• by Reid Carr , January 8, 2025

One of the biggest challenges facing marketers today is determining the right mix of performance marketing and brand building to drive more revenue in an increasingly fragmented industry. Here are some ways to do so:

Branding supports short-term sales and maximizes long-term ROI. Overinvesting in lower-funnel activations leads to higher short-term return on investment but lower long-term ROI. Campaigns that combine brand building with performance marketing, with a 60:40 ratio, are more effective.

The same video ad on the same platform (e.g. Instagram) might introduce a buyer to a brand. That same platform can also build equity or convert a sale, depending on the targeting, ad type, or creative. Pre-disposing new customers to buy a brand in the future can result in 27% growth.

Emotional creative drives brand advertising performance.  People buy with their heart and justify with their head. Ads with the best emotional response can generate a 23% lift in sales volume. Themes of empathy, belonging, and inspiration trigger buyers to enter a category.

Additionally, creativity accounts for 56% of a campaign's impact on purchase intent, and consistent brand messaging can increase revenue by up to 33%. Clever advertising with wit, humor, or intelligence can make your campaign stand out.

Increase your share of voice to increase your share of market. To grow market share, you have to increase your share of voice among the competitive set. Higher share of voice strategies also enhance brand loyalty and customer lifetime value.

If your brand isn’t top of mind when consumers enter the path to purchase, it will be challenging to grow consideration in increasingly expensive non-brand search, such as AI-generated results and cluttered Instagram feeds instead of more cost-effective brand searches and email conversions.

Brands transcend marketing communications. The quality of attention your ad gets from the audience is more valuable than merely reaching a large number of people. It is also critical to consider the channel, ad format medium (i.e., video, animated, static), coverage/size, position, page clutter, and contextual relevance.

The most effective way to reinforce your brand across these touchpoints is to create a strong culture and meaningful brand education for key audiences.

Effective brand measurement is key. Measuring the effectiveness of brand building is crucial for understanding its impact on business performance and making informed decisions. It’s important to integrate multiple data sources, such as social media analytics and customer surveys, to capture leading indicators that predict future ROI. In-flight brand lift studies, pre/post-campaign brand health studies, social listening analysis, and search trend analysis are key.

It is a myth that that performance marketing and brand building are separate endeavors. Smart marketers who value and invest in both will create a competitive advantage and increase their company’s overall profit.