7 Performance Marketing Channels Driving ROAS in 2023

Find the ideal home for your next performance marketing campaign

Performance marketing means marketing with a specific goal in mind, but there are many ways to pursue that goal. You could experiment with the best creative to connect with users, modify your targeting parameters to find different demographics, or choose a range of metrics that reflect various measures of success. One of the most consequential choices for your campaign, and your business as a whole, is which performance marketing channels you use.

When you think about channels in marketing, a few typical examples likely come to mind: Facebook, Google, YouTube. These tried-and-tested avenues for reaching audiences have their place. But if you want your message to stand out where the right users are the most likely to engage with them, it’s time to broaden your horizons.

What Are Performance Marketing Channels?

Performance marketing channels are services that have the tracking technology necessary to sustain results-driven marketing campaigns, as well as the user base required to make them effective. Some categories of performance marketing examples include social media services, native blog posts meant to elevate your profile, and influencer marketing that attempts to align dedicated communities with brand content that makes sense for them.

It’s not just relative newcomers to the attention economy that can function as potent performance channels in marketing. While the constraints of linear TV meant it was formerly limited to traditional marketing campaigns, CTV means it’s now possible to achieve transparent and measurable results on the American household’s central screen. Read our report today if you’d like to learn more about how CTV advertising powers the performance TV revolution.

7 Performance-Driving Channels in Marketing

Looking for the right performance marketing channel for your next campaign? Consult this list of seven possibilities that stand out thanks to their dedicated audiences, unique engagement methods, and powerful tracking solutions.

TikTok

TikTok is the most downloaded app in the world, which should be enough to grab any marketer’s attention. But its short-form video content, delivered algorithmically to users in large part through their personalized “For You” feeds, makes it an especially potent performance marketing channel. TikTok users find ads on the platform especially “fun and entertaining,” and its TikTok Ads Manager platform encourages marketers to get creative with a range of easy-to-use formats and tools.

TikTok allows for targeting broken down by gender, location, interests, and beyond, and its partnership with third-party tracking companies means you can reliably measure what’s working and what isn’t.

• Potential pros: Ubiquity among younger audiences, a wide range of creative formats
• Potential cons: Limited access to older generations, potential disruption from the political climate

Twitch

While Twitch began as a platform for video game fans to broadcast their live play sessions — and it still bears those roots proudly — today it stands as a means for communities to connect with their favorite influencers across a range of interests. As these influencers have carved out new livelihoods on the platform, their fans have shown a persistent desire to show their support by engaging with advertisers and partners.

Twitch’s simple format of live feed and accompanying chat room has remained relatively consistent for more than a decade, but the quantity of integrations and engagement opportunities it presents for marketers is unique among video streaming platforms.

• • Potential pros: Dedicated audiences, supports a range of influencer and video ad campaigns
  • Potential cons: Some viewers leave streams on in the background, resulting in reduced engagement, Twitch’s audience heavily skews younger and male

Podcasts

More than half of all Americans aged 12 to 54 have listened to a podcast in the last month. Three-quarters of listeners report giving podcasts their full attention when they listen. This level of audience access paired with deep engagement is impossible to ignore, and modern podcast services offer an accessible way to bring your brand’s message into the equation.

You have no shortage of potential partners for podcast advertising, either — you could go straight to heavyweight delivery services such as Spotify, or partner with individual networks and shows that line up with your brand identity. Either way, look for opportunities that involve the hosts themselves discussing your brand to fully capitalize on their audience connection.

• • Potential pros: Frequently undivided attention, a nearly limitless range of potential partners
  • Potential cons: Industry instability even as listenership has remained consistent, uneven targeting and tracking potential

Web Discovery Feeds

Web advertising is no longer the domain of static banner ads and annoying interstitials. Instead, many brands are getting their message out on web discovery feeds powered by companies such as Outbrain and Taboola. You may or may not have heard the names before, but you’ve almost certainly seen their handiwork: the scrolling pages of related content that naturally slide in after you finish a news article or blog post, giving you a bounty of options to keep reading next.

These platforms offer a powerful way to share your message on prominent platforms where readers are naturally engaged, paired with powerful tracking options that help you follow them throughout the user journey.

• • Potential pros: Presence all across the web, strong targeting and tracking tools
  • Potential cons: Less-premium perception, need for proactive brand safety

Reddit

Seeking audiences who are passionate about pretty much anything? You’ll find them on Reddit. The community of communities is sustained by the enthusiasm of its users, who gather together to share, celebrate, and expand their love for everything from movies to memes (so many memes) to deciding who was the jerk in any given social interaction. Reddit Ads naturally lets you target users based on the communities they visit, but it also enables you to go deeper by specifying overall interests, keywords, and even communities you don’t want your message to appear on.

If your business has more than a handful of customers, there’s a good chance they’re already talking about you on Reddit. You may as well join them.

• • Potential pros: Highly engaged audience, community-building potential
  • Potential cons: Audiences require active handling, may be less positively disposed toward ads

Newsletters

We’ve covered hot new apps and longstanding online communities, but if ROAS is what you’re after, one of the best performance marketing channels to pursue is the humble email newsletter: One study found that email marketing typically yields an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent. Unlike social media services where your advertisements come and go at the whim of an algorithm, emails present a simple and creator-owned channel for reaching audiences.

All you have to do is find the right newsletter to work with, and the same techniques that allow for powerful tracking across web content can help you measure the ensuing impressions and conversions.

• • Potential pros: Flexible integration, transparent delivery and open rates
  • Potential cons: Targeting capabilities limited to newsletter’s audience, you could end up in the spam filter

Connected TV

A 2023 study found nearly nine in 10 US households have at least one internet-connected TV device, and 49% of U.S. adults watch video on a CTV device at least once daily. TV has long been one of the most reliable channels in marketing, and the CTV revolution is making it more measurable and accessible than ever before.

By combining the attention-grabbing focus of television with performance marketing metrics, CTV is driving results for top consumer brands as well as newcomers.

• • Potential pros: Widespread access to American households, viewers’ undivided attention
  • Potential cons: Need the right partner to ensure transparent, measurable performance

At tvScientific, we’re proud to have created the most sophisticated performance TV platform for growth marketers. Our uniquely in-depth targeting segments help you find the right audience at the right time, while our unified platform and real-time reporting ensure you only pay for the results you want.

If you’d like to learn more about building your next CTV advertising campaign with tvScientific, set up a demo today.