Performance Media: How Marketing Leaders Turn Media Spend into Measurable Growth

10/12/25 // Digital Media

Written by: Simon

Performance media has moved from niche discipline to the operating system of modern marketing. For UK CMOs and Marketing Directors under pressure to prove ROI, it offers something rare: a way to connect media spend directly to measurable business outcomes.

Yet in 2026, “performance” is not just PPC and a few retargeting ads. It now spans search, social, retail media, programmatic, video, CRM and AI-driven optimisation, all sitting alongside brand-building activity.

This guide is written for growth-focused leaders who want to understand what high-performing performance media looks like today, how to balance it with brand, and how to brief the right performance media agency to deliver it.

What is Performance Media in 2026?

Performance media refers to paid activity where success is defined by specific, trackable actions such as clicks, leads, sales, subscriptions and bookings, and where campaigns are continually optimised to drive a better return on investment.In practice, performance media typically includes:

Paid search (including Performance Max and Demand Gen)
Paid social (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and others)
Programmatic display and video, including YouTube
Retail media networks (Amazon, Tesco, Boots and others)
Affiliate, partnership and lead-generation programmes
CRM, email and marketing automation with measurable outcomes

What distinguishes performance media from traditional brand advertising is not the channel itself, but the contract with the business: budget is allocated on the basis of measurable outcomes, not just reach or impressions.

Why Performance Media Matters More Than Ever in 2026

Across Europe, marketers are under intense pressure to prove revenue impact. Nielsen’s 2025 Europe in focus report shows that 59% of marketers in the region now focus on revenue growth, while 37% prioritise brand awareness as a primary or secondary objective. Digital channels are favoured specifically because of their measurability and perceived efficiency.

For UK CMOs, performance media matters because it:

Delivers accountable spend. Every pound can be tied back to leads, sales or other commercial outcomes.
Feeds the board narrative. CFOs and CEOs increasingly expect marketing dashboards to show contribution to revenue and profit, not just “exposure”.
Acts as a live research engine. Performance activity reveals which audiences, messages and products actually convert.
Integrates with AI. Bidding, audience expansion and even creative testing are now significantly AI-assisted. The job of the CMO is to set direction and guardrails, not micro-optimise bids.

At the same time, there is a risk. Performance is easy to measure, but not always the highest long-term value. Large-scale studies show that focusing purely on short-term returns can undercook total profit generated by advertising.

Brand vs Performance: The Balance That Actually Maximises Profit

One of the most robust pieces of evidence we now have comes from Profit Ability 2: The new business case for advertising, commissioned by Thinkbox and powered by econometric data across multiple sectors and media owners.

The study finds that:

Advertising overall delivers a short-term profit ROI of around £1.87 per £1 invested, rising to roughly £4.11 when long-term effects over 24 months are included.
TV advertising is responsible for over half (around 55%) of total advertising-generated profit, with an average full profit ROI of about £5.61 per £1 spent.
Online video, largely YouTube, also delivers strong long-term profit, at roughly £3.86 profit ROI per £1.

The implication for CMOs is clear: brand and performance are not competing investments. Brand activity (TV, online video, high-reach digital) builds long-term demand and pricing power. Performance media then harvests that demand efficiently.

The most effective brands tend to:

Allocate a majority of budget to long-term brand building, while protecting a meaningful performance layer.
Use performance media data such as search queries, retargeting performance and creative signals to refine brand messaging and positioning.
Measure success at both short-term revenue and long-term profit horizons.

This is where a joined-up strategic media planning approach matters. Performance should be designed into the communications system, not bolted on at the end.

Key Performance Media Channels CMOs Need to Master

1. Paid Search and Performance Max

Search remains the most powerful intent-capture mechanism in the market. For many brands, Google Ads (Search, Shopping and Performance Max) represent the single largest digital revenue driver.

In a recent Google Ads success story, contemporary womenswear brand Never Fully Dressed achieved an 890% overall return on ad spend (ROAS) in December 2022 by combining Performance Max and Dynamic Search Ads. More than 40% of its online revenue now comes through Google, and Google revenue grew 53% year-on-year following this approach.

For CMOs, the lesson is not simply “run Performance Max”, but:

Ensure first-party data and product feeds are clean and rich.
Use clear value-based bidding goals, such as target ROAS.
Complement “black box” automation with structured search campaigns for insight.

2. Paid Social and Full-Funnel Performance

Social remains a key performance driver. LOCALiQ’s 2025 UK digital marketing statistics show that a significant share of UK businesses still report their best ROAS from Meta platforms and other social channels, with Meta/Facebook,
TikTok and Google often emerging as top performers in survey responses.

Meta’s own learning series and case content frequently highlight examples where brands have achieved substantial ROAS uplifts and cost-per-acquisition reductions by shifting to full-funnel structures (prospecting plus retargeting, conversion API, value optimisation) rather than treating social as a simple last-click sales channel.

3. Retail Media Networks

Retail media has become one of the fastest-growing performance channels globally. For FMCG and retail
brands, networks such as Amazon Ads and UK supermarket media platforms now offer:

SKU-level targeting and measurement
Closed-loop attribution to in-store and online sales
High-intent shoppers close to point of purchase

Retail media behaves like performance media, but with far richer first-party data and
in-store visibility.

4. Programmatic Display, Video and YouTube

Programmatic has matured from “cheap impressions” into a highly targetable, privacy-aware
performance engine. YouTube in particular pulls double duty:

Upper-funnel brand storytelling, measurable via brand lift and attention metrics.
Down-funnel performance via YouTube for Action formats optimised to conversions.

In the Octopus Energy Google Ads success story, YouTube for Action campaigns delivered a 714% increase in views-through-to-conversions, alongside lifts in brand awareness and consideration. Feed-through to Search and other direct-response
activity contributed to strong acquisition volumes, supported by a 36% reduction in cost per acquisition after switching bidding strategy.

5. CRM, Email and Automation

CRM and marketing automation remain some of the most profitable performance channels because
they monetise known audiences at low marginal cost. When tied to product feeds and
behavioural triggers, lifecycle journeys such as welcome, nurture, win-back and replenishment
programmes can deliver very high incremental ROI with modest media investment.

What “Good” Performance Media Looks Like (Case Studies)

Case Study 1 – Never Fully Dressed (Google Ads, Fashion eCommerce)

Google’s official success story for Never Fully Dressed highlights how a fashion brand scaled revenue through Performance Max and Dynamic Search Ads:

890% overall ROAS in December 2022.
Google represents over 40% of online revenue.
53% year-on-year growth in Google revenue (2022 vs 2021).

Tactically, they:

Used Performance Max to surface long-tail product demand.
Layered Dynamic Search Ads to capture non-brand queries efficiently.
Applied value-based smart bidding, new-customer bid modifiers and negative keywords.

For CMOs, this illustrates how a clear performance strategy, with a clean feed, value-based bidding and
non-brand capture, can deliver outsized returns even in a crowded vertical.

Case Study 2 – Octopus Energy (Google Ads, High-Consideration Services)

In Google’s case study, Octopus Energy demonstrates that performance media can work in a complex, high-consideration category:

Over 2 million customers signed up with Google Ads as a core growth lever.
80% increase in domestic customers since the start of 2020.
2.6x revenue increase in the 2022 fiscal year.
36% reduction in cost per acquisition after switching bidding strategy.
YouTube for Action campaigns drove a 714% increase in views leading to conversions, as well as lifts in brand awareness and consideration.

This is a useful proof point for CMOs in B2C services and utilities. Performance media can build brand, shift consideration and drive direct acquisition at scale if you are prepared to test across Search, YouTube and automation features.

Case Study 3 – Industry-Level Evidence for Profit and ROAS

Beyond brand-specific examples, several large-scale studies provide direction on where performance and brand channels deliver profit:

Thinkbox’s Profit Ability 2 shows TV and online video delivering some of the highest long-term profit ROI, which is crucial context when deciding how much budget to devote purely to last-click performance media.
LOCALiQ’s UK digital marketing statistics report that UK businesses most frequently cite Meta, TikTok and Google Ads as the platforms delivering their best ROAS.
Nielsen’s 2025 Europe in focus article highlights that European marketers are heavily favouring digital channels because of their perceived measurability, while cautioning that ease of measurement does not always equal the highest long-term ROI.

These sources are particularly useful for PR and thought leadership, as they provide objective, third-party numbers you can quote and interpret in your own content.

The Metrics That Actually Matter to a CMO

A high-performing performance media strategy should be judged on a blend of commercial and channel metrics:

Commercial metrics

Revenue and profit contribution
Customer lifetime value (LTV)
LTV to CAC ratio
Incremental sales or leads versus baseline

Efficiency metrics

Cost per acquisition (CPA) or cost per lead (CPL)
Return on ad spend (ROAS) and marketing efficiency ratio (MER)
Cost per incremental outcome such as uplift in branded search or store visits

Funnel and experience metrics

Click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC)
On-site conversion rate and average order value
Landing page speed, bounce rate and time on site
Frequency, creative fatigue and attention time

The role of your performance media partner is not just to lower CPA, but to join these metrics up into a view that the board understands. That requires a more consultative approach than simple media buying. Many brands now expect their performance agency to behave like a commercial partner, not just a channel specialist.

How AI and LLMs Are Changing Performance Media in 2026

AI is reshaping both how campaigns are run and how decisions are made:

Platforms like Google Ads and Meta increasingly rely on AI-driven bidding and audience expansion. Manual “knobs and dials” are being replaced by setting the right objectives, signals and guardrails.
Many UK businesses are now planning to increase their use of AI for content creation, marketing automation and appearing in AI-generated search results, according to recent UK digital marketing research.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are starting to act as a front door to information, which means performance strategies must consider how brands appear in AI-generated answers, not just traditional SERPs.

For CMOs, the question becomes:
What do we keep in-house, what do we automate, and what do we entrust to a performance media agency?

At Media Performance,our bias is that AI should handle repetition and optimisation, while humans focus on:

Strategy and budget allocation across channels
Creative platforms and messaging
Measurement frameworks and incrementality testing
Bridging performance learnings into broader brand strategy

LLM-Style FAQs: Questions CMOs Ask About Performance Media

Is performance media just PPC?

No. Paid search is a core component, but performance media now spans social, programmatic, retail media, affiliates and CRM. If it is measured on outcomes and optimised to ROI, it sits under the performance umbrella.

How should I split budget between brand and performance?

There is no universal formula, but evidence from large-scale studies suggests that brands seeking sustainable growth benefit from a majority brand investment, often around 60 percent, combined with a significant performance layer of around 40 percent. Early-stage or highly tactical campaigns may temporarily skew more heavily towards performance.

What channels typically deliver the best ROAS?

It varies by category, but survey data from UK businesses shows many reporting their best ROAS from Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok and Google Ads. The more important question is: which combination of channels gives you the best incremental profit once brand effects are considered.

Will AI replace performance marketers?

AI will replace tasks, not marketers. Bid adjustments, simple testing and basic reporting will increasingly be automated. What AI cannot replace is commercial judgement, creative platform thinking and the ability to design test-and-learn programmes that make sense to a CFO.

What do I actually need from a performance media agency?

Beyond channel execution, you should expect:

Clear, board-level reporting that links media to revenue and profit.
Consultative advice on how to balance brand and performance spend.
Expertise across search, social, video, retail media and offline where relevant.
A joined-up way of working with your internal teams and other partners, not just siloed channel management.

If you want to explore that kind of partnership, this is how we work at Media Performance.

Conclusion: Building a Performance Media Engine That Will Still Work in 2027

Performance media in 2026 is about much more than chasing cheap leads. The brands that will still be growing profitably in 2027 and beyond will be those that:

Combine brand-building channels with a rigorous performance layer.
Use platform AI intelligently, without surrendering strategic control.
Measure success in terms of profit and customer lifetime value, not just last-click ROAS.
Continually test, learn and re-allocate across channels based on evidence.

If you are reviewing your approach to performance media and want a partner that can join the dots between full-service campaigns, strategic media planningand consultancy, this is exactly where we operate.

Sources and Further Reading

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