EST. MMXXVIMarketing as a discipline, evidence as its base.8 August 2026 · NL · EN
Concept index
ConceptHEURISTIC

Performance marketing

Performance marketing is the umbrella term for channels where you pay and steer per measurable response: clicks, leads, sales. Its appeal is apparent certainty; every euro seems to justify itself directly. The illusion lies in what the measurement does not see: part of the measured conversions would have happened without the ad, cost per acquisition rises as you scale, and the demand reservoir that brand building fills quietly drains. Performance harvests demand but barely creates it. Healthy marketing therefore combines both and tests performance on incrementality rather than on the numbers from its own dashboard.

Covered in

F9
F9-01 Marketing finance — pricing as the lever, MROI as the instrument§ Hanssens's MROI as the correct measurement frame
F1
F1-08 Integration: the marketer§ 2. The Pattern: Why Marketing Generates False Dichotomies
F3
F3-01 What Market Research Actually Is§ Part 2: Why Research Exists -- The Uncertainty Problem
F5
F5-01 What is Brand Equity?§ 4. The Both/And: Brand as Asset AND Cost Centre
F6
F7
Show all 22 mentions

Related concepts

AttributionCustomer acquisition costBrand building and activation

Referenced by

Click-through rateIncrementalityPersonalisationGoodhart

Sources

  • Les Binet & Peter Field (2013)

Machine-written definition; editorial curation in progress.