Top Performance Marketing Agencies (2024)

Updated: March 18, 2024

This guide will cover the best performance marketing agencies, how to choose them, the main performance marketing channels, and how you stand to benefit from using performance marketing agencies.

Performance marketing is a form of advertising in which the advertiser only pays a platform for achieved results, such as clicks or conversions. This marketing concept, therefore, ensures a more efficient mobile campaign without wasting budget or resources.

Performance marketing enables you to monitor your mobile ad spend closely and reassign it (where and when necessary). Mobile marketers only pay for results and can track their performance with various tools, including advanced analytics.

With performance marketing, mobile digital campaigns are easily measurable too, and app installs and conversions truly count–the concept flips the traditional marketing model on its head.

In fact, performance marketing agency The Social Shepherd acquired over 146,000 new customers using Facebook Ads and increased the return on ad spend by 87% for Beebombs.

Performance marketing agencies themselves are able to help marketers and app owners optimize their online marketing spend, use data-driven results, and get brands in front of qualified audiences as effectively as possible.

As the mobile app market continues to grow, finding the best performance marketing agencies is important. That’s why we’ve listed the experts in our directory below. Let’s explore the benefits of working with top performance marketing agencies and find out who the best players are in the industry.

What is performance marketing?

It’s a form of marketing where the advertiser only pays for completed actions. Performance marketing is a broad term that refers to both online marketing and advertising programs. Mobile marketers and app owners pay marketing companies for app installs, conversions, and qualified leads.

Performance marketing itself breaks down into two main types. They are as follows:

  1. The digital marketing strategy that’s driven by results; in other words, payment depends on how users interact with your mobile app.
  2. The digital marketing format in which brands only pay when there are measurable results. For example, when a user clicks or installs your mobile app. These results can include direct sales and qualified leads.

Featured Performance Marketing Agencies

Unlike traditional advertising, where fees are paid upfront and don’t depend upon the success of ads, mobile marketers use performance marketing to pay for successful transactions. Performance marketing reverses the traditional value proposition of marketing and advertising and allows for real-time ROI measurement.

With global mobile ad spending projected to reach $413 billion by 2024, app owners and marketers must be able to stay competitive in a cost-effective manner; this is particularly true when there are budgetary constraints to consider. Performance marketing is a highly effective and proven solution to this predicament.

What are the main performance marketing channels?

There are six main types of performance marketing that agencies and mobile app marketers can use to drive traffic and achieve app installs, and new channels are constantly being developed. We’ve detailed them below for you.

Native ads

Mobile native advertising is similar to desktop native advertising in that it comprises sponsored content, social media ads, and in-feed ads. The primary difference is that desktop devices often get used at work for professional purposes. In contrast, mobile devices are more generally used for personal activities, which makes them a particularly effective place for native ads to reach new users.

Native ads take on a natural, non-intrusive state and appear natively on web pages and platforms; they are dynamically chosen based on each user viewing the mobile content. Mobile users are more accepting of these ads as they don’t disturb the user experience and allow you to promote your brand in a way that feels natural.

Google Ads

Search engine marketing, especially via Google Ads, can achieve great results with a measurable return on investment. Google Ads enable you to bid on specific keywords in order for clickable ads to appear in Google’s search engine results. These ads are scalable, and the conversion intent is generally higher, with results more immediate.

Search engine marketing 

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the process of advertising across search engine results pages (known as SERPS).

Paid search engine ads often rank higher than unpaid organic listings at the top of the SERP. Search engine marketing places targeted advertisements in front of relevant mobile users. Tools such as the aforementioned Google Ads enable mobile marketers to define a precise demographic, target keyword, and campaign budget.

Social media marketing

Performance marketing agencies often utilise the power of social media platforms as they can reach mobile users and drive them to your mobile app. Mobile users can share sponsored content quickly and organically, which only helps to extend the content’s reach. Facebook Ads has an extensive list of services that performance marketers use, but additional platforms such as LinkedIn Ads and Twitter offer many opportunities as well.

Performance marketing agency example

Source: Moburst

Affiliate marketing 

Another performance marketing channel is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a form of digital marketing that is affiliated with the advertiser and paid out after the desired action, such as an app install, takes place. This form of marketing typically involves partnering with coupon, loyalty, review and incentive sites and may include working with a popular influencer, like a well-known YouTuber or professional blogger.

Programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising is where ads are targeted specifically to mobile users who are likely to be interested in your brand and product. Programmatic technology allows advertisers to serve ads to users based on their interests, demographics, cookie data, and browser activity. Simplified: AI and machine learning are used to buy ads in real time rather than via pre-set prices and standard human negotiations.

What are performance marketing agencies?

Performance marketing agencies are businesses that offer a comprehensive range of channels and services that can be utilized to build successful mobile marketing campaigns. The best performance marketing agencies provide years of experience, global reach, and access to results-driven data as well as publisher relationships on an impressive scale.

Performance marketing agency example

Source: Target

These agencies often specialize in specific areas of marketing, for example, in affiliate marketing or SEO. The best performance marketing agencies provide a full suite of personalized services for each client, along with customized strategies designed to drive revenue and growth; they achieve results that help you reach your mobile app marketing goals.

Services typically include the following:

  1. Search engine marketing: Provides SEO, keyword integration, and ads on key search engines like Google and Bing
  2. Native advertising: They design pages to strategically position mobile ads
  3. Social media advertising: They increase visibility and traffic on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram
  4. Affiliate marketing: They partner with other businesses and brands that can market your mobile app
  5. Display marketing: They develop brand aesthetics and design and format images, videos, and banner ads

By assessing ad performance when using performance marketing agencies, businesses can earn a higher return on investment with a lower risk factor applied. When you know what works best for your brand, you can create a targeted marketing strategy that maximizes your mobile app’s reach.

How can I benefit from performance marketing agencies?

Partnering with performance marketing agencies enables you to market your mobile apps and expand your reach efficiently. Some of the most significant benefits include how good they are for your budget, the ease with which you can track your mobile marketing campaigns, the ability to advertise to a segmented audience, and the low risk involved.

Low-risk factor

There’s less risk when you use performance marketing agencies and the mobile marketing campaigns they design. As you only pay for completed actions, you genuinely get what you pay for with these agencies. The types of marketing campaigns are flexible, and you can adjust your mobile budget as and when needed. You can even pause your performance marketing campaigns as desired, in most cases, simply by contacting the company.

Audience-specific advertising

Using performance marketing agencies, app marketers can advertise directly to a specific audience, allowing them to measure the overall effectiveness within highly targeted groups. Performance marketing agencies help design and improve your mobile advertising strategies to find the best fit for your app.

Performance marketing agency example

Source: Incubeta

Easy tracking

Performance marketing agencies give you access to dedicated mobile marketing tools so you can see how many leads are being converted (and from where); for example, this could be a user installing your mobile app or the measurement of sales and qualified leads. App owners are able to gain a good idea of their ongoing ROI and can evaluate the success of both small and larger mobile marketing campaigns with greater ease.

Budget efficiency

Performance marketing agencies are good for your budget; you only pay them when you receive results. They’re cost-effective and focus squarely on a results-driven strategy. Performance marketing agencies enable you to identify your goals and negotiate the ideal rate for each completed action.

How to choose top performance marketing agencies?

Choosing the best performance marketing agencies is essential for achieving your mobile marketing goals. When selecting a performance marketing agency, it’s important to consider the agency’s experience and track record in the industry, including their ability to provide valuable insights into mobile user behaviour. We’ve listed some other critical areas to consider below.

Efficient attribution and monitoring of ad performance 

Effective monitoring and reporting on the performance of your mobile ads will determine a large part of your success. Therefore it’s crucial to look for performance marketing agencies that offer leading mobile attribution and customer data platforms, as well as tools that can help you track mobile ad performance metrics.

Performance marketing agencies must provide key insights into your mobile campaigns with efficient attribution.

Brand protection

The best mobile performance marketing agencies will ensure that your brand name and reputation stay protected from harmful or inappropriate content when advertising online. They should offer leading tools such as automated trackers that prevent your brand from appearing in undesirable locations, as well as flag cases where your app has been modified with malicious code.

Performance marketing agency example

Source: Directive

Specialize in multiple channels and content strategies

Performance marketing agencies specialise in distinct performance channels, so it’s vital to think about which is most significant to you. For instance, some performance marketing companies focus on SEO, while others offer years of expertise in paid advertising, CRO, or mobile web design. The best performance marketing agencies offer sophisticated content strategies and make use of fine-tuned growth strategies.

Recommendations and reviews

You should look for a performance marketing agency with a proven track record of success, one whose mobile marketing campaigns are analogous to yours. Ensuring they have the resources and expertise to manage your mobile campaigns effectively is important. Be sure to check out recommendations and reviews to arrive at the best one for you.

Partner with top performance marketing agencies 

Using performance marketing enables app owners and mobile marketers to effectively measure their campaign results as well as their return on investment. App owners can employ this form of marketing by using top performance marketing agencies that facilitate more efficient use of mobile ad budgets and let them target specific audiences.

Performance marketing agencies shift the focus from ad impressions to user actions, leading to more meaningful and relevant advertising experiences. These agencies will also ensure that your brand name and reputation stay protected from negative or inappropriate content when advertising online and flag cases where your app has been modified with malicious code.

Overall, app marketers are able to reach their audience at scale, with payments only being made to advertising providers when business objectives are met. Below we’ve put together for you a list of the best performance marketing agencies.

List of performance marketing agencies

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