Brand marketing vs performance marketing: What you need to know

TL;DR

Performance marketing is focused on immediate, measurable results (sales, clicks), and is more of a short-term strategy that uses tactics like PPC (pay-per-click), affiliate marketing, and SEO. 

For example: A Facebook ad campaign selling summer dresses with "20% off" that tracks cost per purchase.

On the other hand, brand marketing is more of a long-term strategy and focuses more on company values and identity. It mainly uses storytelling, content, and experiences, though it’s harder to measure its direct impact.

For example: Nike’s inspirational TV commercials don’t push one specific product but focus on the feeling the brand brings to the consumer.

What is performance marketing?

This is the “let’s see the numbers” approach – performance marketing focuses on measurable results, with each campaign tracked and optimized for specific goals, such as revenue and conversions.

Core elements of performance marketing include paid ads and conversion tracking, as well as an immediate impact: if you don’t have results in days, rather than months, you can tweak or remove the campaign.

This strategy is great for driving traffic, generating leads, and increasing short-term revenue but, without a strong brand, it’s hard to have staying power.

Real examples of performance marketing

In addition to the examples you’ll find in our previous article on the matter, here are companies using this tactic successfully:

Airbnb

The company implemented a referral program where both the referrer and the referred user receive credits. This worked because Airbnb invested in personalized invites, A/B tested to refine their messaging, and optimized incentives for different user segments.

Results were easy to measure: bookings and user acquisition increased.

Dollar Shave Club

An oldie but goodie. The company’s iconic “Our Blades Are F*ing Great” video, which launched on YouTube in combination with retargeting ads for conversion worked because of the humor – a lot of people who saw it ended up subscribing. 

In fact, they got 12,000 signups and 2 million views after 48 hours.

HelloFresh

Relying mostly on paid social and influencer marketing, HelloFresh used Instagram, YouTube, and podcast ads to drive subscriptions.

This included discounted trial offers and a great experience from ad to signup. The results? They became one of the biggest (if not the biggest) meal kit companies out there.

TikTok

Who hasn’t heard of “TikTok made me buy it” ads? This strategy focuses on performance-driven ads featuring trending products that people are already sharing organically.

This works because it leverages native-style ads, influencer partnerships, and AI-driven ad targeting, and it generates millions in sales for many brands, including CeraVe and e.l.f. Cosmetics.

Netflix

Personalization is once again huge, as Netflix also uses personalized emails, push notifications, and retargeting ads to reduce churn and increase subscriptions.

People engage with their marketing because of the personalization, predictive recommendations, and FOMO-inducing content teasers.

The results include increased engagement, minimized cancellations, and retention of millions of customers.

What is brand marketing?

"Brand is the holistic sum of customers' experiences, composed of visual, tonal, and behavioral brand components, many of which are shaped by interaction design." – Kate Kaplan, Insights Architect at Nielsen Norman Group

On the flip side, brand marketing is a longer game. How is your business perceived? What is its reputation? In essence, this is the process of shaping and promoting your identity and values in a way that creates lasting connections (including emotional) with customers.

Brand marketing is all about ensuring people remember you for all the right reasons.

You’ll want to tell your brand’s narrative and why you exist and make people feel something about your brand – in addition, think logos, colors, and slogans that stick. Customers should want to come back, not just buy once.

While you don’t really have immediate results with brand marketing, using this strategy strengthens your position in the market, meaning you’ll find it easier to sell without having to constantly run ads.

Real examples of brand marketing

Spotify

Spotify’s Wrapped campaign is a huge success. Not only does it focus on personalization by providing users with insights into their music habits (which immediately grabbed people’s attention), but it also became a viral annual event copied by other companies, like YouTube Recap.

Wrapped is a great example of brand marketing as it vastly increased engagement and word-of-mouth for Spotify.

Red Bull

The Stratos Space Jump is as far from performance marketing as you can be.

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner ascended to the stratosphere in a pressurized capsule attached to a huge helium balloon before jumping in a freefall dive that broke many records (including the highest freefall jump and the first person to break the sound barrier in freefall).

Not only did the jump provide valuable data for NASA, but this is also one of the most successful brand marketing campaigns ever. The live-streamed event had over 9.5 million people watching and resulted in plenty of attention for Red Bull.

Old Spice

“The man your man could smell like” was another incredibly popular brand marketing campaign, in which humor and direct engagement on socials (with the company replying to tweets) helped revive an older brand. Within months, sales went up by 125%.

Nike

“Just Do It” is another iconic campaign. It put Nike in people’s minds, even if they weren’t sports stars, and it really showcases the difference between brand marketing and performance marketing.

This strategy doesn't focus on selling shoes – instead, the company sold a mindset of determination, resilience, and self-belief; it was all about overcoming odds and pushing limits, which resonated with a lot of people.

Here’s the first ever “Just Do It” ad in 1988:

Dove

Instead of selling a specific product, Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaigns challenged unrealistic beauty standards and focused on everyday, relatable women.

They increased the trust people had in their brand and boosted their revenue while creating a cultural conversation and avoiding pushing products.

Do you need both brand and performance marketing?

In short, yes. Focusing just on brand marketing without performance marketing can leave you with a great reputation but no sales pipeline.

On the other hand, if you rely only on performance marketing, you might drive results in the short run but, without a solid brand, people might not stick around.

Finding the right mix depends on your business goals, budget, and audience.

When to choose brand marketing vs performance marketing?

If you’re a new startup, you might want to lean more into performance marketing to gain traction quickly, whereas if you're already an established brand, then storytelling and investing in long-term relationships can pay off a lot more.

Of course, there are also industry-specific considerations. If you’re an ecommerce company, your tactics will look quite different from a luxury brand’s.

So, when to pick brand marketing?

• If you’re early-stage or a growing brand that needs to establish credibility before expecting conversions.
• Premium brands where perception impacts willingness to pay (e.g., Apple, Tesla).
• Markets with long buying cycles, like B2B SaaS or real estate, where trust is key.
• When launching in new markets, especially because you need awareness before getting sales.

And when should you focus on performance marketing?

• E-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands that need immediate sales.
• Startups with limited budgets looking for fast revenue to reinvest.
• Product launches and seasonal promotions where urgency is of the utmost importance.
• When testing new markets, since you can quickly validate product-market fit.
• Subscription businesses looking to optimize acquisition cost vs. lifetime value.

In short: Brand marketing vs. performance marketing

Here’s a comparison table highlighting the key elements of both:

Conclusion

Performance marketing is like a sales rep looking to close deals today, while brand marketing is like building a reputation that makes people want to do business with you over years.

Blending both strategies helps you create a marketing approach that drives results and builds a lasting brand.

Marketing is always changing, with new tech, fierce competition, and customer expectations making it a must for you to stay ahead of the curve. 

We’re building a report that’ll make sense of all the changes, help you to adapt and succeed even in uncertain times, and show where marketing is headed next – so, take our survey and give us your insights to help us in this mission.