Geoff CuddImagine paying for ads only per sale or lead or download – sounds like a pretty good use of the marketing budget, right? With performance marketing, that’s exactly what you get.
The premise of this type of marketing is simple: it’s an arrangement where you, the advertiser, pay for ad space only when a certain defined result occurs. That result could be anything from a lead to a sale.
The following five agencies and platforms offer the performance marketing know-how you’re after.
Best for B2B Marketing Best for B2C Marketing Match With the Perfect Agency Use our free agency concierge service to find the perfect match. Takes about 1 minute.
We offer this website completely free to our visitors. To help pay the bills, we’ll often (but not always) set up affiliate relationships with the top providers after selecting our favorites. However, we do our best not to let this impact our choices. There are plenty of high-paying companies we’ve turned down because we didn’t like their product.
An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
Top Performance Marketing Services
When it comes to finding the perfect partner for your Performance marketing needs, the following agencies and resources won’t let you down.
1. MarketerHire
Best for companies looking to work with top-performing freelancers that have already been vetted by industry experts.
MarketerHire is a platform that connects freelancers and clients, but it stands out in a big way: they thoroughly review every freelancer joining their network to ensure that they not only talk the talk but also walk the walk. They also set a high bar for their applicants: only five percent of MarketerHire hopefuls make it through their multi-step process. When you sign on with them, you’re getting proven talent, not just another self-professed paid search guru that will overpromise and underdeliver.
On the client-side of things, all you have to do is describe your company and project in a quick four-minute survey, and within 48 hours they’ll pair you up with a freelancer that they believe is an ideal match for your needs. To ensure everybody is happy with the arrangement, MarketerHire reps will regularly check-in to see how the relationship and project is developing.
MarketerHire freelancers offer a wide swath of expertise, including specialists in paid search and paid social media – two cornerstone skill sets you’ll want any performance marketing strategist to have expertise in. With their strategy and follow-up, you can match with one of these qualified freelancers and begin getting your project up to speed quickly and professionally – without the need to be bogged down by hiring and vetting in-house or freelance staff yourself.
MarketerHire’s 4.7-star rating, 2,500 clients and 12,500 matches to date suggests that the company has hit upon the perfect modern solution to today’s digital marketing needs. With MarketerHire’s in-house support and vetting process, you can start working with quality freelancers quickly and painlessly, which is just what you need when you’re looking for talented performance marketers that can elevate your online presence.
- Read out MarketerHire Review
2. Fiverr
Best for companies looking to complete smaller, low-complexity projects with affordable but talented freelancers.
Fiverr is a well-known marketplace that makes it easy to hire freelancers on an as-needed basis for jobs of various scales and difficulties. It’s easy to get the hang of: just log on to Fiverr, filter down to your specific niche and project type, and browse the many highly qualified and surprisingly affordable freelance services that appear in the search results.
Unlike some other freelance platforms, Fiverr focuses on small-scale projects – think gigs posted at as little as $5 a pop rather than thousand-dollar jobs. Though many freelancers do offer recurring contract options and multiple tiers of service, Fiverr still differentiates itself with the quick-hit, low-cost, fast-turnaround jobs.
None of this is an issue with finding great performance marketing freelancers to work with on Fiverr. In fact, a quick search yields plenty of impressive, well-rated freelancers who can give you the leg up on your performance marketing strategy.
As we’ve mentioned in other articles, Fiverr has long appealed to us for its ease of use and impressive diversity of high-quality freelance talent. And for the ultimate peace of mind, there’s also Fiverr Pro, a premium spinoff of the original concept. With the Pro program, freelancers are already vetted by qualified Fiverr experts, thus offering an extra layer of confidence to any service you might buy through the site. It’s the perfect way to hire known freelancers that have established success providing freelance Performance marketing.
- Read our Fiverr Review
3. Mayple
Best for businesses looking for a provider that offers quality freelance talent in an agency-like arrangement for an affordable, transparent price.
Mayple is out to blend the best aspects of the traditional marketing agency with the new freelance marketing economy. How do they pull it off? By offering top talent the opportunity to work with their high-profile clients on performance marketing strategies big and small.
It’s important to note that freelancers and clients aren’t paired up at random, but through a strategic, data-driven matching algorithm that takes into account more than 25 factors, ranging from personality type to prior work experience. Their goal is to find someone with the right background, talent, and working style for your needs. You can typically expect to be matched with a freelancer within three days of submitting your profile. This approach clearly has merit: the company boasts a 92 percent success rate regarding the efficacy of client/freelancer matches.
Because their freelance talent pool includes experienced performance marketers who have spent time working on Google Ad campaigns, social media management, and other relevant digital niches, this agency is a prime candidate to consider for your paid media needs.
The best part? Unlike so many of their competitors, pricing is transparent. You’ll pay anywhere from $1,850 to $17,500 a month depending on your currently monthly media budget. It’s a refreshingly clear-cut tiered pricing model that its competitors could learn from – and you will benefit from.
- Read our Mayple Review
4. GrowTal
Best for growth-oriented businesses looking to work with thoroughly vetted freelancers who know your niche as well as you do.
Want to work with freelancers but don’t feel like you have the time to vet each one individually until you find a perfect fit? Try Growtal. It’s claim to fame is that it finds you the perfect freelancer for your job using their pool of pre-vetted candidates. These free-agent marketers often boast a large, diverse portfolio of prior results and typically come from a background of extensive experience with renowned agencies and companies. Simply put, they know their stuff – and leverage GrowTal to connect with new clients and deliver more outstanding work.
How does GrowTal find such top talent? A four-step vetting process that is as thorough as it is impressive. It begins with a review of an applicant’s online profile and culminates with an in-depth interview that is designed to gauge the candidate’s skill level, professionalism, and abilities.
The final call on whether or not to accept a freelancer onto the platform is made by a seasoned pro within the particular marketing vertical that an applicant is interested in. Any hopeful freelancer looking to find work through this agency will need to impress these subject matter experts first before getting access to GrowTal’s clients.
If you need more proof to give GrowTal a call, consider that their stats claim an average 62 percent savings rate for companies who choose to work with their pre-vetted freelancers over hiring someone in-house. It’s a compelling data point that underscores why a company like GrowTal can’t be overlooked as you find the perfect performance marketing staffing solution.
- Read our GrowTal Review
5. Upwork
Best for businesses that want to work directly with freelance talent for projects big and small.
Upwork is one of the biggest names in online freelance work, and there’s plenty of freelance Performance marketing specialists in its ranks. With so many experts onsite eager to share their know-how, you’ll have no trouble finding the perfect freelancer for your performance marketing needs regardless of your niche or expectations.
We think Upwork is the ideal solution for clients who have a clear vision of what they want from a performance marketing campaign and aren’t afraid to hire and vet freelancers on their own. Luckily, the robust Upwork rating and review program makes it easy to see who knows their stuff and who doesn’t.
Hiring through Upwork is a great way to save money compared to a traditional firm, as you’ll be able to work directly with freelancers for only the work you need done – there’s no extra add-ons or other fluff that an agency may try to bundle into a contract. If you’re planning to kick off a short-term campaign that’s strictly within the realm of performance marketing, we recommend at least browsing your Upwork options before committing to a typical agency service.
- Read our Upwork Review
Types of Digital Marketing Agencies
What Is a Performance Digital Marketing Agency?
A performance digital marketing agency offers online advertising services that only have you pay when the campaign returns certain agreed-upon results. This allows you to leverage the power of digital and eliminate the chance you pay for ineffective advertising. After all, Google knows exactly how many people see ads, click ads, and even proceed to buy something after clicking an ad.
Exploiting this data enables advertisers to pay based on outcomes, significantly improving ROI per impression, click, lead, or any other relevant metric. And who crafts these campaigns and maximizes your pay-per-click strategy? Performance marketing agencies.
Many agencies bundle their performance marketing programs with other digital solutions as well, as a cost-per-click strategy is a core piece of any modern marketing plan. For our part, we’ve tried to highlight primarily performance marketing agencies, but many of these top-rated firms also offer many other services you can take advantage of.
What Does a Performance Marketing Agency Do?
A Performance marketing agency leverages Google data to target ads toward shoppers the algorithms perceive may be interested in your product or service. These ads are crafted by a specialized digital marketing team and monitored for performance. They’ll set them up so that they can track a user’s interaction with the ad and compile data on impressions, clicks, and more. That data becomes the basis for how much you pay for the service.
An important point to note is that while all Performance marketing professionals will know some level of digital marketing, not all marketers will know how Performance marketing works. Forget this and you could end up working with someone who professes digital marketing knowledge but doesn’t have a clue about building an effective PPC or CPC campaign. This is especially important to keep in mind when hiring freelancers or an agency for the job.
How Much Does a Performance Marketing Agency Charge?
That’s hard to say. Performance marketing is all about paying based on the effectiveness of your ads – that means the price not only can fluctuate wildly between companies and agencies but also from campaign to campaign. A better question would be: how can performance marketing affect the ROI of my marketing budget?
Because pricing for this digital strategy is so tied up with performance, it is highly likely that you’ll spend less per lead with an effective performance marketing campaign than just about any type of traditional approach. Of course, when choosing providers and agencies, be sure to review the rates per click and any other fees and expenses. Rates can fluctuate between agencies, so do your homework and ask the hard questions on the exploratory calls.
FAQs
Is it worth it to hire a performance marketing agency?
Generally, yes. These agencies will grow the reach of your brand through targeted ads that ultimately save you money on a per-click basis. Hiring a specialist in this can let them work out the logistics of your campaign as you focus on what you do best: developing your product or service.
How do I choose a performance marketing agency?
Start with a list like the one above, then determine what your needs and budget are. If you only want some light PPC work done, consider an independent freelancer. Looking for a bit more support, such as deep analytics and a robust, multi-channel campaign? Consider a traditional agency or a firm that contracts out vetted freelancers ready to take on more serious projects.
Which performance marketing agency is best for small businesses?
For small businesses, we’d recommend starting with Upwork or Fiverr. Why? Because of ease of use and price point. You can easily start finding someone to help with establishing some initial paid campaigns before jumping into anything more serious. When you’re ready to take things up a notch, contract with a dedicated agency.
Claire Fountain
