Understanding the Differences Between Digital Marketing, Performance Marketing, and Growth Marketing

During your quest to learn the ins and outs of marketing, you have likely encountered the phrases “digital marketing,” “performance marketing,” and “growth marketing.” But what is the difference between these types of marketing? If you don’t know, it can make it difficult to develop a winning marketing strategy.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at these three types of marketing so that you can be better prepared to tackle the challenges of advertising head-on.

What is Digital Marketing?

Put simply, digital marketing refers to the process of creating and maintaining a strong online presence. By doing so, companies can increase brand awareness, connect with consumers, and improve search engine rankings. That last one is especially important, since search traffic accounts for about 65% of the eCommerce sessions that take place.

Think of digital marketing as the broad umbrella that encompasses all online advertising. Both performance marketing and growth marketing are specific strategies that exist under that umbrella. Better still, both strategies are incredibly effective when applied correctly.

Perks of Performance Marketing

Performance marketing is extremely popular because it is data-driven and offers a great return on investment. However, implementing it can be a bit complex. That is why many businesses turn to performance-based marketing services to oversee their performance marketing campaigns.

As the name implies, this strategy focuses on the measurable results of a company’s digital marketing campaigns. When using performance marketing, companies track key metrics such as:

• Leads generated
• Conversions
• Revenue
• Total number of clicks

Performance marketing strategies give business owners maximum control over their advertising expenditures. Instead of paying flat rates for advertising space, businesses only have to pay for the results they achieve. The best part is that they get to choose the metric that they pay for.

For instance, let’s say that your goal is to generate more web traffic. If your ad is displayed and a user clicks on it to navigate to your site, then you would pay for that action. 

However, you would not pay for passive viewing of your content. If your ad was displayed on 1,000 search pages but only 10 people clicked on it, then you would be billed for 10 interactions.

Well-planned performance marketing campaigns can stimulate massive growth for your business. However, these campaigns must be carefully planned out and managed if you want to achieve real results. 

If you are new to the world of digital marketing, then you may want to use performance-based marketing services from a professional advertising firm.

What About Growth Marketing?

Performance marketing focuses on the bottom of the sales funnel, which leads to conversions. However, you must actually get consumers into the funnel first. That’s where growth marketing comes into play.

Growth marketing addresses the whole marketing funnel, not just conversions. Growth marketing involves a bit of trial and error. It is especially important, though, for startups and businesses that are preparing to launch a new product or service.

Keys to Growth Marketing

During growth marketing, a company will have the opportunity to try out different strategies throughout the marketing funnel. This allows them to see which types of content are resonating with consumers and which ones are not.

Growth marketing is an aggressive strategy that is focused on expanding a business and increasing ROI. However, it is not just about short-term expansion. Growth marketing strategies should set a business up for sustained success, too.

In order to accomplish this goal, a good growth marketing strategy should include SEO content creation, paid advertising, and an active social presence. Remember, social media is a powerful tool that can be used with both growth and performance-based marketing strategies.

By using a multi-faceted approach to digital marketing, you will be able to connect with consumers and build a strong online presence.