Brand or performance marketing: What if you could have both?

It’s one of the greatest marketing dilemmas there is. How much should you spend on brand vs performance. The temptation for start-ups is to pile in to performance for a quick return, but is that truly sustainable in the long run? Anyone can buy a sale – it’s just at what cost.

Building a brand takes time and investment because it requires marketers to establish a deep and profound relationship with customers. We’ve all seen stats which highlight the benefits associated with brand building, but here’s some recent studies:

• An average of 70% of people say they buy from brands that share their values or personal beliefs. (Forbes)

• 7 in 10 customers will buy more from brands they trust (Adobe)

• Over 50% of customers will buy from a brand with a strong personality (Adzooma)

So, if the alignment of values, trust building, and developing a strong brand personality take time, money and effort, why don’t you just run performance campaigns?

The cost of ignoring brand

Recent analysis from WARC and Marketing Week underscores a clear trend: companies that focus solely on lower funnel performance marketing are failing to lay the foundations for long-term growth. Les Binet and Peter Field’s work in this area shows that a 60/40 split between brand and performance investment often yields the best results over time. Yet, CMOs under pressure from short-term KPIs and shrinking budgets are often tempted to flip that ratio.

The result? A weakening brand presence that erodes pricing power, customer loyalty, and long-term revenue potential.

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Why performance still matters

That said, performance marketing remains a critical component of any smart strategy. It drives immediate conversions, measurable outcomes, and agility.

Performance marketing excels at capturing intent-driven demand at the lower end of the funnel. Think paid search and retargeting - channels that push users to take specific actions like buying a product, signing up for a service, or downloading content.

In tough economic times, many brands double down on performance tactics, hoping for short-term gains. While this might boost quarterly numbers, it often fails to create lasting differentiation or consumer preference. As Roach notes, “Performance alone cannot drive growth - it converts demand; it doesn’t create it.”

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So, when should you use each?

Here’s a simplified way to approach it:

Use brand marketing when:

• You’re launching a new product or brand and need to build awareness from scratch.

• You want to change perception or position yourself in a new market.

• You’re building long-term preference or emotional loyalty.

• Your goal is to drive mental availability for future buying decisions.

• You’re operating in a low-demand period but want to maintain visibility.

Brand marketing is a long game, but it pays off by reducing acquisition costs over time, increasing customer lifetime value, and giving you pricing power.

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Use performance marketing when:

• You have immediate business goals like hitting a sales target or filling a webinar.

• You’re targeting users who are already showing purchase intent (e.g. searching for your product).

• You need granular measurement and fast optimisation.

• Your product or service is in a mature category, and users are familiar with it.

Performance marketing is perfect for driving action, but it’s most effective when the audience is already aware of and interested in your brand, which is something brand marketing helps ensure.

What if you could do both in the same campaign?

Branded content is where performance marketing and brand marketing intersect. With UK adults spending up to a quarter of their waking day on the internet, online branded content has become ever more important for both awareness and conversion – the days of buying purely offline media for brand are gone.

Online branded content leverages the credibility of trusted editorial environments and is delivered in an entertaining, informative and engaging way, so that consumers are happy to view and share it of their own volition.

The best online branded content is optimised for on-site actions, to achieve those desired performance outcomes. But it’s also written to encourage readers to engage and spend time with your brand.

When the two work together, the result is more efficient performance and stronger brand equity. Brands that maintained investment in both brand and performance during the last economic downturn emerged stronger than those who cut brand budgets to chase short-term results.