target audience based on factors like location (near a park or busy street), weather (hot and sunny day), and potential customers (families with kids, joggers, etc.).

My project: The job board I utilized is renowned in the Middle East and North Africa region. I specifically focused my targeting efforts on job seekers located in the Middle East.

3. Campaign creation

In our lemonade stand, You create eye-catching signs and posters to attract customers passing by. You also offer a special promotion, like buy one, get one free, to entice people to stop at your stand.

My Project: I assumed that the campaign had already been created. In the real world, this would entail social media advertising and offers on the subscription price to entice people to register on the job board. Or even discounts for referring other users.

4. Tracking and analytics

Do you remember the goal we set for our lemonade stand of selling 100 cups of lemonade per day? Throughout the day, you keep track of how many cups of lemonade you sell and where your customers are coming from. For example, you might notice that more people buy lemonade when you offer a discount deal.

My project: Throughout the campaign, I kept track of how many job seekers were interacting with our campaign. As shown in the dashboard, you can see the most frequently searched job titles and the leading job industries.

Additionally, when interacting with the dashboard, you can check how different people found out about the campaign. Whether it was through paid ads, organic traffic, or referrals. A link to the dashboard will be provided at the end of the article.

5. Optimization

In our lemonade stand, based on your observations, you can decide to focus more on promoting the discount deal by mentioning it to every customer. You can also move your stand to a busier location in the park where more people are walking by.

My project: based on the data, I could refine my messaging and retarget the countries that are bringing more traffic, focusing on the leading job titles that the job seekers are showing more interest in.

The caveat is that there is still potential for improvement in countries with lower traffic volumes. To address this, I plan to experiment with different messaging strategies and closely monitor the buyer’s journey on the website.

By tracking their interactions, I can pinpoint where potential customers are dropping off and implement enhancements to improve their experience.

6. Conversion tracking

In our lemonade stand, you can keep track of which promotions are driving the most sales. For example, you might find that customers who hear about the discount deal are more likely to buy multiple cups of lemonade.

My project: From the dashboard, it’s evident that organic traffic has been the primary driver of customers to the job board. However, there’s a slight imbalance between negative and positive conversions, indicating an opportunity for improvement.

This shows the importance of tracking ongoing campaigns. To enhance performance, we could intensify our focus on SEO to increase visibility. Additionally, refining our target audience for paid ads and implementing referral discounts could help bolster other traffic sources.

When interacting with the dashboard, you can filter according to the insights you wish to see and see which countries in the Middle East region had the most conversions and the least.

7. Performance evaluation

For our lemonade, at the end of the day, you count up how many cups of lemonade you sold and compare it to your goal of 100 cups. If you exceeded your goal, you analyze what worked well (e.g., discount deal, prime location) and plan to use similar strategies in the future.

If you fall short of your goal, you identify areas for improvement (e.g., better signage, different promotions) to try next time.

My project: From the dashboard, it’s evident that there are areas for improvement, such as refining our client targeting, soliciting, and implementing feedback.

Additionally, identify peak application times throughout the day, week, or month, and capitalize on high-traffic periods on our website. We can also analyze user activity and strategically deliver targeted ads.

Your input on the dashboard is valuable; feel free to share your thoughts on areas where we can enhance our strategies. There are no wrong answers, and I look forward to gaining insights from your feedback.

Summary

In summary, performance marketing is a game of figuring out how to sell the most lemonade (or any service/product) and make the most revenue!

It involves setting goals, targeting the right audience, creating compelling offers, tracking sales and customer behavior, optimizing promotions based on data, and evaluating performance to improve future marketing efforts.