Performance marketing in 2025: which business needs it and which is contraindicated
There is a myth among entrepreneurs: "Performance marketing is when you pay only for real sales, and the agency takes all the risks upon itself". This is a dangerous misconception. The performance approach is marketing based on the mathematics of transactions. You pay for specific, measurable actions (CPA, CPL, CPI), based on strict end-to-end analytics.
Let’s look at in which areas performance burns out competitors, and in which areas it drains the company’s budget down the drain.
1. Ideal match: E-commerce and Retail
Why it works: The transaction cycle is short, the demand is hot, the entire customer journey (Customer Journey) is digitized from clicking on the banner to adding to the cart.
What the process looks like:
- End-to-end analytics is connected (Roistat / Yandex.Metrica e-commerce).
- Dynamic retargeting is being configured in Ya.Direct.
- The system calculates marginality and RRR (Share of Advertising Expenses). The algorithms are given a strict KPI: the cost of attracting an order should not exceed 800 rubles.
E-commerce without a performance approach simply cannot exist in 2025 due to the highest competition of marketplaces.
Free project cost estimate
Answer 4 questions and we will send you a range of prices to suit your needs.
1. What type of corporate website do you need?
2. Local business with hot demand (Services/B2C)
Examples: Car services, dentistry, urgent repairs, cleaning, food delivery, barbershops. Why it works: The client does not choose a tow truck for a week. He needs a favor here and now.
The usual SEO approach or PR articles will not work well here. Performance allows you to:
- Set up a hyperlocal target (3 km radius from the point).
- Launch contextual advertising only during times of peak demand or bad weather (for tire service).
- Pay strictly for calls (Call-tracking), and not for impressions (CPM).
3. Service B2B and IT Outstaffing
In the B2B segment, performance works differently. Here you don’t buy a deal right away, you buy a qualified lead (SQL - Sales Qualified Lead).
Tools:
- Targeted advertising for narrow B2B roles (CTO, Logistics Director) through Telegram Ads + landing pages.
- Lead magnets (Whitepapers): "Download the warehouse payback calculation table." A person leaves an email and phone number, after which he gets into the CRM funnel.
In B2B performance marketing is closely intertwined with the work of the sales department and requires integration with amoCRM or Bitrix24 to track the progress of leads to meetings.
Free SEO audit of your website
Leave a request and our specialists will find areas of search traffic growth.
Who is performance marketing contraindicated for?
If an agency offers you a “performance for a percentage of sales”, being in one of these niches, run away, you are being deceived:
- Goods or services outside the established demand. If you are selling a completely new technology (a neuro-headset collar for dogs), no one is looking for it in Yandex. Contextual advertising will give 0 clicks. You need Brand Marketing, Influencer Marketing and PR to generate demand.
- Сложный цикл сделки > 6 месяцев. Sale of industrial turbines or implementation of ERP systems for 50 million rubles. The decision is made by a committee of 10 people, and the deal takes a year to mature. It is impossible to measure which click led to a sale.
- Premium and Luxury. Nobody Googles “buy a yacht inexpensively at a discount.” Luxury sales are built on networking, private clubs and Brand Identity. Performance banners will only cheapen the brand image.
- Businesses without analytics and CRM. If requests are lost by managers on WhatsApp, and calls are not made via SIP telephony, any performance approach is pointless. The agency will bring in leads, but you won’t be able to prove who made them or how they converted.
Summary
Performance marketing is a turbine. For it to work, you must have a high-quality aircraft (Offer + Product) and working instruments (CRM + End-to-end Analytics).
B NBM-IT we don’t just “set up Yandex.Direct”. Before launching advertising campaigns, we implement end-to-end analytics, work out the funnel in your CRM and build a system where every invested ruble is transparently converted into revenue.