Performance vs Brand: The surprising way to win both in one campaign
End the tug of war: one funnel that feeds brand and performance
Stop treating awareness and conversions like feuding cousins. Merge them into a single funnel that intentionally moves people from curiosity to purchase while leaving a trail of brand signals behind. The trick is to design touchpoints that are memorable enough to build preference and measurable enough to teach your bidding and creative algorithms.
Start by mapping one narrative thread across the funnel: a hero idea that adapts rather than flips. Top-funnel creatives should be bold and simple; mid-funnel formats should deepen the story and capture micro-conversions; bottom-funnel assets must be crisp and trust-building. At every stage, tag the creative with the same campaign ID and a shared audience pool so learning compounds instead of fragmenting.
Operationally, make three changes this week: consolidate budgets into grouped campaigns so spend nudges the same audience, expose your best-performing creatives to higher-funnel cohorts, and treat lift tests as a regular health check rather than a quarterly drama. Pair qualitative brand metrics (salience, recall) with performance metrics (CTR, CPA) and let one inform the other in real time.
- 🆓 Awareness: Bold storytelling that seeds preference and collects attention signals.
- 🐢 Consideration: Sequential education that captures engagement and micro-commitments.
- 🚀 Conversion: Clear, trust-forward offers that close the loop and feed back learnings.
When you stop pulling in opposite directions and instead orchestrate one funnel, campaigns become engines of both growth and meaning. Iterate fast, don't fetishize purity, and let your data and brand voice have a friendly argument—the winner is always the customer.
Budget jiu jitsu: split spend smart without splitting results
Think like a budgeting ninja: your dollars should grapple, not split. Instead of carving separate trenches for brand and performance, create a shared war chest that flows where momentum lives. Start by routing the heavy lifting—awareness creatives, broad audiences, and reach—through one pool, and let a performance pocket chase conversions with tighter bids. That approach keeps your creative voice unified while letting each tactic play to its strength.
Make the allocation dynamic, not dogmatic. Try a 60/40 launch split toward brand to build scale quickly, then swing to 30/70 toward performance as you collect learning signals. Use sequencing so the same creative system moves users down the funnel: high-CPM brand buys seed interest, mid-funnel retargeting warms, and low-CPA tactics close. Measure by cohorts and time windows so you can reallocate weekly based on real momentum, not guessing.
Keep the plumbing smart: shared creative libraries, unified UTM standards, and a single KPI dashboard that shows Brand CPM, Funnel CTR, and Conversion ROAS side by side. When a channel spikes in efficiency, shift incrementally—take 10 to 20 percent chunks, watch the signal, then move again. This is budget jiu jitsu: use small, timely adjustments to turn limited spend into outsized results without fracturing your narrative.
Creative with a double engine: build assets that convert and compound
Think of creative as a two cylinder engine where one cylinder fires for immediate conversions and the other purrs to build memory and long term value. Start by sketching modular templates, data driven hooks, and a few shoppable moments that can be remixed across formats. Design distinct assets for performance tasks and for compounding brand signals so reporting stays clean and insights travel faster.
Practical toolkit: craft modular components that recombine across formats and platforms. Start with these asset archetypes and make them reusable:
- 🆓 Hook: three variant openers under three seconds that stop thumbs and separate audience segments for fast A B tests
- 🚀 Drive: a 15 second conversion focused cut with one clear CTA, tight offer messaging, and pixel friendly landing logic
- 💥 Layer: a 30 to 60 second brand piece that expands the why, builds context for retargeting, and performs in organic playlists
Operationalize it: map each asset to a funnel KPI, batch shoot scenes to save time, atomize cuts and captions, then run small test cells to identify winners. Track short term CPA and longer term signals like view through engagement and search lift, reallocate budget weekly to assets that both convert and compound, and schedule creative refreshes before fatigue bites. Treat creative as infrastructure and let compounding do the heavy lifting.
Targeting that does it all: audiences, placements, and pacing that lift both
Think of targeting as a multitool: layer audiences, placements, and pacing so creative and data work together. Start by mapping business goals to audience behaviors — not just demographics, but moments: discovery, consideration, and intent. That lets you pick placements that amplify emotional reach and conversion-ready inventory. When audiences and placements align, brand salience rises as conversion paths shorten; it's the sweet spot where both KPIs climb.
Build an audience stack: seed with high-value CRM and microsegments, expand with measured lookalikes, and keep a tight retargeting ring for recent engagers. Use short sequences that serve story-led creative to cold cohorts, then punch with product-focused messages to warm ones. Measure with overlapping windows: 7- and 28-day views and clicks to catch different buyer rhythms. Small tests of creative+audience combos reveal the multiplier effects.
Placement isn't an afterthought. Optimize assets for each surface — short, caption-first cuts for stories, longer hooks for in‑feed and CTV, and static variants for contextual inventory. Let the creative breathe where attention is highest; use viewability and sound-on metrics to graduate creatives through the funnel. Apply soft guards — frequency caps and exclusion lists — so reach grows without annoying your audience or wrecking brand sentiment.
Pacing is the conductor: start with a brand-forward tempo to charge awareness, then shift budget toward performance signals as audiences warm. Use automated rules to move spend from CPM-driven reach to CPA-focused units when leading indicators (VCR, CTR, add-to-cart) hit thresholds. Keep a small always-on testbed to surface new winners. In short, orchestrate data, creatives, and tempo so they don't compete — they harmonize.
Proof that sticks: KPIs, tests, and timing to keep everyone happy
Start by choosing metrics that give both teams something to celebrate: one north‑star plus two to three leading indicators. Pair a brand lift or view‑through rate with a short term conversion metric like cost per lead or add to cart. Map each KPI to a concrete action — what to pause, what to scale, and what learning to record after each flight.
Treat every campaign like a lab experiment: run A/B creative tests, audience splits, and true holdout groups so you can see causation not just correlation. Predefine sample size and success thresholds, set conversion and attribution windows that match customer purchase cycles, and catalog every variant so analysis is fast and repeatable when results land.
Timing matters: flight length, creative refresh cadence, burn rate, and reporting rhythm all shape perception. Move fast enough to get statistical power but slow enough to detect brand lift; a common pattern is two week micro‑tests feeding a 90 day brand study. If you want to accelerate early social proof, consider real instagram followers fast as a tactical boost, then lean on test results to justify sustained spend.
When you present, keep it simple and decisive: show test setup and n, short term performance curves, and a 90 day brand pulse so both performance and brand stewards see value. Finish every report with one clear recommendation — scale, iterate, or sunset — and a short checklist: set a primary KPI, pick two secondaries, run a two week experiment, then recheck with a 90 day brand pulse.