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Performance branding

Build Demand, Don’t Buy It

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author
Lukas Roeling
Head of Performance Branding & Digital Strategist

Three situations we encounter every week.

Why performance branding?

  • Your cost per click is rising every quarter

    The same volume every month for more money. That’s what happens when everyone bids on the same keywords and the same ad positions: you’re buying into existing demand, and that demand is finite.

  • You’re found but not chosen

    Without brand preference, you’re just one of the options in a comparison. Then price is the only differentiator, and you lose out to whoever can keep bidding the longest.

  • Without a budget, revenue grinds to a halt

    If you turn off the ads and revenue stops immediately, you haven’t built a brand—you’ve just rented demand. Growth that stops as soon as you stop paying isn’t growth.

Performance branding: creating demand instead of buying it

Performance marketing focuses on the bottom of the funnel—on the people who want to buy today. That works, but it’s the smallest segment of your market and exactly the segment where all your competitors are also bidding. So your costs rise without your reach growing.

The much larger group isn’t buying today but will buy in six months or two years. Research on purchasing behavior—published by the LinkedIn B2B Institute and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, among others—consistently shows that this segment is the largest. Those who are already well-known and credible among this group will eventually be chosen without the need for an ad. That’s where building brand awareness and driving performance come together.

You’ll be working with Lukas, who is responsible for performance at Redkiwi. He’ll allocate your budget between brand-building and activation, define the metrics for evaluating each component, and display both side by side in a dashboard that you can access yourself. This turns brand-building into a quantifiable expense you can account for, rather than a matter of faith.

  • 22+ year experience
  • 9,3 customer satisfaction
  • 55+ Kiwi specialists

What does performance branding entail?

Four layers. The budget allocation: how much goes toward brand building and how much toward activation, backed by your own data rather than a rule of thumb from a presentation. The brand story: a message that also resonates with those who aren’t currently buying, because a sales pitch won’t work on them. The execution: campaigns on the channels where that group is active, using images and video that are recognizable even without a logo on screen. And the measurement framework: brand search volume, direct traffic, and brand preference alongside your conversion figures, so you can see the effect of brand-building rather than just relying on it.

From Buying Clicks to Building Demand

The transition doesn’t happen all at once, and it shouldn’t. We’ll maintain your current activation levels while building on them, so revenue doesn’t drop off while the brand is still establishing itself. In the first few months, you’ll mainly see changes in reach and brand awareness; then brand search volume and direct traffic; and only after that will your advertising cost per order start to decrease. We agree on this sequence in advance, including when we expect to see each indicator. If that indicator doesn’t materialize, we’ll pivot. Demand generation isn’t a matter of faith but a series of steps, each with a checkpoint.

Three services that make brand-building feasible.

What performance branding relies on

Performance branding never stands alone. Your positioning determines what you have to say, your ad budget determines who sees it, and your content determines whether it sticks. We handle all three within the same team.

From baseline measurement to course correction in five steps.

How performance branding works at Redkiwi

  • 1. Baseline Measurement

    We assess your current status in terms of brand search volume, direct traffic, and cost per order. Without that baseline, you won’t be able to draw any conclusions later on.

  • 2. Budget Allocation

    We allocate the budget between brand building and activation based on your own metrics, and agree on the criteria for evaluating each component.

  • 3. Brand Story and Creative

    A message that resonates even with those who aren’t currently buying, developed into visuals and videos that are instantly recognizable without needing to show your logo.

  • 4. Execution alongside activation

    Campaigns on the channels where that audience is active, with your activation efforts maintained at a steady level so that revenue doesn’t drop during the build-up phase.

  • 5. Measure and adjust

    Brand metrics and conversion rates side by side in a single overview. If an expected signal fails to materialize, we’ll pivot rather than brush it off.

Three projects where the brand and campaign worked in sync.

Brands that built demand

  • AREA header

    AREA

    Waste Collection & Cleaning

  • Bistroo

    Ordering food the way it should be.

View all our case studies View all our case studies

Media and creative for reach beyond search results.

How we buy reach

Smart campaigns on the Netherlands’ largest media brands

All your media in a single model, online and offline side by side
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Let’s go over your budget allocation together

In one hour, we’ll review your current allocation: what goes toward existing demand, what goes toward growth, and what an order currently costs you. You’ll learn where we see room for improvement. It takes just one hour and doesn’t obligate you to anything.

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Agreement 

Meet the team

Lukas Roeling
Head of Performance Branding & Digital Strategist
Reinoud Wolff
Chief Commercial Officer
Meet the entire team Meet the entire team

How much does performance branding cost?

That depends less on us than on your media budget. The main question is how you allocate what you’re already spending, and whether there’s room to set aside a portion for brand-building without compromising your activation efforts.

What you’ll always get: a baseline assessment before we start, an allocation plan backed by your own data, an agreement on what results we expect and when, and brand and conversion metrics side by side in a single overview.

Want to know what’s possible in your case? Schedule a meeting, and we’ll work through the numbers together.

Schedule a call Go to the contact form

Frequently Asked Questions About Performance Branding

01/ What is performance branding?

Brand building and activation in a single plan, underpinned by a single measurement framework. You build brand preference among the group that isn’t buying yet, while continuing to run campaigns targeting existing demand. The difference from standalone brand campaigns lies in accountability: each portion of the budget has its own metric against which you evaluate it.

02/ What’s the difference between this and performance marketing?

Performance marketing capitalizes on today’s demand. Performance branding builds demand for next year. They don’t conflict: you need both, and the question is how to allocate your resources. If everything revolves around activation, your cost per order will rise as soon as the competition starts bidding along with you.

03/ How soon will I see results from brand building?

In this order: first reach and brand awareness, then search volume and direct traffic, and only then will the cost per order from your ads decrease. We agree in advance on what results we expect and when. If those results don’t materialize, we’ll adjust our strategy or scale back.

04/ How much of my budget goes toward brand building?

We determine that based on your actual figures, not on a rule of thumb from a presentation. Your market position, your sales cycle, and your current cost per order are all factored in. We start with a baseline assessment, then allocate resources, and adjust based on what the numbers show. You’re in control.

05/ How do you measure the impact of brand building?

With brand search volume, direct traffic, and brand preference, alongside your conversion metrics, all in a single overview. Brand building can’t be attributed to a single click, so these metrics are your proof. You can view them in a dashboard you have access to, so you can also justify the campaign internally.

06/ Is performance branding only for large advertisers?

No. It’s about the allocation of your budget, not its size. Especially with a smaller budget, it’s crucial that you don’t just bid on the most expensive keywords. With a limited budget, we focus on one channel and one target audience rather than spreading ourselves too thin.